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

by Sean B. Carroll Narrated by Patrick Lawlor

Overview

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 B. 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.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

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.)

From the Publisher

"In The Serengeti Rules, the author goes from E. coli to elephants to lay out the basic rules that shape so much of what's around us and inside us."—-Brian Switek, Wall Street Journal

From the Publisher - AUDIO COMMENTARY

"A thought-provoking challenge to complacency." —Kirkus

Guardian

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.

Nature

A compelling read filled with big, bold ideas.

Library Journal - Audio

06/01/2017
This easy-to-understand basic explanation of a handful of biological rules describes the regulation of life. Examples range from the microscopic to large mammals and the stories of their discovery. These rules also relate how changes to the environment can disrupt or restore biological balance. Patrick Lawlor reads the work in a manner that mimics the easy, flowing style of the print work. It is delivered in sections that move fluidly from one to another so that it is amenable to casual listening; however, it would be better appreciated if one were to listen consecutively over a few days. VERDICT Highly recommended to anyone seeking a basic understanding of how biological groups are regulated and interact.—Eric D. Albright, Tufts Univ. Health Sciences Lib., Boston

Kirkus Reviews

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.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170442966
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	01/25/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged

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