Guinea Pig's History of Biology - Tapa blanda

In many ways this book is so much more than the title suggests. The text portrays the development not only of genetics, but also of biochemistry, developmental biology, and physiology, as well as chemistry and physics. Furthermore, in a very readable style, the author recounts many periods in history, not just providing a look at science through the years, but also exploring political, economic, and social issues and showing how intimately science and scientists connect with, and are influenced by, other social trends. This book would be of interest to anyone fascinated or intrigued by genetics or biological research, as well as any professional or lay student of history and science.--Amy Hark "Science Books & Films "

Endersby provides a delightfully told history primarily of genetic biological research.--A. B. Schlesinger"Choice" (04/01/2008)

The conceit of this engaging book is to tell how biologists have come to understand heredity from the point of view of some of the plants and animals that have been its central subjects. From observations made in the stable and greenhouse--of Arabian mares and passionflowers--Endersby traces the development of a model organism's approach to biology in the modern laboratory, culminating in chapters on Zebrafish and Arabidopsis. More truly a history of genetics than a history of biology, the book is illuminating and entertaining throughout.--Angela Creager, Princeton University

In this astute, charming and witty book, Jim Endersby follows the careers of passionflowers and fruit flies, mice and fish and helps overthrow a host of myths that have beset the history of biology. He brings uncommon enthusiasm and infectious passion to his accounts of gardeners and travellers, farmers and priests. He shares his joy at gazing through microscopes at zebrafish, offers indispensable information about the roots of genetic modification and vivisection and concludes with a superbly judged exploration of the significance of campaigns around biotechnology and eugenics. This book will become a vital resource for anyone who cares about where our biological knowledge came from and why it matters so much to our future.--Simon Schaffer, Professor of History of Science, University of Cambridge

A Guinea Pig's History of Biology is a fascinatingly different take on the history of evolution, showing how science developed as a complex and fruitful interaction between individuals and the scientific world. As entertaining as it is enlightening.--Judith Flanders, author of Consuming Passions: Leisure and Pleasure in Victorian Britain

Endersby has written a brilliant popular history of modern biology. Having mastered a vast scholarly literature, he expertly sets the science in its cultural context, explains difficult scientific concepts clearly, and offers a wise and entertaining account of some of the most important lines of research in the study of heredity, variation, and evolution over two centuries.--Sharon E. Kingsland, author of Modelling Nature: Episodes in the History of Population Ecology

I completely enjoyed reading this historical account of the progression of molecular biology over the past two centuries. Dry and dull "geek-speak"? Hardly. It reads like a work of fiction, complete with fascinating narratives and quirky bits of detail. Clearly the author put a great deal of effort into thoroughly investigating and communicating both the scientific and human sides of this topic...Dr. Endersby does a fascinating job of connecting society and science in this historical account of scientific progress over the last 200 years. He underlines the fact that no matter how objective scientists may try to be, they are working within social and political environments that are guiding their thought processes whether they realize it or not.--Wendy Tymchuk "Discovery "

Try to skim this book and you'll find yourself drawn into reading every word. Eye-opening and entertaining, this is cutting-edge history of science that everyone should read. Discover why Charles Darwin puzzled over passion flowers, and how the most unlikely of experimental organisms--from guinea pigs to an unprepossessing cress plant--contributed to what are now hailed as landmark discoveries, as well as leading to a lot of dead ends. Throughout his gripping narrative, Jim Endersby shows how today's right answer is almost always tomorrow's wrong one.-- (05/12/2007)

Jim Endersby's book is packed with strange lore about the creatures that live in laboratories, but it is no mere miscellany. He has hit upon the bright idea of telling the story of reproduction, inheritance and evolution--and how we learnt about them, by focusing on the handful of creatures that have provided most of our knowledge: the fruitfly, the zebrafish, the bacteriophage, Darwin's passion flowers, maize, the evening primrose, the cress plant Arabidopsis and a few others. Oh, and not forgetting Homo sapiens. Endersby's technique is a wonderfully roundabout way of telling some of the great stories of modern biology.-- (05/18/2007)

Over the past two decades, dozens of popular books discussing the Darwinian perspective on the history of biology have appeared, many of them derivative and stale. Some of us are feeling rather Darwinned out. But Jim Endersby has come up with a fresh and rewarding approach. He illuminates the story of our understanding of life since 1800 (when the word biology was coined) by focusing on 12 organisms that have been most useful to natural scientists in illuminating one of life's central mysteries, inheritance. The result is a hefty, easily readable account of the remarkable progress biologists have made over the past two centuries to enrich our understanding of life...Much of the charm of Endersby's account derives from his meandering style and his eye for the telling incident...Endersby's account of how zebra fish became one of nature's most revealing organisms is a gem of popular science writing, both an entertainment and an education. It demonstrates that a talented historian can illuminate science that has come to appear jaded after too many retellings by authors with a meagre grasp of their subject's past.-- (05/20/2007)