The Tangled Tree: a Radical New History of Life

David Quammen

eBook - 2018

In this New York Times bestseller and longlist nominee for the National Book Award, "our greatest living chronicler of the natural world" (The New York Times), David Quammen explains how recent discoveries in molecular biology affect our understanding of evolution and life's history. In the mid-1970s, scientists began using DNA sequences to reexamine the history of all life. Perhaps the most startling discovery to come out of this new field—the study of life's diversity and relatedness at the molecular level—is horizontal gene transfer (HGT), or the movement of genes across species lines. It turns out that HGT has been widespread and important; we now know that roughly eight percent of the human genome arrived sidewa...ys by viral infection—a type of HGT. In The Tangled Tree, "the grandest tale in biology....David Quammen presents the science—and the scientists involved—with patience, candor, and flair"... more