MSUM Library
honors the 2007 promotion of
Ellen Brisch
Biosciences
Margulis, Lynn and Dorion Sagan. Acquiring Genomes -- A Theory of the Origin of Species. Basic Books, 2002.
Dr. Brisch chose this book because:
“Dr. Margulis is a distinguished professor in Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and received a National Medal of Science from President Clinton in 2000. Most importantly for me, I was able to recruit Dr. Margulis to come to MSUM to deliver a Comstock Lecture in 2004! Dr. Margulis’ work is at the cutting edge of science in many ways – she always questions the current scientific "truths." In Acquiring Genomes, Dr. Margulis and Dorion Sagan present a carefully-constructed case for symbiosis as "the source of inherited variation that gives ride to new species." This book challenges decades of evolutionary theory by asserting that "the acquisition of new genomes by symbiotic merger" displaces the currently held view of "random mutation" as the sole factor.”