The Serengeti Rules: The Quest to Discover How Life Works and Why It Matters

by Sean B. Carroll

Overview

One of today's most accomplished biologists and gifted storytellers reveals the rules that regulate all life

How does life work? How does nature produce the right numbers of zebras and lions on the African savanna, or fish in the ocean? How do our bodies produce the right numbers of cells in our organs and bloodstream? In The Serengeti Rules, award-winning biologist and author Sean Carroll tells the stories of the pioneering scientists who sought the answers to such simple yet profoundly important questions, and shows how their discoveries matter for our health and the health of the planet we depend upon.

One of the most important revelations about the natural world is that everything is regulated—there are rules that regulate the amount of every molecule in our bodies and rules that govern the numbers of every animal and plant in the wild. And the most surprising revelation about the rules that regulate life at such different scales is that they are remarkably similar—there is a common underlying logic of life. Carroll recounts how our deep knowledge of the rules and logic of the human body has spurred the advent of revolutionary life-saving medicines, and makes the compelling case that it is now time to use the Serengeti Rules to heal our ailing planet.

Bold and inspiring, The Serengeti Rules illuminates how life works at vastly different scales. Read it and you will never look at the world the same way again.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691264295
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	08/20/2024
Series:	Princeton Science Library , #151
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Sean B. Carroll is an internationally recognized biologist, award-winning author, and Emmy-winning executive producer. He is an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Balo-Simon Chair and Distinguished University Professor of Biology at the University of Maryland, and professor emeritus of molecular biology and genetics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His books include A Series of Fortunate Events (Princeton) and Remarkable Creatures, which was a finalist for the National Book Award for nonfiction.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Miracles and Wonder 1

I EVERYTHING IS REGULATED 13

1 The Wisdom of the Body 15

2 The Economy of Nature 30

II THE LOGIC OF LIFE 47

3 General Rules of Regulation 51

4 Fat, Feedback, and a Miracle Fungus 73

5 Stuck Accelerators and Broken Brakes 89

III THE SERENGETI RULES 107

6 Some Animals Are More Equal than Others 111

7 Serengeti Logic 129

8 Another Kind of Cancer 155

9 Take 60 Million Walleye and Call Us in 10 Years 169

10 Resurrection 183

Afterword: Rules to Live By 202

Acknowledgments 215

Notes 217

Bibliography 239

Index 253

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A master storyteller, Carroll explores the unity of biology from the molecular level to the Serengeti, the rules that regulate life, and the consequences when regulation breaks down. A fascinating journey from beginning to end, this book will educate and entertain readers at all levels and leave them with a better understanding of how the biosphere works."—Simon Levin, Princeton University, author of Fragile Dominion: Complexity and the Commons

"The Serengeti Rules is a superb journey of a book written by a scientist of the first rank. Unfolding seamlessly from molecule to ecosystem, it explains with authority and grace why modern biology is central not just to human life but to that of the planet itself."—Edward O. Wilson, Harvard University

"As one of our leading biologists and communicators, Sean Carroll has merged a passion for scientific discovery with a flair for telling great stories of exploration. In The Serengeti Rules, Carroll has crafted a work of epic sweep that travels the globe in search of the logical rules that govern all of life, from tiny molecules to entire ecosystems. The Serengeti Rules both delights and enlightens—I was left marveling at the human achievement behind scientific breakthroughs and the sheer beauty of the working of living systems."—Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body

"Original, provocative, and beautifully crafted, Carroll's book provides a glimpse into the deeper laws of biology that govern the earth. With his inimitable style of storytelling combined with a deep knowledge of science, Carroll takes us on a rollicking adventure, reminding us that the rules that apply to ecosystems also apply to the human body. This book is a must-read for anyone who cares about the future of the planet."—Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

"This is a rattling good read by one of the leading scientists of our time. The Serengeti Rules made me think differently about what we biologists do. This is a book that needs to be shouted from the rooftops."—Andrew F. Read, Pennsylvania State University

"Masterful and compelling. The Serengeti Rules is a significant contribution, one that will be welcomed by professional biologists and a wide range of lay readers."—Harry W. Greene, author of Tracks and Shadows: Field Biology as Art

Editorial Reviews

01/18/2016
In this thoroughly engaging book, Carroll (Remarkable Creatures), a professor of molecular biology and genetics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, persuasively argues that life at all levels of complexity is self-regulated, from the inner workings of cells to the larger relationships governing the Serengeti ecosystem. This means that when disease occurs at any level, something is likely to have gone amiss with that natural regulation. Carroll brings this relatively simple point to life by briefly relating the stories of a handful of scientists who were responsible for discovering the underlying rules of self-regulation. He introduces readers to Walter Cannon, the physiologist who introduced the concept of homeostasis; Robert Paine, the ecologist who promoted the idea of a keystone species; Jacques Monod, the biologist who began to unravel how genes are turned on and off; and Tony Sinclair, the zoologist who shed light on complex trophic relationships controlling animal numbers on the Serengeti. Investigating how basic principles have been harnessed to solve some of Earth’s most pressing ecological problems, Carroll remains unabashedly optimistic about possibilities for the future, citing the amazing efforts that have restored a wealth of wildlife to Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park. Carroll superbly animates biological principles while providing important insights. Photos & illus. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Science Books of 2016

"One of Nature.com’s Top 20 Books for 2016"

Shortlisted for the 2017 Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science

From the Publisher

Carroll is both a distinguished scientist. . . and one of our great science writers. . . . [The Serengeti Rules] is a visionary book, which celebrates the new wisdom and the men and women who have brought the vision to pass.

Guardian

A compelling read filled with big, bold ideas.

Nature

2015-12-08
An exploration of how "just as there are molecular rules that regulate the numbers of different kinds of molecules and cells in the body, there are ecological rules that regulate the numbers and kinds of animals and plants in a given place." Carroll (Molecular Biology and Genetics/Univ. of Wisconsin; Brave Genius: A Scientist, a Philosopher, and Their Daring Adventures from the French Resistance to the Nobel Prize, 2013, etc.) describes Tanzania's Serengeti National Park as "an unending canvas containing mammals of many sizes, shapes, and colors," each with its own place in the food chain. In the 1920s, Charles Elton discovered the role of the food chain in regulating the numbers of animals that can be supported in a given region, a discovery that Carroll compares to the contributions of Darwin. While he was still a student at Oxford, Elton joined an expedition to the Arctic, where he observed a pyramid of life, beginning at the bottom with plankton and fish. These were eaten by seabirds, which, in turn, provided food for the arctic foxes and seals that, in turn, became sustenance for the polar bears. Elton recognized that the different species functioned as a community of predators and prey, with their populations regulated by their relative positions in the food chain. Predators play important roles in ecological sustainability by limiting the numbers of the species on which they prey. This is exemplified by the recent necessity of reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone Park because the unchecked population of deer and elk were overgrazing the vegetation. Another analogy is the way in which water pollution creates massive growth in algae. Carroll compares this to a failure in the body's regulatory system, which causes excessive cell multiplication and leads to the development of metastatic cancers. He warns that by failing to protect the environment with appropriate regulations, we face "an ecological cancer." A thought-provoking challenge to complacency.

Kirkus Reviews