How the Leopard Changed Its Spots by Brian Goodwin

How the Leopard Changed Its Spots by Brian Goodwin

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How the Leopard Changed Its Spots by Brian Goodwin

Do genes explain life? Can advances in evolutionary and molecular biology account for what we look like, how we behave, and why we die? In this powerful intervention into current biological thinking, Brian Goodwin argues that such genetic reductionism has important limits.


Drawing on the sciences of complexity, the author shows how an understanding of the self-organizing patterns of networks is necessary for making sense of nature. Genes are important, but only as part of a process constrained by environment, physical laws, and the universal tendencies of complex adaptive systems. In a new preface for this edition, Goodwin reflects on the advances in both genetics and the sciences of complexity since the book's original publication.

Goodwin, Brian: - Professor Brian Goodwin (1931-2009) was born in Montreal and studied biology at McGill University before reading mathematics at the University of Oxford and doing a PhD at the University of Edinburgh with C.H. Waddington. His university appointments were at Sussex and the Open University, and he was on the Science Board of the prestigious Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico. He taught Holistic Science at Schumacher College in Devon, UK. He is the author of How the Leopard Changed Its Spots: the Evolution of Complexity and Signs of Life: How Complexity Pervades Biology, as well as several other books.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9780025447103
ISBN 10 0025447106
Title How the Leopard Changed Its Spots
Author Brian Goodwin
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Hardback
Publisher Prentice Hall (a Pearson Education company)
Year published 1994-11-01
Number of pages 252
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.