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"DeSalle, Rob, author"
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Accidental Homo sapiens : genetics, behavior, and free will
\"Two leading scientists reveal how we became the amazing creatures we are--and help us understand the biology that makes human beings uniquely capable of choice.\"--Dust jacket flap.
Book
Troublesome science : the misuse of genetics and genomics in understanding race
It is well established that all human beings today, wherever they live, belong to one single species. Yet even many people who claim to abhor racism take for granted that human \"races\" have a biological reality. From pharmacological researchers to the U.S. government, the dubious tradition of classifying people by race lives on. In Troublesome Science, Rob DeSalle and Ian Tattersall provide a lucid and compelling presentation of how the tools of modern biological science have been misused to sustain the belief in the biological basis of racial classification. Troublesome Science argues that taxonomy, the scientific classification of organisms, provides a cure for such misbegotten mischaracterizations. DeSalle and Tattersall explain how taxonomists do their job, in particular the genomic and morphological techniques they use to identify a species and to understand and organize the relationships among different species and the variants within them. They detail the use of genetic data to trace human origins and look at how scientists have attempted to recognize discrete populations within Homo sapiens. DeSalle and Tattersall demonstrate conclusively that these techniques, when applied correctly to the study of human variety, fail to find genuine differences, striking a blow against pseudoscientific chicanery. While the diversity that exists within our species is a real phenomenon, it nevertheless defeats any systematic attempt to recognize discrete units within it. The stark lines that humans insist on drawing between their own groups and others are nothing but a mixture of imagination and ideology.
Book
Distilled
An imaginative natural history survey of the wide world of
spirits, from whiskey and gin to grappa and moonshine In
this follow-up book to A Natural History of Wine and A
Natural History of Beer , authors Rob DeSalle and Ian
Tattersall yet again use alcoholic beverages as a lens through
which to gain a greater appreciation of natural history. This
volume considers highly alcoholic spirits in the context of
evolution, ecology, history, primatology, molecular biology,
physiology, neurobiology, chemistry, and even astrophysics. With
the help of illustrator Patricia Wynne, DeSalle and Tattersall
address historical and cultural aspects and ingredients, the
distillation process, and spirits and their effects. They also call
on an international group of colleagues to contribute chapters on
brandy, vodka, tequila, whiskies, gin, rum, eaux-de-vie, schnapps,
baiju, grappa, ouzo, and cachaça. Covering beverages from across
the globe and including descriptions of the experience of tasting
each drink, this book offers an accessible and comprehensive
exploration of the scientific dimensions of spirits.
eBook
Our senses : an immersive experience
\"A lively and unconventional exploration of our senses, how they work, what is revealed when they don't, and how they connect us to the world. Over the past decade neuroscience has uncovered a wealth of new information about our senses and how they serve as our gateway to the world. This splendidly accessible book explores the most intriguing findings of this research. With infectious enthusiasm, Rob DeSalle illuminates not only how we see, hear, smell, touch, taste, maintain balance, feel pain, and rely on other less familiar senses, but also how these senses shape our perception of the world aesthetically, artistically, and musically. DeSalle first examines the question of how perception and consciousness are formed in the brain, setting human senses in an evolutionary context. He then investigates such varied themes as supersenses and diminished senses, synesthesia and other cross-sensory phenomena, hemispheric specialization, diseases, anomalies induced by brain injuries, and hallucinations. Focusing on what is revealed about our senses through the extraordinary, he provides unparalleled insights into the unique wonders of the human brain.\"--Publisher's description.
Book
Phylogenomics
Phylogenomics: A Primer is for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate biology students studying molecular biology, comparative biology, evolution, genomics, and biodiversity. It explores the origins of organic life on the planet, examines the use of scientific databases to understand the function of proteins within organisms, and provides insight into the interpretation of DNA and amino acid sequence information in the context of organismal change and phylogeny. This book explains the essential concepts underlying the storage and manipulation of genomics-level data, the construction of phylogenetic trees, population genomics, natural selection from a genomic perspective, the tree of life, DNA barcoding, and metagenomics. The inclusion of problem-solving exercises in each chapter provides students with a solid grasp of the important molecular and evolutionary questions facing modern biologists as well as the tools needed to answer them.
Key Features
Explores various tools for gathering genomic data for phylogenetic and phylogenomic analysis
Updates a complex and emerging discipline which is becoming more usefully employed in wide variety of fields
Includes questions and suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter
Describes techniques and methods step-by-step
Provides detailed information about databases and techniques
eBook
Race? : debunking a scientific myth
Race has provided the rationale and excuse for some of the worst atrocities in human history. Yet, according to many biologists, physical anthropologists, and geneticists, there is no valid scientific justification for the concept of race.
To be more precise, although there is clearly some physical basis for the variations that underlie perceptions of race, clear boundaries among “races” remain highly elusive from a purely biological standpoint. Differences among human populations that people intuitively view as “racial” are not only superficial but are also of astonishingly recent origin.
In this intriguing and highly accessible book, physical anthropologist Ian Tattersall and geneticist Rob DeSalle, both senior scholars from the American Museum of Natural History, explain what human races actually are—and are not—and place them within the wider perspective of natural diversity. They explain that the relative isolation of local populations of the newly evolved human species during the last Ice Age—when Homo sapiens was spreading across the world from an African point of origin—has now begun to reverse itself, as differentiated human populations come back into contact and interbreed. Indeed, the authors suggest that all of the variety seen outside of Africa seems to have both accumulated and started reintegrating within only the last 50,000 or 60,000 years—the blink of an eye, from an evolutionary perspective.
The overarching message of Race? Debunking a Scientific Myth is that scientifically speaking, there is nothing special about racial variation within the human species. These distinctions result from the working of entirely mundane evolutionary processes, such as those encountered in other organisms.
eBook