West-Eberhard's mother was a primary school teacher, and her father, a small-town businessman, and as parents they encouraged her curiosity. She went to school in Plymouth Community Schools, Plymouth, Michigan. She recalls of her high school that the best scientific training "was an English course on critical reading and writing, taught by the school librarian. Biology class was just a workbook, an enormous disappointment for me."[8]
She did all her degrees at theUniversity of Michigan. She did her bachelor's degree from University of Michigan in zoology in 1963. She earned her master's degree from the same place in zoology in 1964, and then her PhD (zoology) in 1967. There she was taught byRichard D. Alexander and had part-time employment in itsMuseum of Zoology. She records that "I also learned the excitement of being a sleuth in the university libraries where even an undergraduate could explore an idea beyond textbooks and could feel like a pioneer". She also corresponded withEdward Wilson on trophic eggs in insects, and spent summers atWoods Hole andCali inColombia.[8]
West-Eberhard has studied many species of social wasps such asPolistes fuscatus,Polistes canadensis, andPolistes erythrocephalus.[9] Through her studies she has investigated why wasps evolved from being casteless and nestsharing casteless to becoming highly specializedeusocial species using comparative studies of tropical wasps (Hymenoptera). She has argued that origins of nonreproductive females in social wasps involvesmutualism rather than onlykin selection or parental manipulation.[10]
Her work upon social insects has played an important role in the development of her ideas uponphenotypic plasticity.[11][12] As she notes "From there I got interested in alternative phenotypes—alternative pathways and decision points during development, and their significance for evolution, especially for higher levels of organization, for speciation, and for macroevolutionary change without speciation."[13]
West-Eberhard has written from the mid-1980s upon the role of "alternative phenotypes," such aspolymorphisms,polyphenisms, and context sensitive phenotypelife history andphysiological traits.[14][15][16] This resulted in her 2003 bookDevelopmental Plasticity and Evolution.[5]
She argues that such alternative phenotypes are important since they can lead to novel traits, and then togenetic divergence and so speciation. Through alternative phenotypes environmental induction can take the lead in genetic evolution. Her bookDevelopmental Plasticity and Evolution developed in detail how such environmental plasticity plays a key role in understanding the genetic theory of evolution. Her argument is full of examples from butterflies to elephants.
As a member of theUnited States National Academy of Sciences, West-Eberhard has served for three terms on its Committee on Human Rights.[3][20] She has also been noted as "active in promoting the careers of young scientists, particularly those doing work in Latin America".[6]
1996. Wasp societies as microcosms for the study of development and evolution., pp. 290–317. In Natural history and evolution of paper wasps. (editors, West-Eberhard, M-J. & S. Turillazzi) Oxford University Press, Oxford.ISBN978-0-19-854947-5
2007.Are genes good markers of biological traitsArchived 2022-07-05 at theWayback Machine? 175–193. In Biological Surveys. National Research Council Committee on Advances in Collecting and Utilizing Biological Indicators and Genetic Information in Social Science Surveys. Weinstein, M., Vaupel, J. W. and Wachter, K.W. (editors), National Academies Press, Washington.
^National Academy of Sciences Committee on Human Rights and Institute of Medicine Committee on Health and Human Rights. (1992).Scientists and Human Rights in Guatemala: Report of a Delegation. National Academy Press Washington, D.C. National Academy Press Washington, D.C.
