Product Description
In Sex and the Origins of Death, William R. Clark looks at life and death at the level of the cell, as he addresses such profound questions as why we age, why death exists, and why death and sex go hand in hand. We learn… More >>
Product Description
In Sex and the Origins of Death, William R. Clark looks at life and death at the level of the cell, as he addresses such profound questions as why we age, why death exists, and why death and sex go hand in hand. We learn… More >>
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Anyone buying this publication and expecting a trip into the seamier sides of sexuality is purchasing the wrong book. In Sex & The Origins Of Death, William Clark expounds his theory of two types of cell death (the accidental and the programmed), and traces back the second to the discarding of life once the body has ceased to be a functionning sexual machine. Using carefully selected evolutionary material Clark’s argument appears to hold much weight, and may appeal to certain religious sectors, but I believe that his in depth look at cell life omits many factors in the diversity of human sexuality
Rating: 3 / 5
William Clark has done a great job here of explaining the connection in evolution between the origins of sexual reproduction and the origins of death. To know that the original living organisms, and their single-cell descendents today, do not die from aging but are potentially immortal leads to interesting questions about ourselves and particularly the relationship between our soma (body) cells and our gametes ie those cells that can potentially take our DNA into the future beyond the death of the body.
Clark uses the hypothetical case of a man’s second major heart attack to explain necrotic cell death. He also covers the problems we are faced with today around determing ‘death’, brain death and dealing with persistent vegetative state etc. Taking another perspective he looks at the dried cysts and spores of simple organisms in the search for a clearer definition of life at the level of the cell.
The type of cell death of particular interest is programmed cell death that arose along with sexual reproduction and multicellular organisms. Programmed cell death occurs in the developing fetus where excess cells quietly self-destruct. It also continues throughout life in, for example, the immune system. And ultimately body cells themselves are programmed to die once enough time has elapsed for the body’s DNA to have passed on to new bodies.
As Clark puts it, the only purpose of somatic cells, from nature’s point of view, is to optimize the survival and function of the true guardians of the DNA – the germ cells. In the original living organisms the first somatic DNA was itself germline DNA. But programmed death is apparently necessary in order to realize the full biological advantage of sex as part of reproduction. Our DNA makes a hundred trillion copies of itself to ensure the transmission of just a few copies to the next generation. Then it directs the destruction of the other hundred trillion copies and we die. Death of cells is therefore not an a priori requirement of life but an evolutionary consequence of the way we reproduce ourselves and of our multicellularity.
Perhaps the knowledge of our own mortality can be made more palatable when we see it as a price we all pay for the great and awesome diversity of life on our beautiful planet that has arisen from the evolution of sexual reproduction and multicellularity.
Rating: 5 / 5
From the title and the synopsis, the book seems to be a serious science book. However, Clarke has adopted a style, which I thought was unusual for a popular science book, which linked up all the topics that he wanted to address very well. He started off the book with a hypothetical character who just sufferred a heart attack. He analysed this situation at the cellular level. He then carried on with the 2 types of cell death (accidental and programmed), some simplified description of cell workings and his thesis on the relationship between sexual reproduction and cell death. There was even a chapter on the definition of death for a human being. I found this chapter very interesting as various social, legal and scientific aspects of death are being considered. Clarke’s writing style is easy to read and I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in death at the cellular level.
Rating: 4 / 5
Not what it sounds like ~ some bizarre fetish manual ~ but an investigation by an apparently eminent immunologist and cytologist into the reasons that cells ~ and thus the animals and plants constructed of those cells ~ die. The sex comes in because at some point in the past, it would appear, in the choice (funny how one frequently speaks of evolutionary processes as animate) to mix the genetic material with the swapping of DNA (sex) implied the necessity of the death of the old DNA in order to pass on the new with a fair chance of survival. This is a really fascinating exploration, written for the layman, of some modern biology, cytology, molecular biology, thanatology, and even philosophy. Clark may be a professor, a department Chair in fact, but he can still write engagingly, simply, and pleasingly. I truly enjoyed learning here.
Rating: 4 / 5
Anyone remotely interested in the “Art of Science” and the beautiful way the world and her children ebb and flow, will appreciate this book.
For the die-hard molecular biologist it is a tad tedious to go through his narative of organelles and pump functions. Most else will appreciate his care to explain how a cell works, before it dies, or even commits suicide.
Clark licks the pages with humor. Subtle and dark. Even with the dissapointment of being a cell-mass shuttle for DNA, I was laughing out loud.
Rating: 4 / 5