Rose, Michael R. 1955- (Michael Roberson Rose)

PERSONAL:

Born July 25, 1955. Education: Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, B.S., 1975, M.S., 1976; University of Sussex, Ph.D., 1979.

ADDRESSES:

Office—University of California, Ecology and Evolution, 321 Steinhaus Hall, Irvine, CA 92697. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Evolutionary biologist, researcher, and educator. University of California, Irvine, professor. TransVio Technology Ventures, member of scientific advisory council.

AWARDS, HONORS:

British Commonwealth Scholar, 1976-79; NATO Science Fellow, 1979-1981, NSERC of Canada University Research Fellow, 1981-88; President's Prize, American Society of Naturalists, 1992; Excellence in Teaching Award, University of California, Irvine Biological Sciences, 1996; Busse Prize, World Congress of Gerontology, 1997.

WRITINGS:

Quantitative Ecological Theory: An Introduction to Basic Models, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 1987.

Evolutionary Biology of Aging, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1991.

(Editor, with Caleb E. Finch) Genetics and Evolution of Aging, Kluwer (Boston, MA), 1994.

(Editor, with George V. Lauder) Adaptation, Academic Press (San Diego, CA), 1996.

Darwin's Spectre: Evolutionary Biology in the Modern World, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1998.

Methuselah Flies: A Case Study in the Evolution of Aging, World Scientific (Hackensack, NJ), 2004.

The Long Tomorrow: How Advances in Evolutionary Biology Can Help Us Postpone Aging, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2005.

(With Laurence D. Mueller) Evolution and Ecology of the Organism, Pearson Prentice Hall (Upper Saddle River, NJ), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including the Journal of Genetics and Evolution.

SIDELIGHTS:

Michael R. Rose is an evolutionary biologist and researcher who is noted for his work on aging and the processes associated with growing older. His work with Drosophila (fruit flies) produced startling results when he bred generations of the flies with greatly extended life spans, suggesting that a scientific basis exists for substantially prolonging life in other organisms as well. More recently, his research interests have shifted to the evolution of late life and to experimental evolution in Drosophila, Rose stated on the University of California Irvine Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Web site. Rose and collaborator L.D. Mueller have developed evolutionary theories on a topic no less profound than immortality, and they have begun testing those theories in experiments on Drosophila. Rose also noted research interest in topics such as the evolution of sex, the evolution of humans, and reverse evolution.

Many of Rose's published books concern his theories and experimental work with aging. In Evolutionary Biology of Aging, he assembles a "coherent evolutionary foundation for gerontology from scattered, misinterpreted, and undigested information," observed Avril D. Woodhead in BioScience. Rose provides a thorough introduction to the evolutionary theory of aging, then proceeds into a "stimulating evaluation of field observations of aging, experimental tests of aging theories, genetics of aging, and comparative studies of aging," Woodhead reported. He discusses the implications of his work with Drosophila; looks at the evidence derived from molecular studies of aging; and offers expert assessments of directions in research that may yield considerable new data and rapid progress in the field of aging studies. "If you are a researcher in aging, then you will want to have Michael Rose's book for its thought-provoking and encompassing synthesis of the theories of aging from the viewpoint of an evolutionary biologist," Woodhead stated. She concluded that "this book is useful and well worth its price. Certainly, there is nothing else available that so adequately brings together the evolutionary theories of aging and so competently evaluates them."

With collaborator Caleb E. Finch, Rose is the editor of Genetics and Evolution of Aging, which contains twenty-six papers on the genetic bases of aging. The book includes twenty-two peer-reviewed papers that originally appeared in a special issue of the journal Genetica, as well as four new contributions that "provide personal perspectives on issues not fully covered in the original publication," noted Katherine Livingston in a Science review. Several papers address aging in Drosophila, while others discuss issues such as the evolution of senescence, diversity of aging, comparative approaches to aging, and promising results from an experiment that suggested reduction in caloric intake might prolong life in rodents.

In Darwin's Spectre: Evolutionary Biology in the Modern World, Rose seeks to "illuminate the basic principles of Darwin's theory of evolution" and then to demonstrate "how those building blocks inform contemporary science," commented a Publishers Weekly contributor. He describes the controversies and sometimes outright dismissal that Darwin's ideas have endured, even as those theories helped form the basis of powerful and profound advances in many fields of science. Rose reports on how Darwin's theories have been marshaled in many positive ways in fields such as agriculture, medicine, and biology, but have also been used for nefarious purposes in areas such as eugenics. He also covers the longstanding and ongoing conflict between Darwinism and religious proponents of creationism. Throughout, Rose is interested in both practical and theoretical applications of evolutionary biology as engendered by Darwin's pioneering and influential work. Rose "sketches out for the general reader the fundamental ideas of modern evolutionary biology and then directs attention to a wide variety of areas where evolutionary thinking has made (or is beginning to make) its mark," noted Richard W. Burkhardt, Jr., in the Historian. Gilbert Taylor, writing in Booklist, called Darwin's Spectre a "competently framed discussion of the issues."

Rose offers scientific evidence of the possibility of slowing aging and reducing its deleterious effects in The Long Tomorrow: How Advances in EvolutionaryBiology Can Help Us Postpone Aging. Rose's thesis in the book is that "the ultimate cause of senescence is natural selection and that evolutionary biology holds the key that will unlock the secret of longer, healthier lives for humans," commented Kimberly Hughes in the American Scientist. Rose takes a careful view of the ways in which evolutionary biology has defined the process of aging. Evolutionary theory indicates that "natural selection is very effective at eliminating gene variants (alleles) that have deleterious effects early in life but becomes progressively less effective in older individuals," Hughes reported. For example, an allele that produces death in the organism will essentially lock itself out of the possibly of reproduction; the organism simply dies before it has the chance to pass this gene variant along to its descendents. "However, an allele that kills an individual only after the organism has successfully reproduced can be passed on to future generations, and it can even increase in frequency if it has some beneficial effect such as increasing fertility," Hughes explained. Evolution can therefore favor genetic conditions that cause aging by favoring alleles that have beneficial effects early in life but that have correspondingly harmful effects later in life. Rose examines these issues in thorough detail but without excessive jargon or dense technical explanations. He includes a history of theories of aging along with an assessment of the current status of research in the field, and suggests that the ability to reduce or stop the effects of aging is realistically within the grasp of science.

Along with his detailed exploration of science and evolution, Rose also weaves in personal aspects of his life and career; personality portraits of major figures and researchers in the field of evolutionary biology; and background on Rose's own research in aging and how his discoveries fit within the general context of evolutionary biology and studies of aging. "Although intended for lay readers, this well-written and entertaining book should also appeal to scholars," noted Library Journal critic Marit S. Taylor. Popular Science reviewer Brian Clegg called The Long Tomorrow a "warm, highly recommended popular science book by a real scientist."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Ageing and Society, December, 1992, Leonid A. Gavrilov, review of Evolutionary Biology of Aging, p. 539.

American Scientist, March 1, 2006, Kimberly Hughes, "Why We Age," review of The Long Tomorrow: How Advances in Evolutionary Biology Can Help Us Postpone Aging, p. 170.

Animal Behaviour, October, 1997, Deborah A. McLennan, review of Adaptation, p. 1042.

BioScience, July-August, 1992, Avril D. Woodhead, review of Evolutionary Biology of Aging, p. 557.

Booklist, December 1, 1998, Gilbert Taylor, review of Darwin's Spectre: Evolutionary Biology in the Modern World, p. 638.

British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, September, 2000, Gregory Radick, review of Darwin's Spectre, p. 499.

Choice, June, 1999, J.S. Schwartz, review of Darwin's Spectre, p. 1812.

Chronicle of Higher Education, March 4, 1992, "New Studies Reveal Aging Process Can Be Slowed," p. 9.

Futurist, November-December, 2006, review of The Long Tomorrow, p. 61.

Gerontologist, October, 1991, Huber R. Warner, review of Evolutionary Biology of Aging, p. 704.

Heredity, March, 1998, James Mallet, review of Adaptation, p. 393.

Historian, spring, 2000, Richard W. Burkhardt, Jr., review of Darwin's Spectre, p. 707.

Human Biology, October, 1993, William A. Stini, review of Evolutionary Biology of Aging, p. 844.

Isis, June, 2000, Ernst Mayr, review of Darwin's Spectre, p. 373.

Library Journal, November 15, 1998, Marianne Stowell Bracke, review of Darwin's Spectre, p. 89; November 1, 1999, review of Darwin's Spectre, p. 52; October 1, 2005, Marit S. Taylor, review of The Long Tomorrow, p. 107.

Natural History, April, 1999, review of Darwin's Spectre, p. 23.

New Scientist, January 30, 1999, review of Darwin's Spectre, p. 41; September 17, 2005, Jeff Hecht, "Roll Back the Years," review of The Long Tomorrow, p. 50.

Publishers Weekly, November 16, 1998, review of Darwin's Spectre, p. 63; July 18, 2005, review of The Long Tomorrow, p. 198.

Quarterly Review of Biology, June, 1989, Louis J. Gross, review of Quantitative Ecological Theory: An Introduction to Basic Models, p. 216; March, 1993, Robin Holliday, review of Evolutionary Biology of Aging, p. 93; September, 1998, Paul Doughty, review of Adaptation, p. 333; June, 2005, James W. Curtsinger, review of Methuselah Flies: A Case Study in the Evolution of Aging, p. 243.

Science, May 17, 1991, Linda Partridge, review of Evolutionary Biology of Aging, p. 1000; December 16, 1994, Katherine Livingston, review of Genetics and Evolution of Aging, p. 1892; July 11, 1997, Martin E. Feder, review of Adaptation, p. 189.

Science News, October 15, 2005, review of The Long Tomorrow, p. 255.

SciTech Book News, November, 1987, review of Quantitative Ecological Theory, p. 20.

Virginia Quarterly Review, autumn, 1999, review of Darwin's Spectre, p. 142.

ONLINE

Lifeboat Foundation Web site,http://lifeboat.com/ (February 26, 2008), biography of Michael R. Rose.

Popular Science Online,http://www.popularscience.co.uk/ (February 26, 2008), Brian Clegg, review of The Long Tomorrow.

University of California Irvine Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Web site,http://ecoevo.bio.uci.edu/ (February 26, 2008), biography of Michael R. Rose.