I so much enjoyed this book that I thought I'd drop a quick review to inspire other readers...
This is probably not the best way to take one's first step into genetics, as far as the biological and technical nuts and bolts of the subject are concerned. Yet, if I were a professor, I'd make this a required reading to all students of genetics in order for them to be further introduced to the historical and ethical sides of the matter...
Starting with Mendel's biography and scientific breakthroughs, Tudge offers a guided tour through the early, pioneering days of modern biology, explains the very basics of Mendelian and molecular genetics, then swiftly moves on to discuss several important aspects, consequences and moral and practical responsibilities derived from our present advanced and advancing knowledge of biological heredity.
I think readers with no firm foundation of genetics and evolutionary theory wouldn't grasp the basics so easily from the quick overview by the author, agile and clear though it is. Any other biology textbook will obviously fill such a bill much better...
But the book's absolute forte lies both in the introductory historical perspective and in the following essays on wildlife conservation, evolutionary psychology, genetic bio-engineering and philosophy of science (better still, philosophy after the science!).
Tudge has drawn his own conclusions, and one may or may not agree with him in some respects, especially in his last chapter... But he treats many issues in a clear, informed and scientifically sensible way, and those are exactly the issues all too often hyped up or simplistically downplayed by the media and by columnists who babble on and on, all too often unaware of what exactly they're talking about, and thus unable to convey any meaningful insights to their audiences but doubts, diffidence or, even worse, passive indifference before something apparently, but mistakenly, beyond their grasp.
The principles that lie at the basis of some modern or future biotechnologies are very much understandable instead, and should belong to everyone who wants to form an educated opinion about what's going on...
A book for the novice to learn a little bit more, and for everyone to ponder. Even the ones who think they already know better...

The future of the human race and its probes into genetics is considered in The Impact Of The Gene, a title that deftly blends the history of genetic research with an informative discussion of future trends of geneticbased technologies. From the initial establishment of genetics as a science by a 19th century friar to latest advancements by genetics which have affected everyday life, The Impact Of The Gene makes some pointed observations about genetics and its influence on our world.

Colin Tudge is anxious to set the record straight. Despite a throng of recent critics attempting to discredit Gregor Mendel's role as the founder of modern genetic sciences, Tudge provides a wealth of supportive data to reinforce Mendel's reputation. Although some critics have disparaged Mendel's lack of scholastic acceditations, Tudge urges a comprehensive view. He stresses we should look at Mendel's environment, personal background and, most importantly his scientific methods. Tudge simply sweeps away the criticisms [with the sole exception of R.A. Fisher] as unthinking iconoclasm.

After a defence of Mendel and his contribution to biology, Tudge reviews what genes are and how they function. This in-depth overview is one of the best summations of genetic processes in print. This chapter alone is worth purchasing the book. Tudge traces the roles of DNA, RNA, the amino acids and proteins. He shows how even minuscule changes in any step in the sequence can lead to ineffective proteins. Such changes can be implemented in the development of the organism [or merely part of it] rendering it unfit to survive in its existing environment. Such change can also make the individual more fit if that environment is undergoing change. He reviews the history of discoveries concerning chromosomes, DNA [first called nuclein], enzymes and proteins. He reminds us that many of these finds were made while Mendel's work had sunk from sight. Tudge's list of the researchers involved and the dates of their discoveries is revealing for those not well-grounded in the history of biology. He shows how the many threads were brought together many years later.

Tudge addresses how the genetic ratios imply regular laws of inheritance. Tudge stresses the revolutionary aspect of this discovery and how it changed science's view of life. He notes how Mendelian genetics seemed to refute Darwin for some years. When these apparent discrepancies were later reconciled and molecular genetics arose as the science binding the two theories, limitless opportunities arose. Revelation of the DNA structure showed how genes could be identified and later used to understand their relation to the whole organism.

Tudge follows through with what has been achieved in genetic research and speculates on what the future might hold. He pulls no punches in his speculations and readers will be confronted with myriad possibilities. These shouldn't be discounted nor blithely cast aside as distasteful. His proposals are realistic and based on strong science.

This book should stand as Tudge's finest effort. He's written many books on science, with some focus on human evolution. Standing as a pinnacle among his publications, readers are urged to take up this volume intending to give it a careful read. His Epilogue carefully reviews the many ethical questions that arise from the new power that genetics has placed in our hands. He reminds us of the pitfalls that have been encountered in the past and to prepare for these in decision-making. Public policies, which ultimately rest in your hands, he reminds us, must be formulated on a basis of clear understanding of what is involved.
This book provides an excellent starting point for building that knowledge base. He warns us against letting events overtake us. Read him to stay abreast of what is transpiring.

If you ever wanted to know more about efforts to save endangered animals, this is the book to start with. It is easy to read, but does not shy away from discussing relevant aspects of genetics. Chapter 4, "The Theory of Conservation Breeding," is especially good in detailing the practical goals conservation breeders hope to achieve and also the many problems they face

In addition to providing an excellent overview of the role of modern zoos and of captive breeding programs, Tudge also begins the book with an overview of the ethics of conservation. Unfortunately, I did not find in that discussion an ethos that really worked for me, but the presentation did give me much food for thought - which after all is what I look for in a good book.

This book showed amazing depth in its amount of pages. The author's ideas simply made sense. Conservation is presented from every angle, never simply glossed over. The topic is made interesting and easy to understand, with explanations simple yet in-depth. All perspectives are shown. While the author makes his views known, he gives you enough room to let you form your own opinion. This book is great!

The book barely caught my eye as it is so small, something like 5 X 8 in size and small as in 52 pages. I even wondered how much ionformation could someone share in 52 small pages. First off, this is a small book that is a series of short books by leading experts in evolutionary theory from the Darwin@LSE programme at the London School of Economics.

Having said that, the book has 3 basic Chapters I The Several Faces of Agriculture II The End of the Neanderthals and Pleistocene Overkill and III The Neolithic Revolution.

The authors explain that before about 10,000 years ago there are virtually no signs of plant cultivation or the domestication of animals anywhere in the world. Then archaeologists began to find evidence that there were several sites in the Middle East such as Jericho the West Bank and in Catal Huyuk in Turkey and further east in the Indus Valley of China and some locations in the Americas where plant cultivation or the domestication of animals became the norm.

The subject of horticulture, arable and pastoral farming. And the opinion that the late Paleolithic proto-farmers were not full time farmers. But more of a hobby. And there is a wonderful discussion of how farmers were often seen as put upon and preyed upon types. This is used to suggest that the Cro Magnon and Neanderthals may have had a similar view of each other i.e. bandits.

I learned that the grain found by archaeologists suggests that the grain was grown is a very organized community or sustainable fashion since the seeds/grain was much larger than that grown in the wild. And that palaeontologists emphasize that fossilization is very rare and when a fossil is found of any creature that the chance are that the creature had already been around for a very long time.

The authors also share that hunters and gatherers take from their environment only what their environment happens to produce and if they take to much that the desirable prey species collapse. (page 32) That sustainable farming works because it produces expected crop. That with organized farming techniques populations grew and the chance of mankin ever going back to a simple hunter gatherer mode was gone, since there simply wasn't isn;'t enough wild food for the human animal to live on.

There is so much more information in this book that I just do not have the time to share. PLEASE but it and consider it a gift to you intellect/brain.

This is a wonderful book. It is so short that each page, indeed each sentence has to be filled with information and thoughts that derive from this data. My greatest interest is in the first domestication of livestock, a subject usually covered with trite inaccuracy in books dedicated to the subject, let alone works like this with such a broad sweep of study. This book covers domestication using reference to the latest scientific publications, and if it is as accurate as this in the tiny bit for which I have some background knowledge, it gives me reassurance that the rest of the book is filled with information of a similar high quality.

Is it pessimistic to feel that the whole of life is made of choices made because things change? This is what reviewer Ted Rushton says. Surely his perception of what is written in this book is flavoured by his belief in 'human progress'as he actually quotes. There is no such thing as human progress, and this is the underlying concept behind the whole of the Darwinian School of Thought. It was Darwinian Thought that brought 'How Agriculture Really Began' to us, with its little set of illuminating companion volumes.

The book is superb, Mr Rushton's critique is flawed, and enters the realms of fantasy with his discussion of flowers. But why not judge for yourself?

There are two ways of looking at life; the liberal is optimistic and tends to consider happiness as a prime motivation, while the conservative is pessimistic and views hardship or challenge as the key to success and greatness.

This book definitely offers the conservative viewpoint. Tudge argues, and presents a mass of hard data to back his theory, that "domestic agriculture" began in response to environmental crisis and an impending food shortage. Interesting, if true. In all likelihood, we will never know for sure. But, this book isn't valuable for its conclusion; it's worth reading because he examines an issue archaeologists overlook or ignore -- the "why" of human progress.

After all, why farm if your ancestors have lived for several million years merely by hunting and gathering for the few hours per week needed to be comfortable. Tudge asserts, "They did it because they were forced into it when their paradise was taken from them and they were shoved together into hills that just turned out to be especially hospitable. Arable farming is seasonal, but in the season it is hell . . ."

This book, quite brief at 50 pages consisting mainly of background material, suggests why people may have given up the carefree lifestyle of hunting and gathering and become dreary farmers. He cites apparent evidence for the beginnings of agriculture as far back as 40,000 years ago, not the merely 10,000 or so years as now thought. When he is on solid material like this, Tudge has compiled a real service.

Personally, using the exact same data, it's realistic to argue that people began farming for fun, because it made life more pleasurable. It probably started 100,000 or so years ago, when people added flowers to their burials. Flowers serve no practical purpose, but are an expression of beauty and respect for the dead. It wouldn't take long for people to discover that a flower brought home for its beauty, after it is died and discarded, produces a new flower from the seeds of the old. As the sense of personal happiness grows, the motivation would have been all the greater.

Aha!! We can have flowers at our doorstep, not just in the distant fields. It's like a magpie, with its love of brightly colored objects. It's a pure pleasure principle. The same goes for the first domestic animals -- anyone who has tasted wild and domestic animals knows the finer taste of domestic brands. Baby pigs were brought back and raised, instead of being killed with the sow, and when they became adults the meat far much tender, juicier and tasty.

Grain, and grapes, are wonderful. There is ample speculation the first grain was not used for bread, but was mixed with water to make beer. Grape juice will ferment on its own. Both produce fun results; drink them, instead of from the flowing stream, and a person feels happy.

This book offers all the fundamentals to sustain my argument, and obviously all the basics to support Judge's thesis. It's too bad he couldn't have added a "choose your own ending" element by adding another five or six pages. Because of what his idea tells us about ourselves, it would be all the more valuable.

Do we motivate people today, based on centuries of experience, with hardship and disaster? Or do we use happiness as a motivator, as in the idea "it feels great to have a vigorous physical workout." When you review the basics, as succinctly offered in this book, it puts modern reality in perspective.

The book is really about ourselves. Are we noble savages, as Tudge and John Jacques Rousseau suggest, motivated only by fear and punishment? Or are we pleasure seekers, eager to do anything that sounds like fun?

This book offers one answer, clear and concise. It is superb for that reason, and well worth reading. Optimists won't have their viewpoint refuted, and will likely learn much just the same. All in all, an excellent book.

This book pulls together an enormous amount of information and makes it digestible to the average undergraduate - no small feat. It's scope is magnificent, as is its treatment of fundamental concepts of evolution. Although I think there are some problems with the sections on extinct birds and cetaceans (based on new discoveries), Tudge does as well as anybody could in defining outgroups and sister taxa, always erring on the conservative side. I think the most novel and thought-provoking portion of the text concerns the number of kingdoms we might now wish to recognize - I discuss Tudge's reasoning for this with my biology undergraduates and it never fails to make an impression. A splendid accomplishment, and I'm waiting eagerly for a second edition, and a third, and so on. Well done Dr. Tudge, and sincere thanks.

An imposing book by a major science writer, Tudge rightly subtitles this work "a celebration." Although at first glance the book seems overwhelming, Tudge has broken down his feast of life into easily consumed portions. After an excellent overview of the history of classifying life, he allows the reader to choose among the many types of animals and plants. One can jump to insects, birds, fish or reptiles for more detailed evolutionary accounts and modern examples. Unable to resist, i skimmed over a few more esoteric examples to settle down to Primates and Hominids. This section provides a superb overview of current knowledge, distinguishing clearly what is known and what is supposed. This was familiar territory but delving in the other sections proved equally rewarding. However, this also suggests a warning that the book is not a "cover-to-cover" exercise.

Tudge opens with the problem facing many new students of biological sciences - how to deal with the immensity of information confronting them. There are, he notes, over two million species described already. No-one disputes the number is far below the actual total life contains - but what is the realistic total? Estimates range as high as 100 million - an almost inconceivable figure. He accepts the more likely total as around thirty million, recognizing that such numbers remain out of human ken. From this, he builds his case that classification systems are necessary. What's required is a classification method that anyone can grasp. He finds the solution in the idea proposed by German entomologist Willi Hennig - cladistics. This system arranges life by characteristics, avoiding confusing generalities and the arcane mysteries of genetics. As Tudge argues, cladistics has become fourth phase of classification systems, and the one likely to endure.

The "technical" sections of the book, covering the multitude of life forms each open with a descriptive essay followed by a "tree" of relationship among various species. This structure makes the book an excellent reference work and will keep it valuable for many years. The illustrations are designed to impart general information, not scientific detail. Neither are they simplistic as the supporting comment provides pointers to consider when viewing them. Tudge groups the text and graphics nicely, allowing visual and text comparison without constant page flipping.

As with any author confronting the immense cargo of information available in biology, Tudge was forced into a selective process in creating a bibliography. It's not an enviable task. The list appears sparse, a heavily pruned tree arranged by chapters. He indicates his preferred references, but only by using his sources will you discover whether more bountiful reading is listed in them. This lack in no way impairs the worth of this effort, however. There are countless book lists available. Anyone with an interest in life will treasure this volume.

I think this book took an enormous amount of work from Colin Tudge. Although he has a Scientific background he is certainly not a toxonomist. I'm not really versed in Taxonomy myself so for me the book is great. The prose he uses and the simplicity of his language makes it easy to understand what he has to say. I don't know why, perhaps this subject is so attracting for me, that I might tend to be obliging with the book. The truth is I felt rejoicing every time I read a couple of pages and study the drawings. It's like making an atemporal journey, just fantastic. I strongly recommend it.

A book worth reading if intrested in anthropology.

Tudge starts out with a Good review of mammalian evolution hard to find in its detail discussing population ranges and the advantages/disadvantages of big mammals for survival.

The best part of the book is the overview of the extinction theory which proposes that it was not climate change. but human impact that brought so many species to extinction at the end of the ice age. Tudge goes into great detail on this citing evidence on all continents.

The final chapter is also intresting dealing with how humanity can survive the enviromental damage done to the earth and survive as a species.

A good read.

Tudge has an interesting book with "The Time Before History." He spends a great deal of the book laying the groundwork for the appearence of the ancestors of humans, with detailed discussions of geology, climate, and the evolution of fauna and flora. The chapter on prehistoric creatures was pretty interesting, and considering the dearth of popular works on extinct mammals make this book a worthwhile read alone.

Tudge though is at his best when describing the various types of early humans and protohumans -from the various types of Australopithecines to Homo sapiens - and how they evolved, how they lived, and in some cases, how they spread. Useful are his discussion of ecomorphs and how the generalized ecomorphs of primates favored the development of bipedal, tool-using, intelligent protohumans, and his coverage of the diet of australopithecines and early humans and how this affected our evolution, as well as what we know of these beings. Tudge also provides a lot of interesting theories and information regarding the spread of not only Homo sapiens into the world but Homo erectus before him; also theories as to what happened to the Neanderthals and if they were a seperate species or not are detailed as well.

The Tudge book is not perfect though. I think he spends too much time on background prior to discussions of early man. Though interesting, they take up a sizeable section of the book. Some of the asides in the chapter on extinct mammals while interesting are controversial, though he does provide citations for those interested in checking on things. Examples include his mentioning of the theory that giant ground sloths may have been arboreal, that the mastodon genus Cuvieronius may have survived in Central America until several centuries after Christ, and that the dwarf mammoth of Wrangel Island (which survived into historic times, this has been well documented) is actually pictured on a pharaoh's tomb in Egypt, according to some having been illustrated when one was presented as a gift!

Still, I wouldn't let some of these controversial statements steer potential readers away from this book. It still provides decent coverage of extinct mammals, concepts in paleontology, and a good coverage of eartly man, his development, and spread around the globe.

I just taught this book in a Philosophy and the Environment course, and I would jope that my students enjoyed it as much as I did.

An excellent overview of all aspects of the earth sciences (geological disasters, ice ages, asteroid collisions, atmospheric chemistry, plant and animal life). The concept of the "ecomorph" was a fascinating one that I had never heard of before but will not soon forget following Tudge's lucid presentation. He also makes some eye-opening remarks about the impact of agriculture and the human species in general on many now-extinct or soon-to-be-extinct animal species. I actually found the final chapter slightly anticlimactic: not bad, but not nearly as riveting as some of the earlier ones.

Even so, this book has turned me into a nature enthusiast for the first time since early childhood, and will surely be only of the first of hundreds of books I will read on the topics he discusses. In that sense, Tudge has had a huge impact on my life, and if you read this book attentively it is likely that he can do the same for you.

This book is an interesting look at genetics, heredity and our understanding of these sciences and what they mean, or should mean, to our planet and our daily lives. The author gives a very clear history of genetic theory, cloning and the Human Genome Project. This book should be read by anyone who needs better knowledge of this topic, which is just about all of us.

I was eager to see what Wilmut thought about cloning after reading his excellent essay in the best-selling anthology The Human Cloning Debate. But I was stunned when I read this book. Unlike the other work, this book comes across as silly, even patronizing. The book reads as though Wilmut is attempting to capitalize on Dolly, rather than as a thoughtful reflection on veterinary biology or genetics or human families. It is also very boring, even with the ghostwriter! Save your money; this expensive vehicle is not the best or the most interesting of the crop of cloned cloning books.

Science is breeding new technologies at an unprecedented rate, and with the birth of each advancement comes a new generation of ethical concerns. Few developments have rattled the world's moral cage more than cloning, and it behooves any professional to have a working knowledge of the foundations of the current debates surrounding the genetic sciences. Of course, understanding how Dolly the Lamb was cloned from an adult sheep is probably beyond the grasp of most readers. But authors Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell (the two leaders of the cloning team) and Colin Tudge (an experienced science writer) examine every inch of scientific ground the project covered. While many details are presented densely, this clearly written, first-person account of a momentous, history-making event is fascinating, particularly for readers of a scientific bent. We [...] recommend this book to any and all readers as a basic education in a field that has the potential to impact all of our businesses and our lives. Hello, Dolly.

Ian Wilmut and Keith Cambell are the creators of Dolly the cloned sheep. They are also two of the three authors of this book. The book is all about how the historic event of cloning a mammal for the first time in history came about. It is wonderful reading and contains some great scientific insights. The only problem is that these two scientists have not embraced human cloning and all the good that it can do. It seems as if they stepped out of scientific mode and were forced to be against human cloning to keep their funding, placate their religions, and not become pariahs to the religious right. Great book. I highly recommend it for the fascinating story of cloning.

This a book that talks about cloning (though I think you knew that already), what I did not liked is that this book is plagued with descriptions about the physical appearance of the authors, their families, the places they come from, their personalities, etc. Don't get me wrong, I admire this couple of investigators, what they did is a landmark in biological science, but I expected more science and less digresion. The scientific part of the book is interesting, you don't need to be an expert to understand the principles of cloning in this writing style. The rest of it is bearable. I recommend this book even though I disliked so many non relevant facts.