Unnatural Selection Press Release

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UNNATURAL SELECTION How We Are Changing Life, Gene by Gene

By Emily Monosson "...a stealth lesson in basic biology — just the book to give to a friend or family member who thinks that evolution has little to do with day-to-day practicalities."

—Los Angeles Review of Books "It is an honest attempt to wake us up and realize the bigger and more complex picture nature shows us."

—San Francisco Book Review "Part science-lover’s paradise, part horror novel, Monosson describes these human-influenced evolutionary terrors in fascinating detail."

—The Daily (University of Washington)

Washington, DC (March 29, 2016) — We tend to think of evolution as something that happened long ago, rather slowly, and to species that aren’t us. In Unnatural Selection: How We Are Changing Life, Gene by Gene (Publication Date: March 29, 2016), newly available in paperback, environmental toxicologist Emily Monosson reveals that evolution’s long arm reaches much farther up the food chain—and shapes life much more quickly—than we expect.

Thanks to the chemicals that have become ubiquitous in modern life, understanding these processes matters now more than ever. What we know about a given compound varies from medicines like penicillin, whose discoverer warned of the risks of antibiotic resistance, to seemingly harmless chemicals like road salts that can drive evolution in creatures as complicated as salamanders. In each case, it is clear that what we don’t know can hurt us.

Modern society relies on discovering and manufacturing ever more chemicals, most of which are never thoroughly tested for toxicity, let alone their ability to influence evolution. Monosson argues that as we embrace chemicals, we change the circumstances under which natural selection operates

and create instead “unnatural selection.”

By studying examples from cancer cells to bed bugs, she shows how evolution is happening faster than we realize and explores why that matters. Not only might evolution shape bacteria and plants to neutralize chemicals such as antibiotics and herbicides, but it might change fish, frogs, and even humans. And it isn’t just changes in DNA itself that we need to worry about. Monosson profiles the emerging field of epigenetics, showing how patterns of gene expression induced by even temporary factors like food shortages may be inherited, and how a blessing in one generation may pose risks to children, grandchildren, and beyond.

Monosson offers an engaging perspective on evolutionary biology, sharing her evident excitement about a field that, from the outside, can seem complex and incomprehensible, connecting it to modern daily life. Full of stories and drawing on clever analogies (like comparing the different ways a strand of DNA can be expressed to a musical score in the hands of different performers), Unnatural Selection is an intriguing, if sobering read. Monosson demonstrates that if we don’t begin to think more cautiously about our chemical advances, they may come back to haunt us—and sooner than you might think.

Emily Monosson is an environmental toxicologist, writer, and consultant. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, author of Evolution in a Toxic World: How Life Responds to Chemical Threats, and the editor of Motherhood, the Elephant in the Laboratory: Women Scientists Speak Out. Unnatural Selection: How We Are Changing Life, Gene by Gene

By Emily Monosson Paperback Edition 200 pages | Price: $25.00 ISBN: 978-1-61091-499-4 http://islandpress.org/book/unnatural-selection Founded in 1984, Island Press works to stimulate, shape, and communicate the information that is essential for solving environmental problems. Today, with more than 1,000 titles in print and some 40 new releases each year, it is the nation’s leading publisher of books on environmental issues. But Island Press does more than publish books. It advances environmental science by nurturing the exchange of ideas across disciplines and sectors, and by helping to create a multidisciplinary literature on environmental problems and solutions.

The knowledge created is spread far beyond the range of a limited marketplace through sophisticated communications initiatives that reach journalists, academics, policymakers, practitioners and the general public. Through these efforts, Island Press is driving change by moving ideas from the printed page to public discourse and practice. Island Press’s emphasis is, and will continue to be, on transforming objective information into understanding and action. For more information and further updates be sure to visit www.islandpress.org. ###