Henry Gee is the chief science writer and assistant editor of Nature. He holds a PhD from Cambridge in Zoology and has previously been Regent's Professor at UCLA. He also contributes to Le Monde, El Pais, Die Zeit and has previously written Before the Backbone: Views on the Origin of the Vertebrates (1996) and Deep Time, which is also published by Fourth Estate.
On DEEP TIME:This book will surprise, outrage and delight you -- and make you think.' Jared Diamond'Gee takes the reader inside contemporary palaeontology, from the excitement of a fossil dig with Maeve Leakey to the thousands of carefully stored and catalogued specimens at the Natural History Museum.' New Scientist'As Gee's brilliant analysis shows, viewed afresh, evolution proves a more interesting and exciting -- if more complex -- story than we ever thought.' Scotsman'Deep Time will change the way you think about the history of life. In this passionately argued book, Gee shows how scientific rigour has replaced story-telling in evolutionary history, that takes us on a tour of the field's latest research from Neanderthal genes to feathered dinosaurs and fingered fish. A book whose time is long overdue.' Carl Zimmer, author of At the Water's Edge 'In Deep Time, Henry Gee eloquently and entertainingly explains exactly why this revolution in evolution is both interesting and important to our understanding of the past.' Herald'A welcome-indeed essential-antidote to media hype and oversimplified stories about evolution, genetics, and the fossil record. If you want to get a glimpse of how evolutionary science really works, this is the book to buy.' Ian Stewart, author of The Collapse of Chaos and Nature's Numbers 'This is a subversive book. Read it only if you want to know how scientists actually do their work, as opposed to the mythology of textbooks and documentaries.' Kevin Padian, University of California
On DEEP TIME:This book will surprise, outrage and delight you -- and make you think.' Jared Diamond'Gee takes the reader inside contemporary palaeontology, from the excitement of a fossil dig with Maeve Leakey to the thousands of carefully stored and catalogued specimens at the Natural History Museum.' New Scientist'As Gee's brilliant analysis shows, viewed afresh, evolution proves a more interesting and exciting -- if more complex -- story than we ever thought.' Scotsman'Deep Time will change the way you think about the history of life. In this passionately argued book, Gee shows how scientific rigour has replaced story-telling in evolutionary history, that takes us on a tour of the field's latest research from Neanderthal genes to feathered dinosaurs and fingered fish. A book whose time is long overdue.' Carl Zimmer, author of At the Water's Edge 'In Deep Time, Henry Gee eloquently and entertainingly explains exactly why this revolution in evolution is both interesting and important to our understanding of the past.' Herald'A welcome-indeed essential-antidote to media hype and oversimplified stories about evolution, genetics, and the fossil record. If you want to get a glimpse of how evolutionary science really works, this is the book to buy.' Ian Stewart, author of The Collapse of Chaos and Nature's Numbers 'This is a subversive book. Read it only if you want to know how scientists actually do their work, as opposed to the mythology of textbooks and documentaries.' Kevin Padian, University of California
This chronicle records how our understanding of human knowledge has escalated from ancient times to the present. Noted English paleontologist Gee meticulously describes the historic assumptions of how the miracle of life took place. With the advance of science, the role of chromosomes eliminated earlier theories of pangenesis and preformation and prepared the path to a more modern molecular view of development. In the book's second half, Gee commences with the Watson-Crick revelation on DNA structure and its significance. In humans, DNA contains much seemingly useless debris reflecting both evolutionary modifications and viral insertions. Making sense of this superfluous DNA requires regulators and repressors to respond to environmental stimuli and orchestrate the correct expression of gene groups, permitting the formless zygote to be transformed into the functioning embryo. In this ascent up the ladder of knowledge, one of the higher rungs deals with the new network theory of genomics and how this mass of selected data is coordinated and expressed. This remarkable compilation offers tantalizing suppositions of what future discoveries will reveal about the genomic potential; suitable for academic libraries.-Rita Hoots, Woodland Coll., CA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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