Comments on: Book review – Lamarck’s Revenge: How Epigenetics Is Revolutionizing Our Understanding of Evolution’s Past and Present

By: Charles Walker

Charles Walker — Sun, 26 Apr 2020 14:44:00 +0000

I’m about half way through Lamarck’s Revenge, and was just curious if others are thinking the same as me. I too immediately questioned Ward’s definition of epigenetics. I fail to see how Ward interprets horizontal gene transfer as acquiring the trait first! Very significant evolutionary mechanism, but as you have indicted, this is not epigenetics regardless. Ward also should have perhaps had a trained geneticist/molecular biologist/biochemist review his basic science understanding of some concepts (animals need to eat after exerting themselves in order to have phosphates available to regenerate the ATP, is one of several gaps in understanding that come to mind). Carey’s Epigenetics Revolution is excellent by the way.

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By: Book review – Extended Heredity: A New Understanding of Inheritance and Evolution | The Inquisitive Biologist

Tue, 15 Jan 2019 09:24:47 +0000

[…] and the word Lamarckian can have several meanings. So, as opposed to some others (see my review of Lamarck’s Revenge: How Epigenetics Is Revolutionizing Our Understanding of Evolution’s P…), they steer clear of terms such as neo-Lamarckism. But clearly, there was a time when this kind of […]

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By: Book review – The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease and Inheritance | The Inquisitive Biologist

Sun, 13 Jan 2019 10:00:50 +0000

[…] the recently published Lamarck’s Revenge: How Epigenetics Is Revolutionizing Our Understanding of Evolution’s P… left me little the wiser on how epigenetics actually works, I decided to track down a copy of Nessa […]

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By: inquisitivebiologist

inquisitivebiologist — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 09:12:41 +0000

In reply to Dennis Mitton.

Quite. In his book, Ward suggests that epigenetics might form a short-term bridge between temporary, environmentally induced change that, somehow, gets solidified into the genome more permanently. How this might work is not something he goes into, unfortunately (the article I link to in the review mentions that there are others who have this view, so there is some basis to it).

For me, it does raise the question: if epigenetics would be one mechanism behind phenotypic plasticity, is there even a need for these changes to become “hard-coded”, as it were? You have a mechanism to generate the necessary variation, after all.

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By: Dennis Mitton

Dennis Mitton — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 02:07:04 +0000

It bothers me that, to my knowledge, epigenetic changes have not been shown to last over two or three generations. Agree with you that the hype over epigenetics is overblown and needs much more research.

Though ahead of his time, I don’t think we’ll end up with Lamarck having any kind of revenge, served either hot or cold.

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By: Book review – She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity | The Inquisitive Biologist

Tue, 08 Jan 2019 09:46:20 +0000

[…] (heritable changes due to changes in gene activity rather than sequence, see these three books for more), or the notion that culture is a form of heritability to pass on knowledge (see these […]

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By: Book review – The Enlightened Gene: Biology, Buddhism, and the Convergence That Explains the World | The Inquisitive Biologist

Tue, 08 Jan 2019 09:44:07 +0000

[…] How Modern Biology is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease and Inheritance, and Lamarck’s Revenge: How Epigenetics Is Revolutionizing Our Understanding of Evolution’s P… for readable introductions). Epigenetics provides a mechanism for past stresses and hardships to […]

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By: Book review – Unnatural Selection | The Inquisitive Biologist

Book review – Unnatural Selection | The Inquisitive Biologist — Tue, 08 Jan 2019 09:42:10 +0000

[…] the discovery of epigenetics has shown that Lamarck was not entirely off the mark either – see Lamarck’s Revenge: How Epigenetics Is Revolutionizing Our Understanding of Evolution’s P…). And she describes what he missed; the idea of particulate inheritance where the hereditary units […]

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