Synthesis Version 4.1beta: a review of Scott F. Gilbert's and David Epel's Ecological Developmental Biology: Integrating Epigenetics, Medicine, and Evolution

Is evolutionary biology in the midst of a new synthesis? Historically, evolutionary biology has evolved with punctuated syntheses, such as ‘‘Darwinian evolution’’ and the ‘‘Modern Synthesis.’’ Over the last three decades Evolutionary Developmental Biology has taken up the torch and rapidly transformed itself into an integrative discipline with its own journals and funding panels. Our field has been nicknamedFwhether you love it or hate itF‘‘evodevo.’’ This acronym has recently started to mutate within journal articles as well as at meetings and symposia into eco-evo-devo, evo-devo-eco (eco-)evodevo, and just plain ecodevo (with or without the dash!). Do any of these recent variations have anything to do with a new synthesis in evolutionary biology or is this pluralism symptomatic of researchers desperate to build their own niche? The answers to these questions and much more can be found in Scott F. Gilbert’s and David Epel’s recent book Ecological Developmental Biology (2009). In their view, we are in the midst of a revolutionFone that integrates evolutionary and developmental biology with epigenetics, systems biology, and the developmental origins of adult disease. Here is what we believe to be some of the most important messages of this book: