Lamarck's signature

by E. J. Steele

This controversial book challenges the accepted theories on the genetic mechanism of evolution. The story these three biologists have to tell may very well upset the whole field of biology. The traditional view of evolution - which grew out of the work of Gregor Mendel and Charles Darwin and is strongly supported by present-day scientists like Richard Dawkins and Stephen Jay Gould - assumes we are at the mercy of our genes, which we inherit largely unchanged from our parents, except for rare random mutations which accumulate and lead to change over evolutionary time. Those genes are coded in the chromosomes of the sperm and egg cells of the parents, and so only changes to those two types of cell have any chance of being passed down to the parents' offspring. Any changes, accidents, or surgery to the rest of the parents' bodies are not transmitted to the newborn. The theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics - if you build up your muscles your kids will be born with a propensity