Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body

Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body | Neil Shubin | very readable and highly recommended

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Your Inner Fish: A...

	Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body Neil Shubin Pantheon, 2008 - 240 pages average customer review:based on 79 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The thrill of discovery

What do a fossil bed in arctic sandstone, a med student's dissection lab, the Field Museum, and genetic studies of limb development have in common? Neil Shubin.

This wonderful author draws on his wide experience as educator, researcher, and awed little boy to take the reader on a tour through the reader him-(or her-)self. He starts with features as visible as fingers - quite a development by the way, with many intermediate steps documented in the fossil record. Then he works his way back to the earliest weeks of fetus-hood, showing deep similarities between humans and every other species that has a fetus, and some that don't. The structural similarities aren't enough, though. He cites research that determines which genes control specific features of development, the same way in fruit flies or mice. He even points to studies that find similar genes in mice and sharks, despite millions of years of refinement and divergence, and shows that the mouse gene product has the same effect on shark development as on baby mice.

Shubin achieves the ideal balance of scientific rigor and conversational clarity. He summarizes millions of years of evolution, maybe hundreds of millions, in homeobox development genes, using just a few pages and a few diagrams. Although some pictures contained elements I found misleading, they generally captured the essence of genetic and anatomical structure, but without the faux intellectualism of complex terms - the facts are clear and simple, even when he spares us the big words and lab drudgery. As he found out first-hand, even pre-schoolers can see the evidence and draw correct conclusions.

For all the detail that he provides, there are volumes more that he never mentions. For example, a chemical mechanism that affects hunger in monkeys traces back to nutritional stress response in yeast - not that we descend from yeast, but that we descend from a common ancestor with the same problem that we have to solve today, and with a solution that keeps on working.

By the end of this brief book, Shubin not only locates the human twig on the tree of life, he helps us appreciate how the flowering on every branch binds it all together into one beautiful whole. He shows evolution as such a wonderful pageant that I'm happy and proud to be part of it, even if my participation is only as product and observer. He also shows how studies in fish and fruit flies predict specific genetic diseases in humans, and how knowledge of geology and evolution let him pinpoint, to within a few hundred yards, one of about three places on earth where a specific moment in fishes' conquest of land was likely to reveal itself in fossils. Scientists do science because it's the biggest thrill they know how to make a living at. Shubin shares that excitement as very few authors ever have done.

-- wiredweird

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very readable and highly recommended

This is a book that gets better and better as you read it.
I thought it was a bit unfocused in the beginning, and
was not altogether clear what aims the author had.
However, after about 50 (short) pages, the book picks up,
and what follows is a masterful exposition of how we came
to be and how the past still lives within us. Although the
book is quite short, it offers a very readable history and
description of the discoveries that helped us understand
the descent of modern animals (including us).

Good read but could have been better.

This is, by and large, a good general treatment of a fascinating area. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in the development of life, be they new to the area or experienced scientists. It has some real nuggets in it. Neil Shubin knows his stuff and, more importantly, has an abiding love for the science underwriting the hypotheses presented - as well as the beauty within.

Having said this, a few criticisms. Professor Shubin has found picking the "sweet spot" between general appeal to a lay readership, and adequate presentation of the technical and scientific material, difficult. The book is, ultimately, too broad and light, with the depth of technical detail necessary to flesh out the general overview inadequate.

This is almost universally so with books written by experts whose editors, almost invariably, seem to tell them that for every equation or chemical formula you can expect sales (and broad appeal) to drop dramatically. As a result the writer tends to err on the side of simplistic explanation (rather than simple explanation) or repetitive discourse in the hope that somehow the concepts will infuse themselves into the readers mind with little thinking required. It never works.

This is not a text book, nor should it be. Consequently, any expectation that a highly detailed review of current thinking and evidence should be included is not reasonable. However, as a suggestion the early chapters should perhaps be, in effect, concise and comprehensive primers on geology, molecular biology, evolution, paleontology and comparative anatomy. This would provide the background for the balance of the book - the narrative form Shubin relates (but with a little more detail) and, more importantly, a clearer sequential development of the ideas.

Neil Shubin includes a good bibliography and reference section for further reading which complements the book well. Illustrations are excellent but there need to be many more to support the text.

In spite of my comments above the book is an excellent entry to the area. A revised second edition could be outstanding.

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Very well written. Very interesting.

Your Inner Fish is a very broad book, tracing nearly all of our body parts back billions of years. While I always thought fish were the least interesting of all the species (I'm currently a freshman biology student at Bellarmine University), after reading Shubin's book I have a new found connection with all sorts of animals. A walk through the zoo is an amazing new expierence after reading the book.

Most of the book is very interesting. While you may think a book on evolutionary biology and genetics would be stale, lengthy, and boring, Shubin breathes life, excitment, and personality into the book, keeping you interested the whole way.

The only reason the book didn't get 5 stars...It's written very basic. While this may be good for people who know nothing about genetics and evolution, it feels very dumbed down for the rest of us. Nevertheless, it s a very good book worthy of a read by anyone.

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A good insight on where you came from

If you have an interest in evolution and genetics, this is a book I would recommend. I would probably rate this as three and a half stars rather than three. I found it quite absorbing and easy to read.

The author looks at how our various body parts evolved. We also learn some fine points of paleontology, biology and genetics. It probably isn't a book for the Intelligent Design adherent or creationist but only because it is decidely about evolution; religion doesn't enter into it.

I was led to this book after acquiring a thirst for human evolution upon reading Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything: Special Illustrated Edition" I found I was constantly comparing it to Bryson's book. Bryson wins hands down in the literary stakes: he is a much more entertaining writer. Shubin appears to attempt to match Bryson's wit at times without really succeeding. However, the biggest distinction is that Shubin is an expert in his field so can write from his own vast knowledge and experience in human biology and paleontology. At the end of the book is an excellent 'bibliography' that invites the reader to pursue further research.

Shubin doesn't dig too deep into the subject and I believe has presented the material in a comprehensive way without being overwhelming or boring. I don't think you will put this book down at the end feeling disappointed. Like me, you are likely to want to learn more.

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