Frank Ryan - Virolution

FRANK RYAN

The most important evolutionary book since Dawkins’ Selfish Gene

William Collins An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published by Collins 2009

Text & diagrams © FPR-Books Ltd 2009

Frank Ryan asserts his moral right to be identified

as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Source ISBN: 9780007315123

Ebook Edition © JULY 2013 ISBN: 9780007545278

Version: 2018–12–04

To the memory of Terry Yates, for the courtesyand generosity of his help and the inspirationthat gave rise to this life-changing journey .

Science knows no country because it is the light that illuminates the world .

LOUIS PASTEUR

Like science, emerging viruses know no country. There are no barriers to prevent their migration across international boundaries or around the 24 time zones .

RICHARD M KRAUSE

A relatively small number of investigators have been preoccupied with the biology of viruses … and how they tick; these scientists are more sensitive to the … evolution of their symbiotic relations with their hosts .

JOSHUA LEDERBERG 1 Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес. Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.

Cover

Title Page FRANK RYAN

Copyright Copyright Copyright Dedication Epigraph Introduction: A Wind of Change 1: An Enigma from the World of Plagues 2: A Crisis in Darwinism 3: The Genetic Web of Life 4: The AIDS Dimension 5: The Paradox of the Human Genome 6: How Viruses Helped Make Us Human 7: The Implications for Medicine 8: The Autoimmune Diseases 9: Cancer 10: The Wider Dimension 11: Sex in the Evolutionary Tree 12: Are We Polyploid? 13: The Genie that Controls the Genes 14: The Coming Epiphany 15: At Journey’s End Glossary of Terms Index Acknowledgements About the Author References About the Publisher William Collins An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk First published by Collins 2009 Text & diagrams © FPR-Books Ltd 2009 Frank Ryan asserts his moral right to be identified as the author of this work. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books. HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication. Source ISBN: 9780007315123 Ebook Edition © JULY 2013 ISBN: 9780007545278 Version: 2018–12–04

Dedication To the memory of Terry Yates, for the courtesyand generosity of his help and the inspirationthat gave rise to this life-changing journey .

Epigraph Science knows no country because it is the light that illuminates the world . LOUIS PASTEUR Like science, emerging viruses know no country. There are no barriers to prevent their migration across international boundaries or around the 24 time zones . RICHARD M KRAUSE A relatively small number of investigators have been preoccupied with the biology of viruses … and how they tick; these scientists are more sensitive to the … evolution of their symbiotic relations with their hosts . JOSHUA LEDERBERG 1 Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес. Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.

Introduction: A Wind of Change

1: An Enigma from the World of Plagues

2: A Crisis in Darwinism

3: The Genetic Web of Life

4: The AIDS Dimension

5: The Paradox of the Human Genome

6: How Viruses Helped Make Us Human

7: The Implications for Medicine

8: The Autoimmune Diseases

9: Cancer

10: The Wider Dimension

11: Sex in the Evolutionary Tree

12: Are We Polyploid?

13: The Genie that Controls the Genes

14: The Coming Epiphany

15: At Journey’s End

Glossary of Terms

Index

Acknowledgements

About the Author

References

About the Publisher

I am quite sure that our views on evolution would be very different had biologists studied genetics and natural selection before and not after most of them were convinced evolution had occurred.

JBS HALDANE 1

In the opening line of his celebrated book, The Ascent of Man, Jacob Bronowski declared that ‘man is a singular creature. He has a set of gifts which make him unique among the animals.’ Putting aside the now outmoded sexual conventions implicit in his terminology, our natural instinct is to believe he was right. Surely we humans are unique. We are unique in recognising, at sentient level, our own existence. We have risen above the other animals in the landscape so that, for good or for bad, we now shape and control that landscape. But does this intellectual uniqueness mean that we are so radically different that we should be set apart from all other life in our evolutionary origins, which have governed the very nature of our beings?