Search

Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1996 John Dupre Department of Philosophy, Birkbeck College and School of English and American Studies, University of Exeter This book is a collection of essays by [...]

Elliott Sober is among the leading contemporary contributors to the philosophy of biology. He also has an exceptional ability to explain difficult ideas clearly. He is therefore very well equipped [...]

We examined the effect of dietary fish oil (MaxEPA) and sunflower seed oil on glucose tolerance in male Wistar rats. Semipurified diets containing 100 g oil/kg diet were administered for 30 d. The fish oil diet contained 26 g (n-3) fatty acids, 16 g eicosapentaenoic acid and 10.4 g docosahexaenoic acid/kg diet. Phospholipids from liver, pancreas, and pancreatic islets were enriched in eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids by the fish oil diet. In unfed pentobarbital-anesthetized rats, both basal plasma insulin concentration and insulin responses to intravenous glucose were significantly lower for fish oil-fed rats although glucose responses were similar; however, incremental excursions in plasma insulin over the basal concentrations did not differ. Intravenous glucose tolerance was also examined in conscious unfed rats under minimal restraint. Responses of plasma glucose and insulin were similar for fish oil- and sunflower oil-fed groups. Furthermore, in another experiment, intravenous glucose tolerance tests were similar for conscious rats provided with either 100 g fish oil or corn oil/kg nonpurified diet. Thus, glucose-induced insulin secretion is lower in rats fed fish oil than in rats fed sunflower oil, when tests are conducted in pentobarbital-anesthetized animals but not when tests are performed in conscious rats; there was no effect on plasma glucose in either anesthetized or nonanesthetized rats. Therefore, substitution of (n-3) for (n-6) polyunsaturated fatty acids in tissue phospholipids does not alter plasma glucose or insulin in conscious male Wistar rats.

NOT BY DESIGN: Retiring Darwin's Watchmaker. John O. Reiss. xviii + 422 pp. University of California Press, 2009. $49.95. Followers of the debate between evolutionists and various waves of creationists, [...]

Cushing's syndrome may be caused by an increased cortisol response to gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP) in patients with nodular adrenal hyperplasia, or enlargement of the adrenal glands. Cushing's syndrome is a disorder characterized by excess secretion of the steroid hormone cortisol by the adrenal glands. Pituitary-adrenal gland function in a 48-year-old woman with Cushing's syndrome and nodular adrenal hyperplasia was compared to that of five other patients with Cushing's syndrome and four healthy individuals. The patient's blood levels of cortisol were low-to-normal between meals and higher than normal after meals. Her blood levels of cortisol increased after ingestion of oral glucose (sugar) or after lipid-rich or protein-rich meals, but not after receiving intravenous (IV) glucose. Blood levels of cortisol increased after IV administration of GIP for one hour in the patient, but not in the four healthy individuals.

DARWINIAN REDUCTIONISM: Or, How to Stop Worrying and Love Molecular Biology. Alex Rosenberg. x + 263 pp. University of Chicago Press, 2006. $40. Alex Rosenberg is unusual among philosophers of […]

The right way of classifying the things in the world is often considered to be one of the goods delivered by successful science. However, one important thing wrong with this belief is a highly questionable implication of there being some uniquely best classification, as classifications are good or bad for particular purposes, and different purposes would motivate different classifications.

Defenders of the Truth: The Battle for Science in the Sociobiology Debate and Beyond. Ullica Segerstrale. ix + 493 pp. Oxford University Press, 2000. $30. In 1975, Harvard University Press [...]

A report from the front in the 'science wars': Scientists can 'win,' but not by asserting that science holds the answer to every social problem WHEN I ATTENDED the biennial [...]