Background
Avise, John Charles was born on September 19, 1948 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States. Son of Reginald Dean and Edith Dorothy (Johnson) Avise.
( They mastermind our lives, shaping our features, our h...)
They mastermind our lives, shaping our features, our health, and our behavior, even in the sacrosanct realms of love and sex, religion, aging, and death. Yet we are the ones who house, perpetuate, and give the promise of immortality to these biological agents, our genetic gods. The link between genes and gods is hardly arbitrary, as the distinguished evolutionary geneticist John Avise reveals in this compelling book. In clear, straightforward terms, Avise reviews recent discoveries in molecular biology, evolutionary genetics, and human genetic engineering, and discusses the relevance of these findings to issues of ultimate concern traditionally reserved for mythology, theology, and religious faith. The book explains how the genetic gods figure in our development--not just our metabolism and physiology, but even our emotional disposition, personality, ethical leanings, and, indeed, religiosity. Yet genes are physical rather than metaphysical entities. Having arisen via an amoral evolutionary process--natural selection--genes have no consciousness, no sentient code of conduct, no reflective concern about the consequences of their actions. It is Avise's contention that current genetic knowledge can inform our attempts to answer typically religious questions--about origins, fate, and meaning. The Genetic Gods challenges us to make the necessary connection between what we know, what we believe, and what we embody.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674346254/?tag=2022091-20
(Molecular markers have opened exciting new windows throug...)
Molecular markers have opened exciting new windows through which to view the natural biological world. This treatment addresses the many applications for genetic markers (from polymorphic proteins and DNA) from the perspectives of population biology, behavioral ecology, organismal evolution, and phylogeny. Opening chapters review the history and purview of molecular approaches, and compare and contrast various laboratory techniques for revealing molecular markers. Subsequent chapters review the extensive scientific literature of molecular ecology and evolution, and describe a cornucopia of captivating discoveries about nature's workings, past and present. The book is taxonomically balanced with numerous examples from plants, animals, and microbes. It is also temporally balanced with examples ranging from assessments of genetic parentage and kinship in the most recent generations to phylogenetic assessments deep in the Tree of Life (and nearly everything in-between). This Second Edition of a seminal work (first published in 1994) brings the reader up-to-date on the many dramatic advances and insights made over the last decade. Furthermore, by retaining descriptions of many pioneering works, this book also traces the empirical and conceptual roots of each subject, and thereby provides a rich sense of the field's history. Appropriate for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and scientists in such disciplines as ecology, genetics, population biology, ethology, molecular biology, systematics, and conservation biology, this new edition is for anyone interested in the application of molecular markers to organisms in the wild.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0878930418/?tag=2022091-20
(An introductory tour into the stranger-than-fiction world...)
An introductory tour into the stranger-than-fiction world of genetic engineering, a scientific realm inhabited by eager researchers intent upon fashioning a prodigious medley of genetically modified (GM) organisms to serve human needs.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195169506/?tag=2022091-20
(John C. Avise, an award-winning geneticist, guides this d...)
John C. Avise, an award-winning geneticist, guides this delightful voyage around the planet in search of answers to nature's mysteries. He clearly demonstrates how scientists directly examine DNA to address long-standing questions about wild animals, plants, and microbes. Through dozens of stories that span the Earth - from the arctic to tropical jungles to the depths of the ocean - nature emerges as a realm where truth can be far stranger than fiction. From a 100-ton mushroom to egg-swapping birds, extinct ground sloths to microbes inside our bodies, Avise examines a cornucopia of natural-history topics and explains in clear language how today's modern genetic techniques offer novel insights. Do armadillo litters really contain clones? Why do female roly-poly pillbugs outnumber males? When is a fig tree not just a single tree? Where have migratory whales traveled? Who are the mothers of the embryos carried by pregnant male seahorses? What insect was the world's earliest farmer? How closely related are Neanderthals to modern humans? Answers to these and many more questions are presented here in a straightforward manner that reveals Avise's enthusiasm for uncovering nature's hidden ways. Each entry is accompanied by a beautiful illustration from Trudy Nicholson, widely recognized as one of today's leading nature artists.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003STCP80/?tag=2022091-20
( Phylogeography is a discipline concerned with various ...)
Phylogeography is a discipline concerned with various relationships between gene genealogies--phylogenetics--and geography. The word "phylogeography" was coined in 1987, and since then the scientific literature has reflected an exploding interest in the topic. Yet, to date, no book-length treatment of this emerging field has appeared. Phylogeography: The History and Formation of Species fills that gap. The study of phylogeography grew out of the observation that mitochondrial DNA lineages in natural populations often display distinct geographic orientations. In recent years, the field has expanded to include assessments of nuclear as well as cytoplasmic genomes and the relationships among gene trees, population demography, and organismal history, often formalized as coalescent theory. Phylogeography has connections to molecular evolutionary genetics, natural history, population biology, paleontology, historical geography, and speciation analysis. Phylogeography captures the conceptual and empirical richness of the field, and also the sense of genuine innovation that phylogeographic perspectives have brought to evolutionary studies. This book will be essential reading for graduate students and professionals in evolutionary biology and ecology as well as for anyone interested in the emergence of this new and integrative discipline.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674666380/?tag=2022091-20
Avise, John Charles was born on September 19, 1948 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States. Son of Reginald Dean and Edith Dorothy (Johnson) Avise.
Bachelor of Science, University of Michigan, 1970; Master of Arts, University Texas, 1971; Doctor of Philosophy, University of California, Davis, 1975.
Assistant professor, U. Georgia, Athens, 1975-1979; assoc professor, U. Georgia, Athens, 1980-1984; professor, U. Georgia, Athens, since 1985.
(An introductory tour into the stranger-than-fiction world...)
( They mastermind our lives, shaping our features, our h...)
( Phylogeography is a discipline concerned with various ...)
(Molecular markers have opened exciting new windows throug...)
(Hope, Hype, & Reality of Genetic EngineeringAvise, John C.)
(John C. Avise, an award-winning geneticist, guides this d...)
Member American Association for the Advancement of Science, National Academy of Sciences.
Married Joan Marie Yanov, December 24, 1979. 1 child, Jennifer Annual.