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FOREWORD
The word “unique” best describes the book The Foundations of Evolution:
On the Origin of Kingdoms and its author, the historian Jan Sapp. Historians
of biology typically focus on evolution à la Darwin. Yet, there is much to be
understood about the evolutionary process that never met the Darwinian eye;
and much more work to be done and biological systems to visit before
science can say it “understands” evolution.
I have struggled long and hard to convince biologists that biology owes both
science and mankind a genuinely scientific study of the evolutionary
process; and that the place to start is not with the birds, beetles and the bees
all over again, where conventional evolutionary language shackles your
thoughts before you begin. One starts with the microbial world; starts within
the cell, not without; focuses on the origin and evolution of the cell’s
universal molecular componentry, not the adaptive embellishments. And
does not stick the label “made by natural selection” on anything. Here, in
this new venue, is where we can begin to trace organisms back to their roots
and begin to talk evolution in a new, non-anthropomorphic language.
And finally! Along comes a book with a eye-popping title “The
Foundations of Evolution: On the Origin of Kingdoms”; and it is about the
microbial world. It is a book I never thought I’d see written by an historian.
It says to historian and scientist alike: “Yes, there is evolution after Darwin;
and here is what it’s going to look like!”
It is impossible to understand the microbial world in any depth without
considering the constant evolutionary current that flows through it. To
account for the intricate and fascinating molecular structure within microbial
cells or the organization of these cells into delicately fabricated microbial
communities—so intimately interlinked with their environments— is a
weaving of ecology, evolution, and organism, the likes of which are not seen
in the larger world “above”.
Dr. Sapp’s book recounts the story of a basically isolated scientific field
struggling to define its venue, find itself, and take its proper place among the
other biological disciplines. It is a story of how molecular evolutionists
working in the microbial world were able to discover the large-scale
structure of the tree of life, and in the process questioned some of the major
evolutionary understanding such as the Doctrine of Common Descent, the
notion that evolution only occurs in very small random steps, the idea that
the organisms cannot “learn” from other organisms, share inventions with
them. And it is a story of the discovery that there are not two primary
lineages of living organisms on this planet, the eukaryotes (animals, plants,
fungi and “protists”) and the microscopic prokaryotes, as everyone thought
there to be, but actually three such. The so-called “prokaryotes” are not all
related to one another, but comprise two great classes of (micro)organisms,
which are less related to each another than we are to plants. These are the
Archaea and the Bacteria, and between them they comprise the bulk of the
biomass on this planet and by far the greatest cellular diversity.
Prof. Sapp is as unique among historians of biology as his work is among
theirs. His is not a recounting of biology and evolution past, of problems
solved and tucked away. His is a story of bringing evolution and biology
together, of a new science of biology in the making. Thus he finds his
history on the unpaved trails of contemporary scientific exploration rather
than safely recording his travels along the scientific superhighways of the
past.