Jones, Steve 1944–

(Steve J. Jones)

PERSONAL: Born 1944; son of an inventor.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of Biology, University College London, Gower St., London WC1E 6BT, England. E-mail—j.s.jones@ucl.ac.uk.

CAREER: Geneticist, biologist, educator, and writer. University College London, London, England, professor of genetics; Galton Institute, president. Visiting professor at Harvard University, University of Chicago, University of California at Davis, University of Botswana, Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone, and Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.

AWARDS, HONORS: Science Book Prize, Rhone-Poulenc Book Prize, and Yorkshire Post First Book Prize, all 1994, all for The Language of the Genes; Faraday Medal for public understanding of science, Royal Society, 1997; BP Natural World Book Prize, 1999; Charter Medal, Institute of Biology, 2002.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Robert Martin and David Pilbeam) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution, foreword by Richard Dawkins, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1992.

(With Borin Van Loon) Genetics for Beginners, Icon (Cambridge, England), 1993.

(With Borin Van Loon) Introducing Genetics, Totem Books (New York, NY), 1994.

The Language of the Genes: Biology, History, and the Evolutionary Future, HarperCollins (London, England), 1993, published as The Language of Genes: Solving the Mysteries of Our Genetic Past, Present, and Future, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1994, revised edition, 2000.

In the Blood: God, Genes and Destiny, HarperCollins (London, England), 1996.

(With others) From Genes to Cells, Wiley-Liss (New York, NY), 1997.

Almost like a Whale: The Origin of Species Updated, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1999, published as Darwin's Ghost: The Origin of Species Updated, Random House (New York, NY), 2000.

Y: The Descent of Men, Little, Brown (London, England), 2002, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2003.

Author and presenter of BBC Radio 3 series Blue Skies, and of television series In the Blood, 1996. Author of "View from the Lab" column, London Daily Telegraph. Contributor to professional journals.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Studying the population genetics of land snails in the Pyrenees Mountains.

SIDELIGHTS: In his day job, Steve Jones is considered among the world's leading experts on the evolution of snails, but to non-biologists he is best known as one of Britain's most notable science popularizers. His books, lectures, and television programs have introduced the concepts of evolution and genetics to countless laypeople.

The Language of the Genes: Biology, History, and the Evolutionary Future is an adaptation of the six Reith Lectures that Jones gave through the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 1991. In this work, Jones discusses the potential for genetics to help humans understand their history and to find causes and cures for diseases. He also, however, stresses the limits of genetics to explain the nuances of human life and behavior. In particular, Jones debunks arguments that attempt to tie genetics to racism, and his "discussions on these issues are especially clear and insightful," Joseph S. Alper and Marvin R. Natowicz wrote in the British Medical Journal. Jones also writes about the use of genetic information to trace human prehistory across the globe and the role evolution had in adapting humans to the ecological niches wherein they found themselves. Throughout, Jones "illustrates biological principles with memorable examples from everyday life," Dorothy Bonn commented in the Lancet. For example, in discussing humans' adaptation to their environments, Jones points out that peoples native to Arctic areas tend to be short and fat, the better to conserve heat, while the native residents of equatorial Africa are tall and thin, the better to dissipate it. The Language of the Genes is "one of the best recent books on a difficult subject," Booklist contributor William Beatty concluded.

Darwin's Ghost: The Origin of Species Updated—also published with the title Almost like a Whale: The Origin of Species Updated—begins with the foundational text of evolutionary theory: British biologist Charles Darwin's 1859 book On the Origin of Species. Darwin's Ghost "revisits Darwin's On the Origin of Species and tells us, chapter by chapter, what has happened since 1859," Timothy H. Goldsmith explained in the Quarterly Review of Biology. The major discovery in evolution since Darwin's time is, of course, DNA; while Darwin knew traits could be inherited, he had no idea of the biological mechanism by which this was carried out. (The work of the original geneticist, Gregor Mendel, had been completed while Darwin was alive, but the latter scientist seems to have never heard of Mendel's discoveries.) As a whole, Darwin's work has had considerable staying power, and Jones relies on it strongly, using the same chapter organization and including large portions of the original book in full.

"The idea [of structuring the book this way] is a clever one," wrote Natural History reviewer Christopher Wills, "and in general [it] succeeds quite well." "Like Darwin," Daniel Park wrote in the Lancet, "Jones deliberately and wisely omits the most contentious of philosophical issues—the origins of life and of consciousness—though Jones does include much more substantive discussion of human evolution than Darwin dared." Overall, according to many reviewers, Jones does an admirable job of bringing Darwin's arguments up to date and making them accessible to a lay audience. As Mary Midgley explained in the New Statesman, "Deliberately using ordinary speech and avoiding learned debate, he explains the workings of evolution, as they are now understood, with beautiful clarity and, naturally, with a lot more fun and jokes than Darwin ever allowed himself." Jones "has written an inspiring argument," Gilbert Taylor concluded in Booklist, adding that the work is "vital for anyone doubtful of creationist views but not sure why."

Jones wrote Darwin's Ghost, he told Edge interviewer John Brockman, "because there was a gap that needed to be filled. There's a lot of good writing about evolutionary biology, but there's no good single book about evolution…. However, it amazed me how well the structure of the original Origin holds up. It has a narrative flow and a structure, and all the discoveries of today bolt onto it extraordinarily well."

In Y: The Descent of Men Jones examines the genetics and biology of males and of the Y chromosome. The book "is less a single sustained argument than a series of lyrical essays," Paul Shulman explained in Psychology Today. The chapters range over a variety of topics, from the biological disadvantages men face—higher rates of genetic diseases, weaker immune systems, and shorter life spans, to name just three examples—to the controversy over circumcision (Jones is against it). "All of this is pretty standard stuff, without any major surprises," wrote BookSlut.com contributor David Harris, "but … the anecdotes are fascinating." Jones shows that men have plenty of reasons to feel cheated by evolution, but, as Gilbert Taylor noted in Booklist, he "expounds on bad news in paradoxically jaunty fashion." Jones also takes on the trend toward evolutionary psychology, debunking many of the claims this school's supporters make about the causes of male human behavior, and, in a chapter titled "Hydraulics for Boys," for example, he explains the physics of erections. Although the book contains much depressing information about the future of men, many reviewers praised the work's humorous side. Jones's "lively and decidedly irreverent style makes even technical matters entertaining," Marit MacArthur Taylor commented in Library Journal, while Lancet reviewer Graham Farmelo described the book, like Jones's earlier works, as "a lively, witty, sardonic tour of his chosen terrain, with an acute awareness of the power of genetics and its limitations."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Antiquity, June, 1993, Cyprian Broodbank, review of The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution, p. 449.

Booklist, August, 1994, William Beatty, review of The Language of Genes: Solving the Mysteries of Our Genetic Past, Present, and Future, p. 2008; April 1, 2000, Gilbert Taylor, review of Darwin's Ghost: The Origin of Species Updated, p. 1421; December 1, 2000, Donna Seaman, review of The Language of Genes: Solving the Mysteries of Our Genetic Past, Present, and Future, p. 685; April 1, 2003, Gilbert Taylor, review of Y: The Descent of Men, p. 1362.

British Medical Journal, October 23, 1993, Joseph S. Alper and Marvin R. Natowicz, review of The Language of the Genes: Biology, History, and the Evolutionary Future, p. 1078; May 25, 1996, Andrew P. Read, review of In the Blood: God, Genes, and Destiny, p. 1366; October 12, 2002, Fred Kavalier, review of Y, p. 841.

Economist, September 4, 1999, review of Almost like a Whale: The Origin of Species Updated, p. 81; November 2, 2002, "On Not Being a Woman; Men's Biology," review of Y.

Guardian (London, England), September 23, 2000, Nicholas Lezard, review of Almost like a Whale.

Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2003, review of Y, p. 442.

Lancet, June 26, 1993, Dorothy Bonn, review of The Language of the Genes, p. 1649; September 18, 1999, Daniel Park, "Bringing Darwin up to Date," p. 1039; December 21, 2002, Graham Farmelo, "Is It All up for Y?," p. 2098.

Library Journal, April 15, 2000, James H. Birx, review of Darwin's Ghost, p. 119; April 1, 2003, Marit MacArthur Taylor, review of Y, p. 124.

London Review of Books, February 3, 2000, Andrew Berry, review of Almost Like a Whale.

National Post, May 6, 2000, Roger McDonald, "The Evolution of Darwinism," p. 19.

Natural History, May, 2000, Christopher Wills, review of Darwin's Ghost, p. 86.

New Statesman, May 17, 1996, Gail Vines, review of In the Blood, p. 36; September 6, 1999, Mary Midgely, review of Almost like a Whale, p. 53.

Psychology Today, May-June, 2003, Paul Shulman, review of Y, p. 72.

Publishers Weekly, March 13, 2000, review of Darwin's Ghost, p. 74.

Quarterly Review of Biology, September, 1998, James H. Sang, review of From Genes to Cells, p. 391; June, 2003, Timothy H. Goldsmith, review of Darwin's Ghost, p. 209.

Science News, June 28, 2003, review of Y, p. 415.

ONLINE

BookSlut.com, http://www.bookslut.com/ (December 20, 2005), David Harris, review of Y.

Edge Web site, http://www.edge.org/ (March 27, 2000), John Brockman, "Genetics Plus Time: A Talk with Steve Jones."

Imperial College London Web site, http://www.ic.ac.uk/ (December 20, 2005), "The Steve Jones Interview."

University College London Department of Biology Web site, http://www.ucl.ac.uk/biology/ (November 30, 2005), biographical information on Steve Jones.