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The Blind Watchmaker

By: De_Composed in 6TH POPE | Recommend this post (0)
Sat, 17 Feb 24 5:37 AM | 33 view(s)
Boardmark this board | 6th Edition Pope Board 		Msg. 50263 of 58519
(This msg. is a reply to 49293 by Decomposed)
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Last month's book was 'The Emperor of All Maladies' - on the history of cancer and the fight against it. It took me a little over a month. Hey, I'm not a speed reader! Nor was it a novel. It's more like a college text, and getting through it in one month took a bit of work.

Today I finished 'The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design,' by Richard Dawkins. It took me a little LESS than a month to get through its 318 pages, but the concepts were even harder than Emperor's. It had some interesting points, but I wouldn't recommend it. To be honest, I found most of it dull. Dawkins is loquacious, and his writing style seems to be 'stream of consciousness,' even if it's not. He constantly goes off on tangents, and I found it hard to stay with him - especially when he references something like Lamarckism that he may have last touched upon 100 pages earlier.

But wow, is the guy ever smart. There's no doubt of that. The Economist called this book "as readable and vigorous a defense of Darwinism as has been published since 1859" - and I don't think that's an exaggeration.

My other criticism of the book is that while it purports to be about the evidence against "design," most of the book was on other things - such as attacks on each and every other well known theory for how we came to be. His attacks are sound, but they're largely off topic IMO. I'm glad I read it, but I think its 318 pages could have been whittled down to perhaps 31 with no real loss to what the average reader will take away from it.

The book was my buddy's pick. He'd read it several times before. So, next, I'm picking one of MY favorite novels: Atlas Shrugged. I've read it twice. If you guys haven't read it, you should. (I'd be very surprised if CTJ hasn't.)


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The above is a reply to the following message:
The Emperor of All Maladies
By: Decomposed in 6TH POPE
Wed, 17 Jan 24 6:47 AM 		Msg. 49293 of 58519

I'm approaching the end of my book and thought I'd share one of its salient points. Believe it or not, this succinct understanding of the disease was not achieved until January 2000:


The vast catalog of cancer cell genotypes is a manifestation of six essential alterations in cell physiology that collectively dictate malignant growth.

1.  Self-sufficiency in growth signals: cancer cells acquire an autonomous drive to proliferate - pathological mitosis - by virtue of the activation of oncogenes such as ras or myc.

2.   Insensitivity to growth-inhibitory (antigrowth) signals: cancer cells inactivate tumor suppressor genes, such as retinoblastoma (Rb), that normally inhibit growth

3.   Evasion of programmed cell death (apoptosis): cancer cells suppress and inactivate genes and pathways that normally enable cells to die.

4.   Limitless replicative potential: cancer cells activate specific gene pathways that render them immortal even after generations of growth.

5.   Sustained angiogenesis: cancer cells acquire the capacity to draw out their own supply of blood and blood vessels - tumor angiogenesis.

6.   Tissue invasion and metastasis: cancer cells acquire the capacity to migrate to other organs, invade other tissues, and colonize these organs, resulting in their spread throughout the body.


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