Amy and Erin's Amazing Diarchical Club of Books You Should Read With Us discussion

So, here I am reading about your (and my) inner fish ... all by myself ... by audiobook. Join me in discussion? Yes?

After Chapter 8, I'm starting to think that a better title of this book might be Why Bodies Became Fashionable. I was actually initially was hesitant to read it because of the title. But it's really quite interesting. The part about why multi-celled bodies became necessary (escaping predator cells) and "fashionable" (a new abundance of oxygen on earth) is fascinating. Even more fascinating is our ability to re-create the process in a lab by adding predators to a dish full of one-celled organisms and watching them develop into "bodies" over several generations (just a few years).

Unfortunately, defensive driving during rush hour and concentration on genetics don't always mix well. Is anyone reading the print version? Am I missing out on the images?

Thoughts? Parts you particularly are finding fascinating? Insights? Disagreements? Genetic musings?

I will likely read the book after having watched the series on PBS. Cellular evolution was left out.The first show did a bang up job on describing the processes that drove the development of the hand from pectoral fins.

Curt wrote: "I will likely read the book after having watched the series on PBS. Cellular evolution was left out.The first show did a bang up job on describing the processes that drove the development of the ha..."

Oh, nice. I didn't realize that there was a PBS series based on the book. I'll surely have to seek that out. I assume it was well-done if you're now interested in the book.

Cellular evolution is the most interesting part of the whole book for me so far. That and discovering how so many of the basic parts of organisms with bodies are the same ... starting with the same basic 3 parts even as embryos.

I found it interesting that the trade off for having lost our very sharp sense of smell is having more sharpened eyesight. It makes me wonder if there is some other sense out there that animals a million years from now will evolve that we can't even imagine now. Or perhaps such senses exist and we just don't consider them because they're not a part of the human survival need set.

This book is driving me even more to want to understand genetics on a more detailed level. I feel as if I can't yet talk about it properly because I'm still fuzzy on the vocabulary and the specifics. But it's fascinating to think that turning on or off this gene or that can result in such a variety of lifeforms.

Have you (or any other readers) delved into any other good texts along the lines of this book dealing with genetics and evolution on the cellular level?

"Get your pectoral fins offa me."

Yes, I'm eight years old.

Adding this one to my "to read" list.

Have either of you read Death by Black Hole? I enjoyed it, but there were several points where I felt like I almost, nearly, kinda grasped a point, had it for a split second, then lost it. And then I feel dumb.

Erin wrote: ""Get your pectoral fins offa me."

Yes, I'm eight years old.

Adding this one to my "to read" list.

Have either of you read Death by Black Hole? I enjoyed it, but there were seve..."

I haven't read it yet. He has a way of making the complex simple ... for those 5 seconds. I feel like I'd need to try to teach some things to ever truly grasp them ... if that makes sense.

This is one I have been meaning to read for ages. I really enjoyedThe Universe Within: Discovering the Common History of Rocks, Planets, and People . I'll try and pick it up in the next week or so and join the discussion proper.

Brendon wrote: "This is one I have been meaning to read for ages. I really enjoyedThe Universe Within: Discovering the Common History of Rocks, Planets, and People . I'll try and pick it up in the ..."

That sounds interesting. I was just reading that my in-real-life science book club is going to be reading A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing. It sounds like the two books may be somewhat similar.

Amy wrote: "That sounds interesting. I was just reading that my in-real-life science book club is going to be reading A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing. It sounds like the two books may be somewhat similar."

Not too similar actually. Shubin's work looks at more the outcome of the big bang and the forging of elements in the stars. And how it all came together to make the world we experience.

Krauss' book takes a purely cosmological look at the big bang itself and uses quantum mechanics to explain how the universe can come about without cause and effect that we so tightly hold onto at our scale of the universe.

Both are great reads. Shubin's is probably more accessible, and Krauss' more technical, but 'A Universe from Nothing' is a top notch read.

I'm going to credit this book with making me look twice at the rocks I was moving in my garden today. It turns out there were bones jutting out of them. Of course, I have no idea how to free or identify them, but they're there. I wonder how many other such rocks I've missed all my life.