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Looking for the first time at the cut-price anatomy schools rather than genteel Oxbridge, Desmond winkles out pre-Darwinian evolutionary ideas in reform-minded and politically charged early nineteenth-century London. In the process, he reveals the underside of London intellectual and social life in the generation before Darwin as it has never been seen before.

Looking for the first time at the cut-price anatomy schools rather than genteel Oxbridge, Desmond winkles out pre-Darwinian evolutionary ideas in reform-minded and politically charged early nineteenth-century London. In the process, he reveals the underside of London intellectual and social life in the generation before Darwin as it has never been seen before. \"The Politics of Evolution is intellectual dynamite, and certainly one of the most important books in the history of science published during the past decade.\"—Jim Secord, Times Literary Supplement \"One of those rare books that not only stakes out new territory but demands a radical overhaul of conventional wisdom.\"—John Hedley Brooke, Times Higher Education Supplement

It is often asserted that Charles Darwin had a fortunate and indeed privileged life.  He came from a wealthy, upper middle class family; he studied at Edinburgh and Cambridge, and then never had to work at anything he did not wish to during his lifetime. He married an attractive and wealthy heiress who was devoted to him. On the other hand, one might make a case for saying that Darwin's life was dogged by ill-luck. His mother died when he was seven; he was sent to a school at which he 'learnt little'; he left Edinburgh Medical School after two years, unqualified. He undertook a five-year voyage although he was prone to sea-sickness; his one-time girlfriend (of whom there is evidence he was very fond) married someone else a few months into this voyage. He was affected by ill-health throughout much of his life. One of his children appears to have been mentally handicapped, and this child, and also his beloved Annie, died in infancy. His brother seems to have taken to drugs.  Like most of us he had a mixture of good luck and ill-luck. At a number of key points in his life, he made a choice - or others made a choice, or circumstances occurred - which profoundly influenced the path that he took. He made mistakes, but he had the distinct knack of good instinct.  Sometimes he displayed the characteristics that enabled him to 'make his own luck'. . This book reviews the role of chance and luck in the great Victorian naturalist's life and career.

Looking for the first time at the cut-price anatomy schools rather than genteel Oxbridge, Desmond winkles out pre-Darwinian evolutionary ideas in reform-minded and politically charged early nineteenth-century London. In the process, he reveals the underside of London intellectual and social life in the generation before Darwin as it has never been seen before. \"\"The Politics of Evolution\" is intellectual dynamite, and certainly one of the most important books in the history of science published during the past decade.\" Jim Secord, \"Times Literary Supplement\" \"One of those rare books that not only stakes out new territory but demands a radical overhaul of conventional wisdom.\" John Hedley Brooke, \"Times Higher Education Supplement\"\" Annotation Published: June 2015. Desmond demonstrates again his ability to tackle in a new way a topic that has already generated considerable interest. Here he takes on morphology of the 1830s, and, instead of studying the more familiar gentlemen scientists, he examines the radicals and dissenters within the politically active London medical community. Looking at radical medical newspapers, society records, and debates about subjects from curriculum reform to specific taxonomic questions, Desmond shows the considerable British support for the related ideas of transformism, evolution, progress, revisionist morphology, and political, religious, and social reform, inspired especially by Geoffroy and Lamarck. While providing numerous vignettes and biographical sketches for a host of concerned participants, he focuses especially on the more traditional Anglican Richard Owen and on the radical reformer Robert Grant. The book provides such richness of detail that uninitiated readers may find it difficult to follow, and so much political context that it is difficult to recall what is at issue in the scientific debates. But that is Desmond's central point--that evolution was political, which he convincingly urges should dictate a revised picture of Darwin's role as well. In part because it is so rich and challenging, this book joins the growing ranks of successful revisionist works arguing for a social-history-based approach to the understanding of science and should appeal to those sympathetic to such interpretations. Graduate level. -J. Maienschein, Arizona State University--Choice Review.

Over the past decade, a genomics revolution, made possible through the development of high-throughput sequencing, has triggered considerable progress in the study of ancient DNA, enabling complete genomes of past organisms to be reconstructed. A newly established branch of this field, ancient pathogen genomics, affords an in-depth view of microbial evolution by providing a molecular fossil record for a number of human-associated pathogens. Recent accomplishments include the confident identification of causative agents from past pandemics, the discovery of microbial lineages that are now extinct, the extrapolation of past emergence events on a chronological scale and the characterization of long-term evolutionary history of microorganisms that remain relevant to public health today. In this Review, we discuss methodological advancements, persistent challenges and novel revelations gained through the study of ancient pathogen genomes.This article reviews recent advances in ancient pathogen genomics, from methodological improvements in retrieving whole genomes to evolutionary analyses of ancient pathogens that remain relevant to public health. Focusing on the evolutionary history of the plague pathogen Yersinia pestis, the authors present unique insights afforded by the study of ancient pathogen genomes.

For almost 150 years after Edward Jenner had published the “Inquiry” in 1798, it was generally assumed that the cowpox virus was the vaccine against smallpox. It was not until 1939 when it was shown that vaccinia, the smallpox vaccine virus, was serologically related but different from the cowpox virus. In the absence of a known natural host, vaccinia has been considered to be a laboratory virus that may have originated from mutational or recombinational events involving cowpox virus, variola viruses or some unknown ancestral Orthopoxvirus. A favorite candidate for a vaccinia ancestor has been the horsepox virus. Edward Jenner himself suspected that cowpox derived from horsepox and he also believed that “matter” obtained from either disease could be used as preventative of smallpox. During the 19th century, inoculation with cowpox (vaccination) was used in Europe alongside with inoculation with horsepox (equination) to prevent smallpox. Vaccine-manufacturing practices during the 19th century may have resulted in the use of virus mixtures, leading to different genetic modifications that resulted in present-day vaccinia strains. Horsepox, a disease previously reported only in Europe, has been disappearing on that continent since the beginning of the 20th century and now seems to have become extinct, although the virus perhaps remains circulating in an unknown reservoir. Genomic sequencing of a horsepox virus isolated in Mongolia in 1976 indicated that, while closely related to vaccinia, this horsepox virus contained additional, potentially ancestral sequences absent in vaccinia. Recent genetic analyses of extant vaccinia viruses have revealed that some strains contain ancestral horsepox virus genes or are phylogenetically related to horsepox virus. We have recently reported that a commercially produced smallpox vaccine, manufactured in the United States in 1902, is genetically highly similar to horsepox virus, providing a missing link in this 200-year-old mystery.

Vaccines are some of the most cost-effective treatments in medicine. This article reviews new strategies being applied to develop vaccines for diseases that have not been susceptible to this therapeutic approach. Vaccines are among the most effective interventions in modern medicine. Ever since Edward Jenner's first use of a vaccine against smallpox in 1796 (see text box), the use of vaccines has become indispensable to the eradication of disease. In the 20th century alone, smallpox claimed an estimated 375 million lives, but since 1978, after the completion of a successful eradication campaign, not a single person has died from smallpox. Today, more than 70 vaccines have been licensed for use against approximately 30 microbes, sparing countless lives (Figure 1A and 1B). 1 , 2 Diseases including poliomyelitis, measles, mumps, rubella, and others caused an estimated . . .

Genetic studies of today’s tea plants are providing clues to how the plant was first domesticated. Genetic studies of today’s tea plants are providing clues to how the plant was first domesticated.

Humans have been colonized by Helicobacter pylori for at least 50,000 years and probably throughout their evolution. H. pylori has adapted to humans, colonizing children and persisting throughout life. Most strains possess factors that subtly modulate the host environment, increasing the risk of peptic ulceration, gastric adenocarcinoma, and possibly other diseases. H. pylori genes encoding these and other factors rapidly evolve through mutation and recombination, changing the bacteria-host interaction. Although immune and physiologic responses to H. pylori also contribute to pathogenesis, humans have evolved in concert with the bacterium, and its recent absence throughout the life of many individuals has led to new human physiological changes. These may have contributed to recent increases in esophageal adenocarcinoma and, more speculatively, other modern diseases.

We analyse academic success using a genealogical approach to the careers of over 95,000 scientists in mathematics and associated fields in physics and chemistry. We look at the effect of Ph.D. supervisors (one’s mentors) on the number of Ph.D. students that one supervises later on (one’s mentees) as a measure of academic success. Supervisors generally provide important inputs in Ph.D. projects, which can have long-lasting effects on academic careers. Moreover, having multiple supervisors exposes one to a diversity of inputs. We show that Ph.D. students benefit from having multiple supervisors instead of a single one. The cognitive diversity of mentors has a subtler effect in that it increases both the likelihood of success (having many mentees later on) and failure (having no mentees at all later on). We understand the effect of diverse mentorship as a high-risk, high-gain strategy: the recombination of unrelated expertise often fails, but sometimes leads to true novelty.