James A. Shapiro is an American biologist who has stirred quite a controversy within biology circles and within the evolution debate, he has written a book on evolution titled "Evolution: A View from the 21st Century" which pretty much challenges the modern synthesis school.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Shapiro
What is Dr. Shapiro's book about?
According to Gert Korthof:
According to John Wilkins:
In a lecture to other scientists, Shapiro has defined himself and others as "non-Darwinian evolutionists"
http://shapiro.bsd.uchicago.edu/2010.WorksOfTheMind.pdf
His list includes:
• William Bateson (1861-1926) & Hugo de Vries (1848-1935): abrupt variation as a source of evolutionary novelty
• Richard Goldschmidt (1878-1958): altering developmental processes as a source of rapid evolutionary novelty (“hopeful monsters” and Evo-Devo)
• Barbara McClintock (1902-1992): genetic change as a biological response to danger and evolutionary novelty through genome restructuring resulting from “shocks”
• G Ledyard Stebbins (1906-2000): hybridization between species as a source of evolutionary novelty
• Carl Woese (1928- ): molecular phylogeny and the existence of at least three distinct cell kingdoms
• Lynn Margulis (1938- ): cell mergers/symbiogenesis as a source of evolutionary novelty
It seems all of these scientific mechanisms do not fit into a Darwinian framework. Shapiro has also posted articles about natural genetic engineering and evolution.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-a-shapiro/genetic-engineering_b_1541180.html
According to Dr. Shapiro:
According to another website:
You can watch one of his lectures on video here:
http://vimeo.com/17592530
I would like to discuss this "Third Way Evolution" viewpoint that he talks about. He seems to be saying there is much wrong with the neo-Darwinian view of evolution, this is in contradiction to some of the other threads where users on this forum have expressed that they think there is no debate in evolution, they seem to think the mechanisms are solved... the work of Shapiro and other "post-Darwinian" thinkers is proving that wrong. Their work is proving that evolution is clearly more complex and facinating then many thought it to be.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Shapiro
What is Dr. Shapiro's book about?
According to Gert Korthof:
James A. Shapiro (2011) Evolution: A View from the 21st Century is against gradualism, against random mutations, against natural selection as a creative force, against the Central Dogma, for rapid change ( whole genome duplication, hybridization, natural genetic engineering) and for adaptive mutation etc).
According to John Wilkins:
Over the years there have been many books that purport to “radically revise” or “supplant” Darwinian evolutionary biology; they come with predictable regularity. Usually they are of three kinds: something is wrong with natural selection, something is wrong with inheritance, or something is wrong with phylogeny. This book, by geneticist James A. Shapiro, exemplifies all three.
In a lecture to other scientists, Shapiro has defined himself and others as "non-Darwinian evolutionists"
http://shapiro.bsd.uchicago.edu/2010.WorksOfTheMind.pdf
His list includes:
• William Bateson (1861-1926) & Hugo de Vries (1848-1935): abrupt variation as a source of evolutionary novelty
• Richard Goldschmidt (1878-1958): altering developmental processes as a source of rapid evolutionary novelty (“hopeful monsters” and Evo-Devo)
• Barbara McClintock (1902-1992): genetic change as a biological response to danger and evolutionary novelty through genome restructuring resulting from “shocks”
• G Ledyard Stebbins (1906-2000): hybridization between species as a source of evolutionary novelty
• Carl Woese (1928- ): molecular phylogeny and the existence of at least three distinct cell kingdoms
• Lynn Margulis (1938- ): cell mergers/symbiogenesis as a source of evolutionary novelty
It seems all of these scientific mechanisms do not fit into a Darwinian framework. Shapiro has also posted articles about natural genetic engineering and evolution.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-a-shapiro/genetic-engineering_b_1541180.html
According to Dr. Shapiro:
Natural genetic engineering refers to the biochemical systems that cells possess to cut, splice and otherwise modify their DNA molecules. If you read my book or look at the other blogs I have posted, you will begin to understand what I mean in considerable detail.
You think of evolution and engineering as contradictory because that is the philosophical way evolution has been taught for a century and a half. But the truth is that cells engineer their own genomes in many sophisticated, non-random ways. That is what we have learned from molecular biology, and genome sequence data is telling us every day how important natural genetic engineering has been in evolutionary history.
Welcome to the 21st Century of evolutionary thinking!
According to another website:
James A. Shapiro is a leading advocate of “A Third Way Evolution” – an alternative solution to the gridlocked neo-Darwinian school of evolution.
You can watch one of his lectures on video here:
http://vimeo.com/17592530
I would like to discuss this "Third Way Evolution" viewpoint that he talks about. He seems to be saying there is much wrong with the neo-Darwinian view of evolution, this is in contradiction to some of the other threads where users on this forum have expressed that they think there is no debate in evolution, they seem to think the mechanisms are solved... the work of Shapiro and other "post-Darwinian" thinkers is proving that wrong. Their work is proving that evolution is clearly more complex and facinating then many thought it to be.
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