author_d_r_oestreicher's review against another edition
5.0
Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA by Neil Shubin surveys the history and current research about evolution. The science of evolution has progressed from pattern matching (these lifeforms look like their related) to DNA (these lifeforms have similar DNA). The most recent breakthroughs have been in the methods of evolution from [lots of random changes over a long time] to specific mechanisms which are described in this book. Readable and fascinating.
The latest research into the mechanisms of evolution and the scientists who discovered them.
For an extended summary: https://1book42day.blogspot.com/2020/11/some-assembly-required-by-neil-shubin.html
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The latest research into the mechanisms of evolution and the scientists who discovered them.
For an extended summary: https://1book42day.blogspot.com/2020/11/some-assembly-required-by-neil-shubin.html
“As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.”
Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations.
ckehoe79's review against another edition
5.0
Interesting look at the building blocks of life. Worth a read.
cloudss's review against another edition
informative
fast-paced
4.0
salamanders!!!! history of science babeyyyyy
love that he includes more women scientists this time around for his molec evolution book. Corn jumping genes and fly hox genes were super fun too, but salamanders take the cake. think they're fire resistant bc they live in logs used for fire???? nice
baby becomes pdh student in his lab finds precursors to human hand bones in fish fins LOVE
love that he includes more women scientists this time around for his molec evolution book. Corn jumping genes and fly hox genes were super fun too, but salamanders take the cake. think they're fire resistant bc they live in logs used for fire???? nice
baby becomes pdh student in his lab finds precursors to human hand bones in fish fins LOVE
ashleylm's review against another edition
4.0
It drifted from five to three starts, so I'm averaging it out. To be fair, this is often the case with me and science books: I'm alert and awake and interested as they begin, but by the time they get to the most advanced, newest, confusing areas of science, I find myself just the teensiest bit lost.
It's easy to absorb the beginning, with information that (for instance) fish didn't need to suddenly grow arms and legs in order to walk onto land, some already had limbs that just needed repurposing. I can get that. But once we're into the section of mitochondria (I think) being originally viruses (I think) that somehow we trap inside our cells and carry along with us, I get lost. (No one's yet explained to me how, when we reproduce, and our chromosome go hither and thither and all that, why our organelles somehow come along as well, I don't get it).
It's a pleasant writing style that grows a titch repetitive by the end (meet scientist, learn what scientist studied, discover amazing revelation, eventually science backs it up and it gets generally accepted).
I'm glad I read it for the information it contained that I retained, ultimately, even if it won't go down in my personal history as an all-time-fave book.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s)
It's easy to absorb the beginning, with information that (for instance) fish didn't need to suddenly grow arms and legs in order to walk onto land, some already had limbs that just needed repurposing. I can get that. But once we're into the section of mitochondria (I think) being originally viruses (I think) that somehow we trap inside our cells and carry along with us, I get lost. (No one's yet explained to me how, when we reproduce, and our chromosome go hither and thither and all that, why our organelles somehow come along as well, I don't get it).
It's a pleasant writing style that grows a titch repetitive by the end (meet scientist, learn what scientist studied, discover amazing revelation, eventually science backs it up and it gets generally accepted).
I'm glad I read it for the information it contained that I retained, ultimately, even if it won't go down in my personal history as an all-time-fave book.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s)
hannah_grace's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death
me_haugen's review against another edition
5.0
Read this one while I was getting x-rayed so the doctors could find the piece of top secret government hardware I accidentally swallowed. I was taking a tour of the white house with my field trips for adults club and just as we were heading down a flight of stairs I got distracted by a painting of Ulysses Grant eating a bowl of beans at a civil war encampment and I got so enraptured by this painting that I tripped down the stairs and fell face first into a secret service agent and accidentally bit off the tip of their nose and it turns out they were wearing some sort of enhanced smelling technology and cause of that I had to stay in a secret underground bunker doctor's office till they could get the nose tip back and I didn't even get to smell a single rose in the rose garden. Anyway, this book was good.
miguelf's review against another edition
4.0
This is a fun overview of key discoveries and background in bio-science breakthroughs covering mainly topics associated with evolutionary biology. It’s really interesting throughout – the only criticism is that it would have been nice if it was even longer.