Forms of Becoming:THE EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY OF DEVELOPMENT(EVO-DEVO)

Form and Function is the title of a classic book published in 1 9 1 6, in
which Edward Stuart Russell reconstructed the history of animal
morphology from Aristotle to the early 1 900s-a long period of time
in which the most important and revolutionary event in the history
of biology took place, including the advent of a world incorporating
evolutionary change. And yet for Russell the most radical choice between
alternative views in the study of animal form was not preDarwinian
conceptions versus those dominated by the methods and
priorities of evolutionary biology. It was instead the more ancient
and perhaps never fully resolved opposition which, at the beginning
of the nineteenth century, saw the two giants of comparative anatomy,
Georges Cuvier and Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, facing one
another. The first championed a view that Russell called teleological
and which consists in claiming the primacy of function over form,
while the second defended, with equal conviction and authority, the
view that Russell called morphological, which claims the primacy of
form over function.

The Dangerous Passion: Why Jealousy Is as Necessary as Love and Sex

Why do men and women cheat on each other? How do men really feel when their partners have sex with other men? What worries women more -- men who turn to other women for love or men who simply want sexual variety in their lives? Can the jealousy husbands and wives experience over real or imagined infidelities be cured? Should it be? In this surprising and engaging exploration of men's and women's darker passions, David Buss, acclaimed author of The Evolution of Desire, reveals that both men and women are actually designed for jealousy. Drawing on experiments, surveys, and interviews conducted in thirty-seven countries on six continents, as well as insights from recent discoveries in biology, anthropology, and psychology, Buss discovers that the evolutionary origins of our sexual desires still shape our passions today. 

According to Buss, more men than women want to have sex with multiple partners. Furthermore, women who cheat on their husbands do so when they are most likely to conceive, but have sex with their spouses when they are least likely to conceive. These findings show that evolutionary tendencies to acquire better genes through different partners still lurk beneath modern sexual behavior. To counteract these desires to stray --

The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal

We human beings share 98 percent of our genes with chimpanzees. Yet humans are the dominant species on the planet -- having founded civilizations and religions, developed intricate and diverse forms of communication, learned science, built cities, and created breathtaking works of art -- while chimps remain animals concerned primarily with the basic necessities of survival. What is it about that two percent difference in DNA that has created such a divergence between evolutionary cousins? In this fascinating, provocative, passionate, funny, endlessly entertaining work, renowned Pulitzer Prize–winning author and scientist Jared Diamond explores how the extraordinary human animal, in a remarkably short time, developed the capacity to rule the world . . . and the means to irrevocably destroy it.

Jared Diamond states the theme of his book up-front: "How the human species changed, within a short time, from just another species of big mammal to a world conqueror; and how we acquired the capacity to reverse all that progress overnight." The Third Chimpanzee is, in many ways, a prequel to Diamond's prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel. While Guns examines "the fates of human societies," this work surveys the longer sweep of human evolution, from our origin as just another chimpanzee a few million years ago. Diamond writes:

It's obvious that humans are unlike all animals. It's also obvious that we're a species of big mammal down to the minutest details of our anatomy and our molecules. That contradiction is the most fascinating feature of the human species.

The Dopaminergic Mind In Human Evolution And History

What does it mean to be human? There are many theories of the
evolution of human behavior which seek to explain how our brains
evolved to support our unique abilities and personalities. Most of these
have focused on the role of brain size or specific genetic adaptations of
the brain. In contrast, Fred Previc presents a provocative theory that
high levels of dopamine, the most widely studied neurotransmitter,
account for all major aspects of modern human behavior. He further
emphasizes the role of epigenetic rather than genetic factors in the rise
of dopamine. Previc contrasts the great achievements of the dopaminergic
mind with the harmful effects of rising dopamine levels in
modern societies and concludes with a critical examination of whether
the dopaminergic mind that has evolved in humans is still adaptive to
the health of humans and to the planet in general.
Fred H. Previc is currently a science teacher at the Eleanor Kolitz
Academy in San Antonio, Texas. For over twenty years, he was a
researcher at the United States Air Force Research Laboratory where
he researched laser bioeffects, spatial disorientation in flight, and