Narrow Roads of Gene Land: The Collected Papers of W. D. HamiltonVolume 2: Evolution of Sex / Edition 1

by W. D. Hamilton, Richard Dawkins

Overview

W.D. Hamilton is considered by many the most important theoretical biologist of the 20th century. He has made major discoveries in evolutionary biology, genetics, and social behavior, and his essays continue to exert tremendous influence throughout the discipline. This second volume of his collected papers focuses on his groundbreaking work on sex and sexual selection. It contains the 18 papers he published between 1980 and 1991, many of them examining the role of parasites and disease in promoting genetic diversity. For each paper, Hamilton has written an accessible introduction describing why the work was done, how the paper came to be written, and its eventual fate. An invaluable collection for biologists, this book also provides general readers with deep insights into the sometimes surprising mechanics of evolutionary processes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198503361
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/06/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	930
Product dimensions:	9.28(w) x 6.10(h) x 1.71(d)

About the Author

W. D. Hamilton is one of the most influential biologists of the 20th century and is widely regarded as the most important theoretical innovator in the evolutionary study of behavior since Darwin. He is known throughout the world for his seminal work on social evolution (kin selection), sex ratio evolution and, more recently, for work on the involvement of parasites in sexual selection and on the evolutionary maintenance of sexuality. A Fellow of the Royal Society and a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Hamilton is a Royal Society Research Professor in the Zoology Department at Oxford University. His awards include the Albert Wander Foundation Prize (Switzerland, 1992), the Crafoord Prize (Sweden, 1993), and the Kyoto Prize (Japan, 1993).

Table of Contents

1. Ghosts of the Museum: Fluctuation of environment and coevolved antagonist polymorphism as factors in the maintenance of sex2. Messing up the Plotter: Sex versus non-sex versus parasite3. Unequal Cousins: Coefficients of relatedness in biology4. Best and Worst Hotels: The evolution of cooperation5. Sex Itself: Pathogens as causes of genetic diversity in their host populations6. Bright Birds: Heritable true fitness and bright birds: a role for parasites? Appendix: Our Paper Then and Now7. Man of the Sand Dune Tel: Parent-offspring correlation in fitness under fluctuating selection8. At the World's Crossroads: Instability and cycling of two competing hosts with two parasites9. Bishop Wykham of Evolution: Discriminating nepotism: expectable, common, overlooked10. Land of the Rising Sun: Kinship, recognition, disease, and intelligence: constraints of social evolution11. Being Rare and Successful: Parasites and sex12. The Hospitals are Coming: Sex and disease13. Cited but Little Read: This week's citation classic14. The Wind in the Baobabs: Selfishness reexamined: no man is an island15. Time like Dripping Tap: Memes of Haldane and Jayakar in a theory of sex16. The Three Queens: Sexual reproduction as an adaptation to resist parasitesAppendix: Further Evidence17. Othello/Uccello: Mate choice near and far18. Health and Horsemen: The seething genetics of health and the evolution of sex19. Epilogue

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Volume 1: "...the tale of a solitary boy who wandered the roads of Kent in search of insects and grew up to wander the roads of modern evolutionary theory." —Natural History

"This book is the evolutionary biologist's Harry Potter: the long-awaited sequel to a captivating story of a young man with extraordinary powers."—Nature

From the Publisher