Lifelines

by Steven P. R. Rose

"In Lifelines, biologist Steven Rose offers a powerful alternative to the ultra-Darwinist claims of Dawkins, E.O. Wilson, Daniel Dennett, and others. Rose argues against an extreme reductionist approach that would make the gene the key to understanding human nature, in favor of a more complex and richer vision of life. He urges instead that we focus on the organism and in particular on the organism's lifeline: the trajectory it takes through time and space. Our personal lifeline, Rose points out, is unique - even identical twins, with identical genes at birth, will differ over time. These differences are obviously not embedded in our genes, but come about through our developmental trajectory in which genes, as part of the biochemical orchestra of trillions of cells in each human body, have an important part - but only a part - to play. To illustrate this idea, Rose examines recent research in modern biology, and especially two disciplines - genetics (which looks at the impact of genes