Who is the author of Some Assembly Required?

The author of Some Assembly Required is Neil Shubin.

Science

Some Assembly Required Book Summary - Some Assembly Required Book explained in key points

Listen to the Intro

00:00

Some Assembly Required summary

Name: Some Assembly Required
Rating: 4.2 (48 reviews)
Author: Neil Shubin

Neil Shubin

Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA

4.2 (48 ratings)

16 mins

Brief summary

Some Assembly Required by Neil Shubin is a science book that explores the evolution of the human body and the role of genetics in shaping it. It offers insights into the fascinating way in which our bodies are pieced together.

Topics

General Knowledge Life Sciences Natural Sciences Change & Evolution

Table of Contents

Some Assembly Required
Summary of 6 key ideas

Audio & text in the Blinkist app

Key idea 1 of 6

What’s in it for me? A romp through the history of life, with surprising insights from the world of genetics.

Looking back on the story of evolution, the path seems relatively straightforward. First, fish evolved to walk on land. Then, reptiles grew feathers and learned to fly. Finally, primates evolved into humans who can do things like juggle, compose symphonies, and design spaceships.

But the journey from primordial soup to where we are today was far from direct. Paleontologists have long seen this in the fossil record. Now, thanks to scientific advances, we can use DNA to show the many twists, turns, accidents, and conflicts that make up the story of life.

We are closer than ever to understanding the history of life on Earth. But, as you’ll discover in these blinks, the truth is anything but straightforward.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how fish were breathing air long before they evolved to walk on land;
that you have more in common with a sea squirt than you probably care to admit; and
why the salamander’s lightning-quick tongue was destined to evolve the way it did.

Plants and animals don’t change by developing new traits – rather, they repurpose old ones.

The question of how a fish could have grown legs and begun walking on land is one that has obsessed paleontologists for generations.

Charles Darwin’s contemporaries questioned his theory that evolution is a journey of intermediate stages, which is something the author – a paleontologist – wondered about as well. Why, for example, did the appendages that would eventually become wings appear on the ancestor of a bird that couldn’t fly?

Why would useless wings grow, rather than disappear? The answer is not that tiny wings grew into big wings. It’s that what we know as wings actually started out as something else. The author’s new mantra, inspired by Darwin’s response to his critics, is that nothing begins where you think it does.

The key message is: Plants and animals don’t change by developing new traits – rather, they repurpose old ones.

Darwin’s argument – that new features arise as a result of old ones changing functions – forever altered the way we see the history of life. To understand how, let’s take a look at the lowly fish.

In 1798, a certain fish, observed by a French scientist in Egypt, became famous. Why this particular fish? Well, it had unusual air sacs in its body. Now, most fish possess air sacs; they’re known as swim bladders, and they help fish remain submerged at a specific depth of water. But the famous fish’s air sacs were different. They were connected to the fish’s esophagus. They were proto-lungs.

Frenzied scientists began combing lakes and rivers all over the world for more data. Lo and behold, this Egyptian fish wasn’t actually that special. There were lots of fish with the same proto-lungs. Air-breathing fish weren’t the exception – they were more like the rule.

Recent research shows that proto-lungs and swim bladders are different versions of the same organ. And the genes that build swim bladders are the same as those that build lungs – in fish and, as we’ll soon see, in people, too.

Lungs aren’t a new invention that came about to help fish adapt to dry land. Rather, fish were breathing air long before they stepped out of the water. Evolution just repurposed the fishes’ air sacs.

See? Nothing begins where you think it does.

Embryos hold the secret to how change happens – for individuals and for species.

Scientists have long believed that embryos, and the process of transition from egg to adult, hold the secret to understanding the differences between species. But the first real breakthrough came in 1865, when French scientist Auguste Duméril peered into his aquarium and was met with a shocking sight.

Several months earlier, Duméril had introduced a species of salamander from Mexico. What confronted him now were two types of salamanders – the parents had given birth to what appeared to be an entirely different species.

Tiny malfunctions in the genome can have big consequences.

If learning the truth about your sea-squirt ancestors upset you, you might want to skip this next part.

You probably know that DNA is passed from parent to child. What you might not know is that, over the four-billion-year history of life, it has also passed from ancestral species to descendent species. That means you and a sea squirt share some of the same DNA.

The mutation, or modification, of genes has triggered remarkable evolutionary change.

For Darwin, natural selection was the motor for evolution, and individual variation was therefore the fuel. But, of course, individual variation can also mean mutation.

Hearing the word “mutant” might trigger images of sci-fi Frankenstein monsters. But for Darwin it was a little less dramatic. A mutant is just an individual that has a trait that looks or behaves differently from the norm. If that trait makes the individual successful, they will pass it on to the next generation. If the trait harms their chances of success, it will likely die out over time.

Copying, mutating, jumping, and even hunting are elemental parts of the human genome.

Given all that humans have been able to accomplish, you’d be forgiven for thinking that our bodies are far more advanced than those of our closest relatives – and certainly more so than fish or plants. But if the sea squirt teaches us anything, it’s that our arrogant pride at being the world’s top predator is unfounded.

Nowhere is this more obvious than in our genome. It seems reasonable to assume that our genome is a well-oiled machine where the chromosomes are in perfect order and everything works together as elegantly as a world-class orchestra. But that assumption is wrong.

Even if evolution had progressed differently, some outcomes would largely be the same.

As we’ve learned, the sea squirt is the common ancestor for all animal life on Earth. But billions of years before the sea squirt, another revolutionary event laid the foundation for life as we know it.

The earliest living organisms on Earth were single-celled creatures. Over time, some of these organisms started to produce oxygen as a waste product, and the Earth’s atmosphere began gradually filling with oxygen. After billions of years, a different microbe that took its energy from oxygen began to flourish. When these microbes teamed up with a bacteria that could produce complex proteins, the formation of bodies became possible.

Want to see all full key ideas from Some Assembly Required?

Key ideas in Some Assembly Required

More knowledge in less time

Read or listen

Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.

Find your next read

Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.

Shortcasts ^New

We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.

What is Some Assembly Required about?

Some Assembly Required (2020) is an approachable account of the great transformations in the history of life. Paleontologist Neil Shubin started his career looking to fossils for the answers to life’s greatest questions – but with recent scientific advancements, he argues that studying DNA reveals more about the journey we took to become human.

Some Assembly Required Review

Some Assembly Required (2020) by Neil Shubin is an exploration of the fascinating world of human development. Here's why this book is worth reading:

Offering a captivating blend of science, history, and personal anecdotes, it provides a comprehensive understanding of how our bodies take shape.
With its accessible language and engaging storytelling, it makes complex topics like embryology and genetics interesting and relatable for all readers.
The book's examination of evolutionary connections between humans and other species sheds light on our shared origins, making it a compelling and thought-provoking read.

Who should read Some Assembly Required?

People interested in the history of evolution
Science enthusiasts
Anyone who loves an amazing factoid

About the Author

Neil Shubin is a paleontologist who trained at Columbia, Harvard, and the University of California, Berkeley. He is now a distinguished professor at the University of Chicago and the author of two other books: Your Inner Fish and The Universe Within.

Categories with Some Assembly Required

Science

Book summaries like Some Assembly Required

Entangled Life

Merlin Sheldrake

How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change our Minds and Shape Our Futures

26 min

4.7

How to Think Like a Woman

Regan Penaluna

Four Women Philosophers Who Taught Me How to Live a Life of the Mind

The Everything of its Two-Thousand-Year History

18 min

4.4

This Is Your Mind on Plants

Michael Pollan

Examining the Human Attraction to Consciousness Altering Plants

19 min

4.3

Farmageddon

Philip Lymbery with Isabel Oakeshott

The True Cost of Cheap Meat

31 min

4.6

The Happiness Project

Gretchen Rubin

Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

24 min

4.3

In a Sunburned Country

Bill Bryson

Discover the delights of “down under”

Inside Elon Musk's Twitter

19 min

Moore’s Law

Arnold Thackray

The Life of Gordon Moore, Silicon Valley’s Quiet Revolutionary

23 min

4.3

The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching

Thich Nhat Hanh

Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy and Liberation

29 min

4.6

Hagakure

Yamamoto Tsunetomo & Alexander Bennett

The Secret Wisdom of the Samurai

Discover Cultural Divide in Colonial India

The Secret to Love That Lasts

20 min

4.5

The Extended Phenotype

Richard Dawkins

The Long Reach of the Gene

The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming

Simplify Life, Double Productivity, Achieve Your Goals

19 min

4.3

The Story of the Human Body

Daniel Lieberman

Evolution, Health, and Disease

How Stories, Stats, and Studies Exploit Our Biases

11 min

4.0

Breaking the Cycle

George N. Collins with Andrew Adleman

Free Yourself from Sex Addiction, Porn Obsession, and Shame

19 min

4.1

The Art of Reading Minds

Henrik Fexeus

Understand Others to Get What You Want

How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another

23 min

4.3

The Better Brain

Bonnie J. Kaplan and Julia J. Rucklidge

Overcome Anxiety, Combat Depression, and Reduce ADHD and Stress with Nutrition

Paths, Dangers, Strategies

The Six Killer Apps of Western Power

Rethinking the Science of Nutrition

Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain

Who We Are and How We Got Here

David Reich

Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past

28 min

4.4

The Future of Humanity

Michio Kaku

Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny Beyond Earth

20 min

4.4

The Secret Language of the Body

Jennifer Mann & Karden Rabin

Regulate Your Nervous System, Heal Your Body, Free Your Mind

For the Sisters, Misters, and Binary Resisters

36 min

2.6

A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century

Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein

Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life

18 min

3.8

The Beatles Anthology

The Beatles

An Unprecedented Look at the Most Influential Band of All Time

Persuading Others Begins With You

An Unlikely Saga of Raw Fish and Rice

16 min

4.0

The Grand Design

Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow

How science unlocked the secrets of the universe

Adventures in Love, Life, and Capitalism

17 min

Simple Truths of Leadership Playbook

Ken Blanchard & Randy Conley

A 52-Week Game Plan for Becoming a Trusted Servant Leader

The Four Types of Human Behavior and How to Effectively Communicate with Each in Business (and in Life)

The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal

18 min

4.3

Surrounded by Narcissists

Thomas Erikson

How to Effectively Recognize, Avoid, and Defend Yourself Against Toxic People (and Not Lose Your Mind)

21 min

4.3

Women Who Run with the Wolves

Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype

The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout

20 min

4.1

100 Million Years Of Food

Stephen Le

What Our Ancestors Ate and Why It Matters Today

17 min

3.9

The Storytelling Animal

Jonathan Gottschall

How Stories Make Us Human

16 min

4.2

The Power of Myth

Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers

From ancient myths to Han Solo

Discover Art's Role in Unmasking Reality

5 min

4.0

People ❤️ Blinkist

Sven O.

It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.

Thi Viet Quynh N.

Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.

Jonathan A.

Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.

Renee D.

Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.