aroger at ac.dal.ca writes:
>> Mustafa
>The book you should read is a compilation by Tom Cavalier-Smith
>called "The Evolution of Genome Size", published sometime in the
>mid-eighties.
>The various theories explaining why genomes like these have
>evolved are outlined in Cavalier-Smith's book.
I seem to be evolving a role as group zealot alarm.
As I've said about previous citations of Gould, Dawkins, Margulis, Wilson, etc.
These are interesting, thoughtful and important works but one should not
confuse them with balanced discussions of the subject.
Like the others on this list, Cavalier-Smith has long been associated
with certain firmly held idiosyncratic positions like the clay-theory
for the origin of Life and the conviction that that selective pressures
control genome size. These are distinclty minority opinions and not
convincing to most in the field. That does not prove they are wrong
of course and I definitely believe they are worth studying but people
with little background need to treat the arguments with some caution
and the awareness that they are getting a partisan manifesto rather
than a dispassionate review. I'm all for partisanship as long as we're
up front about it...
perhaps a cast of characters of evolution.celebs associated with
particualr views would be a good part of an FAQ. ;^)
robin
