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In 1859, Charles Darwin shocked the world with a radical theory - evolution by natural selection. One hundred and fiftyyears later, his theory still challenges some of our most precious beliefs. Introducing Evolution provides a step-by-step guide to 'Darwin's dangerous idea' and takes a fresh lookat the often misunderstood concepts of natural selection and the selfish gene. Drawing on the latest findings from genetics, ecology and animal behaviour - as well as the work of best-selling science writers such as Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker - this book reveals how the evidence in favour ofevolutionary theory is stronger than ever. Did life first evolve on other planets? What's the advantage of having sex? Why do your parents look after you? And what good to a bird is half a wing? This book brings Darwin up-to-date with the latest scientific discoveries. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Doesn't deserve to be an author
The fact that this author crosses over science and religion to claim that religion is no longer needed because of evolution demonstrates to me that he not only isn't worthy to be a scientist but he should not even be authoring books. For all of you athiest dogmatics, don't ignorantly jump to conclusions about my purpose for writing this review. You're no different than religious dogmatics who don't care to understand evolution outside of their own limited understanding. Similarly, this author doesn't care to understand religion outside of his own limited and surface understanding but yet makes bold claims about religion. You cannot prove or disprove religion or science with the other. Don't waste your time with this book. If you want to read a good book about evolution then find one where science and religion are kept separate.

Well told and excellent explanations
I found the explanations and basic/simple stories in this book very amusing and helpful. Describes the history of evolution in simple language and tries to tackle the issue in a narrative and useful way. Great gift for your friends. Have bought it for several creationist people (whom I consider science retarded) and hope this book helps them find the truth. Though I think colored photos could be a lot better and effective.

Could have been better!
I am a fan of books like 'For Beginners' series, which combine art and facts for a beautiful and fun introduction to a subject. However, I found "Introducing Evolution" (Introducing series) okay, not that great. It had less words and information, and more pictures. It also smacked of promoting a sense of 'atheism' rather than evolutionary science. Not a bad book, but not a great one either in my opinion.

Kind of reminded me of HS biology class
Not a lot to say about this one.Some good information and an easy read, but really didn't tell me a whole lot about Evolution I didn't already know from HS biology.

One of the Best book on Evolution
This is one of the best books I have read on evolution. I bought the book day before yesterday, and believe me - I finished it in one sitting; I literally glued. If I could I would have given the book 6 star.

What I liked most of this book was the author covered philosophical aspects of theory of evolution and cutting edge theories concerning evolutionary psychology, evolution of culture, altruism and moral sentiments or even evolutionary robotics in addition to provide a basic idea on biological evolution. He quite convincingly established why Darwin's idea (evolution through natural selection) can be compared as "Universal Acid" (proposed by Daniel Dennett) and how Drwin's "dangerous idea" literally pushes Willium Paley's God literally out of window. I know many will be uncomfortable with the bold approach of the author, (just as one of the previous reviewer who gave one star) but hey - accept the reality! We can indeed explain our existence and complexities in living things by the theory of natural selection! Laplace truly uttered, we do not need that (God) hypothesis (anymore)!!!!

I basically agree with Steven Weinberg (American elementary particle physicist; Nobel Laureate of1979) who said, Biological Evolution refutes the idea of an interested God much more decisively than physics does. And this is only because of Darwin and his Universal Acid - theory of evolution thru natural selection.

Novice readers, who have not started reading evolution yet, can try this. This book will be real fun to read. Bonus is Howard Selina's excellent artworks.
... Read more

Product Description
With their team of contemporary scholars, the editors present a thorough coverage of fundamental topics necessary for obtaining an up-to-date understanding of the biology of ferns and lycophytes. The book is organized into major topics that build from the individual and its biochemistry and structure, to genetics and populations, to interactions among individuals and the conservation of species, and concludes with perspectives on evolutionary history and classification. Each chapter is organized to review past work, explore current questions, and suggest productive directions for continued discoveries about these fascinating groups of organisms. Written for upper undergraduates, graduates and academic researchers, Biology and Evolution of Ferns and Lycophytes fills a major gap in biological, organism-level, evolutionary literature by providing a review of the biology and evolution of this important group of vascular land plants. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Review by Schwartsburd
This book presents the most actual knowledge about ferns and lycophytes. Especially related to their biology (life cicles, growing, etc.) and evolution (relationship among the groups, aneuploidy, specialization processes, etc.). Every professional fern researcher MUST get in touch with this book. ... Read more

Product Description

This is the first volume of its kind on prehistoric cultures of South Asia. The book brings together archaeologists, biological anthropologists, geneticists and linguists in order to provide a comprehensive account of the history and evolution of human populations residing in the subcontinent. New theories and methodologies presented provide new interpretations about the cultural history and evolution of populations in South Asia.

Product Description
The view of nature as `red in tooth and claw', as a jungle in which competition and predation are the predominant themes, has long been important in both the scientific and popular literature.However, in the past decade another view has become widespread among ecologists: the idea that mutualisms--mutually beneficial interactions between species--are just as important as competition and predation. This book is one of the first to explore this theme. Ideas and theories applicable to all sorts of mutualisms are presented and, where appropriate, examined in the light of concrete data.Themes explored include: the organisms involved, both animal and plant; how specializations evolved once mutualisms formed; how mutualisms affect population dynamics and community structure; and the role of mutualisms in different environments.The book will be of special interest to ecologists and a wide range of biologists. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is aimed at students taking courses on evolution in universities and colleges. Its approach and its structure are very different from previously-published evolution texts. The core theme in this book is how evolution works by changing the course of embryonic and post-embryonic development. In other words, it is an evolution text that has been very much influenced by the new approach of evolutionary developmental biology, or 'evo-devo'.

Key themes include the following: developmental repatterning; adaptation and coadaptation; gene co-option; developmental plasticity; the origins of evolutionary novelties and body plans; and evolutionary changes in the complexity of organisms. As can be seen from this list, the book includes information across the levels of the gene, the organism, and the population. It also includes the issue of mapping developmental changes onto evolutionary trees. The examples used to illustrate particular points range widely, including animals, plants and fossils.

"I have really enjoyed reading this book. One of the strengths of the book is the almost conversational style. I found the style easy to read, but also feel that it will be invaluable in teaching. One of our tasks in university level teaching is to develop students' critical thinking skills. We need to support them in their intellectual development from a "just the facts" approach to being able to make critical judgements based on available evidence. The openness and honesty with which Arthur speaks to uncertainty in science is refreshing and will be a baseline for discussions with students."
-Professor Patricia Moore, Exeter University 

"This book, written as an undergraduate text, is a really most impressive book. Given the burgeoning interest in the role of developmental change in evolution in recent times, this will be a very timely publication. The book is well structured and, like the author's other books, very well written. He communicates with a clear, lucid style and has the ability to explain even the more difficult concepts in an accessible manner."
---Professor Kenneth McNamara, University of Cambridge ... Read more

Product Description
This comprehensive text on plant biology deals with the structure, biology and evolution of fossil plants, cyanobacteria, fungi and plant/animal interactions. Global in its perspective, there are plants from every continent, including Antarctica. Major biotic events, such as the evolution of photosynthesis, origin of eukaryotic cells and origin of flowering plants, are discussed in detail. ... Read more

Product Description
A vivid and very human story of the Galápagos Islands--the key locale of every major turning point in evolutionary theory--from the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Summer for the Gods.

More than any other place on Earth, the Galápagos Islands are the workshop of evolution. Isolated and desolate, they were largely overlooked by early explorers until Charles Darwin arrived there in the 1830's. It was Darwin who recognized that Galápagos' isolation and desolation were advantages: the paucity of species and lack of outside influences made the workings of natural selection crystal clear. Since then, every important advance and controversy in evolutionary thinking has had its reflection on the Galápagos. In every sense--intellectually, institutionally, and culturally--the history of science on these islands is a history of the way evolutionary science was done for the past 150 years.

Evolution's Workshop tells the story of Darwin's explorations there; the fabulous Gilded Age expeditions, run from rich men's gigantic yachts, that featured rough-and-ready science during the day and black-tie dinners every night; the struggle for control of research on the Galápagos; the current efforts by "creation scientists" to use the Galápagos to undercut evolutionary teaching; and many other compelling stories.Amazon.com Review
When Europeans first explored the Galapagos Islands, a rugged archipelago 650 miles off the coast of Ecuador, they were astounded by theforbidding landscape and the odd behavior of the animals and plants theyfound there. "The place is like a new creation," wrote ship captain GeorgeAnson, a nephew of the poet Lord Byron. "The birds and beasts do not getout of our way; the pelicans and sea-lions look in our faces as if we hadno right to intrude on their solitude; the small birds are so tame thatthey hop upon our feet; and all this amidst volcanoes which are burningaround us on either hand."

Others who followed, like the onetime sailor and writer Herman Melville,took a dimmer view, calling the place "evilly enchanted ground." Whateverthe sentiment, the Galapagos attracted generations of scientists, who,following the example of Charles Darwin, traveled there to test theories ofspeciation, adaptation, migration, and selection. Their work in the fieldhelped overturn the prevailing orthodoxies of special creation, writesEdward J. Larson in his vigorous history of the islands and their role inthe development of modern biological science. Their work also changed theface of the islands themselves, as hundreds and thousands of plants andanimals were killed or removed for collections far afield, with a singleexpedition taking more than 10,000 birds and skins.

Today, the islands face other threats, as tens of thousands of ecotouriststravel there each year, disturbing sensitive environments, and as alienplant and animal species are introduced. Still, Larson notes at the closeof his fine book, "the archipelago's ecosystem has proved surprisinglyresilient in the past," and conservation measures may yet be found topreserve the islands' "age-old solitude." --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Exellent book
I found not only interesting the book but also very well organize and clearly written.

not much that I cared about in book
The subtitle is slightly misleading: God and Science on the Galapogos. The subtitle was probably created to cater to the interest in religion vs. science but that topic was explored very little. It was more just the history of the Galapagos. If you're really interested in the history of that archipelago, then this book is exactly what you want. But for me, I really don't care about every person that ever went to visit that island.

There are a few things I did take from the book. Currently, scientists are trying desperately to save the Galapagos' from humanity and preserve its uniqueness. The irony of it, is that the ecology-loving scientists are the ones that once encouraged the tourism of the islands that have lead to supposed ecological disaster there. They had some vision of a utopia where people would learn how precious the earth is and work to conserve it, but instead Ecuadorians have siezed the island for economic pipedreams, the residents not caring to preserve every species there to their expense.

Darwin and the Buccaneers
If you're looking for a book about the voyage of the Beagle and the development of Darwin's theories, this book is likely to disappoint. Written in an academic tone and with no sense of narrative, it's hard to believe the author won a Pulitzer Prize (different book). However, if you want to learn about buccaneers and the Galapagos Islands you will find more of the following: "At the time, buccaneers held a shifting status somewhere between adventurers and thieves."

The Enchantment of Evolution
Must reading for any Galapagos traveler or historian of science. Starting with a contrast of Melville's description of Galapagos as a hell and Darwin's own explorations, Larson traces the history of the idea of evolution, both scientifically and on popular thought.By focusing on the Galapagos, Larson provides a readable account of both how studies in the Galapagos shaped evolutionary thought (From Darwin to Lack to the Grants) but also how the social climate of the day, influenced the explorers, for example how the exuberance of Teddy Roosevelt, affected explorers of the day, or how Harvard zoologist Louis Agassiz influenced the California collecting spree.

Larson also reflects on the effects of civilization on the Galapagos, from turtle collecting, to the World War II airstrip at Baltra, to current tensions between protection, locals, and harvest. Science has not always been on the side of protection, for example, "Save them for science" became the cry (at the turn of the last century), even if it meant capturing or killing the last on in the wild. The drawings and photographs complement the text, and include such treats as a photo of Louis Agassiz, sketches from Darwin, and a photo of 250 tortoise specimens in the California Academy of Sciences.I would also recommend Weiner's "The Beak of the Finch", and Darwin's "The Voyage of the Beagle" has a chapter on the Galapagos.Incidentally, the title of the book is probably derived from Darwin's own description of the Galapagos' volcanic hills and craters "From their regular form, they gave the country a workshop appearance".

Saving Lonesome George
The history of a science can teach you much about the process of science and scientific thinking.Evolution marks the beginning of modern biological thought, and the Galapagos Islands played a major role in the development of evolutionary ideas.Edward Larson shows us how the archipelago was differently perceived by so many people from Melville and Darwin in the mid-1800s to later visitors up until the present day.While it would probably be confusing to learn about evolutionary theories from this book, Larson brings to light how some of those theories developed with respect to findings from the Galapagos.By doing this, one shares in the same act of discovery that has so enchanted the various researchers who have come to the islands.All the while, it is a wonderful read, and I highly recommend it those interested in a fascinating narrative about the history of evolution. ... Read more

Product Description
By using an issues-oriented approach the new edition of Volume 2 - Evolution of Life from Biology: The Unity and Diversity of Life, 12e grabs student interest with real-life issues that hit home. This text includes new coverage and pedagogy that encourages students to think critically about hot-button issues and includes outstanding new features that take students beyond memorization and encourage them to ask questions in new ways as they learn to interpret data. ... Read more

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A concise, rigorous, and readable introduction to evolutionary ecology, a field of questions united by the intermix of evolutionary and ecological knowledge. Although not designed as a textbook, the author's enthusiastic and accessible style will inspire students (both undergraduate and graduate) to use the book in conjunction with the primary literture and more extensive reviews of individual topics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

New Book in a New Field
Much of today's scientific advancement comes from the merging of two or more traditional sciences into something new that takes from both of its parents to yield new insights into how the world around us works. Such is the case with Evolutionary Ecology.

Ecology is traditionally a science of the great outdoors, dealing with the interactions between organisms and their environment. Evolution is traditionally a science of museum specimens, dealing with how lineages of organisms arise, change and eventually go extinct. While each of these have roots that go back 150 years, only recently has the merger of the two garnered enough information, enough focus to warrant dedicated books.

This book is one of the first to cover evolutionary ecology as a separate and distinct field. It is intended to serve as a suitable undergraduate textbook to explain the field to students. At the same time it covers the field in general so that a professional practioner in some specialized area can learn about the overal area, and finally is should have some appeal to the interested non-professional but interested reader. ... Read more

Product Description
Despite wide acceptance that the attributes of living creatures have appeared through a cumulative evolutionary process guided chiefly by natural selection, many human activities have seemed analytically inaccessible from such an approach. Morality, for example, has been described by prominent evolutionary biologists as contrary to the direction of biological evolution, and moral philosophers rarely regard evolution as relevant to their discussions.

This book adopts the argument that moral questions arise out of conflicts of interest, and that moral systems are ways of using confluences of interest at lower levels of social organization to deal with conflicts of interest at higher levels. Moral systems are described as systems of indirect reciprocity: humans gain and lose socially (and reproductively) not only by direct transactions, but also by the reputations they gain from the everyday flow of social interactions.

The author develops a general theory of human interests, using senescence and effort theory from biology to help analyze the patterning of human lifetimes. He argues that the ultimate interests of humans are reproductive, and that the concept of morality has arisen within groups because of its contribution to unity, in the context, ultimately, of success in intergroup competition. He contends that morality is not easily relatable to universals, and he carries this argument into a discussion of what he calls the greatest of all moral problems, the nuclear arms race.

CONTENTS Preface. Acknowledgments. 1. Biology and the Background of Moral Systems. The Evolutionary Approach. Human Interests and Their Conflicts: What Lifetimes are About. Reproduction and Senescence: Why Lifetimes are Finite. Reproduction and Cooperation: Special Cases. 2. A Biological View of Morality. Conflicts and Confluences of Interest: A Theory of Moral Systems. Morality and the Human Psyche. Life History Theory and the Ontogeny of Moral Behavior. General Conclusions. 3. Morality as Seen by Philosophers and Biologists. The Moral Philosophers. The Biologist-Philosophers. The Philosophers of Biology. Morality and Law. Morality and Democracy. The Goal of Universal Beneficence. Summary . Conclusions. 4. Applying the Biological View of Morality. Morality and Openness in the Pursuit of Truth: Science, Law, and God as the Models. Modelling Value Systems and Maintaining Indirect Reciprocity . Arms Races, Human and Otherwise. 5. Conclusions. References. Index ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A great book with an outdated model of human behavior
Where does morality come from? The traditional answer are from God, as revealed by theologians, or from Reason or Intuition, as revealed by philosophers. In fact, as Richard Alexander makes clear in this landmark book, morality comes from our evolution as a species. Individuals who developed ethical awareness and practiced moral behavior in the course of our emergence from the hoard of pre-human hominids had an evolutionary edge over those who did not. It follows that to understand morality, one must undertake a scientific and evolutionary approach. Ethics is thus something like linguistics, in that both are extremely complex human ideational forms that must be modeled, and the success of ethical theories is their capacity to explain how humans express and make moral choices.

The scientific approach to morality espoused by Alexander is a deeply refreshing alternative to the endless pious platitudes of the theologians, who believe they have a special line to the Almighty's will, and the supercilious meanderings of the philosophers who think their personal moral predilections are something more than mere personal prejudice. We owe to this book the reorientation of ethical theory from the prejudices of the privileged to the realm of the scientific. As such, Alexander's book is must reading for a student of ethics.

However, contemporary evidence shows that his major thesis is flawed. Here are some key quotes and my critique of the assertions made in the quotes.

Quote from p. 3: "ethics, morality, human conduct, and the human psyche are to be understood only if societies are seen as collections of individuals seeking their own self-interest..."

Critique: This is of course the model of human action in standard economic theory, and I have spent my whole life dealing with its inadequacies and proposing alternative models more in line with the empirical evidence on human behavior. Alexander's description of human behavior ignores such prosocial other-regarding behaviors as altruistic cooperation, altruistic punishment, and the tendency to conform to social norms independent from the possibility of being detected and punished for such behavior. We now have lots of behavioral evidence in favor of the existence of strong reciprocity (a propensity to cooperate in social dilemmas and to punish free riders without regard to personal material payoffs), as well as its ability to foster sustainable cooperation when self-interest would lead to social breakdown. See, for instance Herbert Gintis, "Strong Reciprocity and Human Sociality", Journal of Theoretical Biology 206 (2000):169-179 and Ernst Fehr and Simon Gaechter, "Cooperation and Punishment", American Economic Review 90,4 (2000). See also my web site.

I also believe that empathy and shame are counterexamples to Alexander's model. Indeed, sociopaths who have neither empathy nor shame can be considered as "self-interested" in Alexander's sense in that they refrain from harming other human beings only if they calculate that the personal costs (e.g., of being caught) exceed the benefits flowing from harming others.

Quote from p. 34: "That people are in general following what they perceive to be their own interests is, I believe, the most general principle of human behavior."

If this is not tautologous (whatever people want to do is in their interest by definition), then it is false, for the same reason as in my critique of the previous quote, since people who punish violators of group norms often "perceive" their actions to be for the benefit of the group, and understand quite well that it is not in their own self-interest.

But there are other problems with Alexander's statement. (a) If I am addicted to smoking I might perceive that I am not acting in my own self interest when I smoke, and do it anyway. (b) I may"perceive" it in my own interest to help the poor, or contribute to environmental groups, or perform other prosocial acts when in fact it is not. If humans systematically misperceive their self-interest, as in this case, and if the misperception is very likely in a prosocial direction, then violations of self-interest might be central to human social cooperation, even were Alexander's statement correct (which it is not). In fact, I do not believe that humans systematically misperceive their self-interest. Rather, they choose often to act altruistically against their self-interest because they have other-regarding preferences.

Quote from p. 77: "Moral systems are systems of indirect reciprocity."

This is the first statement of Chapter 2, "A Biological View of Morality." It is not an aside, but Alexander's fundamental explanation of moral systems. By "indirect reciprocity" he means almost exactly what Robert Trivers calls "reciprocal altruism," but which in fact is just enlightened long-term self interest. It is fundamentally wrong. The evidence is that virtually all moral systems exhort forms of altruism that do not reduce to self interest, even in the long run, and large numbers of people subscribe to and to some extent follow these non-self-interested principles.

I should note that even criminals and psychopaths often exhibit non-self-regarding behavior, as when, for instance, a man takes revenge on his "enemies" and then kills himself.

Of course, a lot of human behavior is self-interested, and some non-self-interested behavior is just random noise in the behavioral system. But the types of systematic prosocial behavior promoted by strong reciprocity, shame, empathy, and identification with "insiders" is, unless I am mistaken, the key to the particular strength of human cooperation.

Profound work of theoretical biology
Richard Alexander's pioneering work of theoretical biology was one of the first attempts (in the current cycle of sociobiological interest) to apply Darwinian thinking to human morality. The book is profoundly disturbing. Like any work of theory, many of the specifics of Alexander's analysis willbe revised but the main argument that morality can only be understoodwithin the Darwinian framework is important.Subsequently many authorshave pusued the same line of thought but Alexander's treatment is one ofthe most interesting.The discusison of deception is particularlyprovocative. ... Read more

Product Description
This book presents a history of the past two centuries of biology, suitable for use in courses, but of interest more broadly to evolutionary biologists, geneticists, and biomedical scientists, and general readers interested in the history of science.The book covers the early evolutionary biologists-Lamarck, Cuvier, Darwin, Wallace, etc., through Mayr and the neodarwinian synthesis, in much the same way as other histories of evolution have done, bringing in also the social implications, the struggles with our religious understanding, and the interweaving of genetics into evolutionary theory.What is novel about Sapp's account is a real integration of the cytological tradition, from Schwann, Boveri, and the other early cell biologists and embryologists, and the coverage of symbiosis, microbial evolutionary phylogenies, and the new understanding of complete microbial genomes.The book as a whole will serve as a good introduction to the rise of modern biology over the past two centuries. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Dont be fooled
This book may look good on the surface, but I was taking a course with Sapp, who used it as a textbook and came away very disappointed. First of all, Sapp's knowledge of modern biochemistry and molecular biology is rather limited. In class he kept pushing some concepts that were very outdated or have been outright disproven. He was unable to explain various things that he mentioned in his book because he simply lacked the background knowledge. If you're a biochemist or a molecular biologist you will wince quite often at the over-simplistic and inaccurate arguments he makes in regards to these fields. Geneticists will probably have one or two rage-induced seizures.

In order to back up many of his arguments he often uses very outdated experimental data, while dismissing more recent evidence that contradicts his case by pointing out that some scientists that have been shown to be wrong on other topics accept that evidence. This is extremely faulty logic: Should we dismiss arithmetic because creationists accept that 1+1=2 ?

If you want history and philosophy, Sapp is your man, for actual science you've come to the wrong place.

A nice overview
This book offers an informative panorama of the "evolution of evolution science", with nice insights and a careful examination of the many controversies in this thriving field, including historical, social and political influences and biases. Sometimes the author concedes a little too much to the "social" and "institutional" influences on scientific research, though it was a relief to read his direct criticism of the over rated (and outdated) Khunian nonsense.

Excellent!!! only if you are interested in the truth...
Words can not do justice for this brilliant man, I suggest reading it and allowing yourself to make the own reveiw.I will say this though, anyone invloved in the field of biology should read a copy.Anyone who is not in the field of biology should own a copy!

Great book,
I hope everyone can get what I got from it! ... Read more

Product Description
This anthology contains extracts from more than 60 scientific papers, by authors such as Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Dawkins, Francis Crick and Jacques Monod. It starts with Charles Darwin, but concentrates on modern research, including genomics. The extracts are organized in sections, enabling the reader to sample a range of views on each topic, and have been chosen for their readability as well as their scientific importance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A shortlist of monumental papers by evolutionary biologists
This was the main text we used in my evolution course at the University of Missouri - Kansas City. It is a collection of influential papers, each representative of an important discovery or contribution to the development of modern evolutionary thought. As you should expect from any collection of academic papers, some parts are very interesting and exciting while others are painfully boring. A couple personal favorites in this book are the papers "evolutionary explosions and the phylogenetic fuse" and "the spandrels of san marco and the panglossian paradigm." Though, it should be noted that the latter was significantly shortened for this edition. Overall, a great and fascinating collection.

Not for the Beginner.
This is a fascinating book, perfect for the semi-advanced student of evolution. If you've read numerous books on evolution and have an accurate perception of the evolutionary processes, but are becoming bored with the redundancy of popular publications, then you'll appreciate this book. It's a beautifully compiled, detailed, and enlightening read for those who are seeking a more in-depth understanding in what are normally only brushed upon areas. Evolution elaborates on many speculative topics to grab your interest, and in the end could give you a much clearer idea of what direction you should pursue in your research. Be it: speciation, adaptation, macroevolution, microevolution, genomics, or something else, this is the book that could help you decide. Also, if you've yet to read any of the "classical" evolutionary biologists such as Crick, Fisher, Dawkins, Williams, Gould, Smith, or even Darwin, this will be a great introduction to each of those authors, a little of what they thought, and familiarize you with their writing style. ... Read more

Product Description

Spanning evolutionary science from its inception to its latest findings, from discoveries and data to philosophy and history, this book is the most complete, authoritative, and inviting one-volume introduction to evolutionary biology available. Clear, informative, and comprehensive in scope, Evolution opens with a series of major essays dealing with the history and philosophy of evolutionary biology, with major empirical and theoretical questions in the science, from speciation to adaptation, from paleontology to evolutionary development (evo devo), and concluding with essays on the social and political significance of evolutionary biology today.

A second encyclopedic section travels the spectrum of topics in evolution with concise, informative, and accessible entries on individuals from ­Aristotle and Linneaus to Louis Leakey and Jean Lamarck; from T. H. Huxley and E. O. Wilson to Joseph Felsenstein and Motoo Kimura; and on subjects from altruism and amphibians to evolutionary psychology and Piltdown Man to the Scopes trial and social Darwinism. Readers will find the latest word on the history and philosophy of evolution, the nuances of the science itself, and the intricate interplay among evolutionary study, religion, philosophy, and ­society.

Appearing at the beginning of the Darwin Year of 2009—the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species—this volume is a fitting tribute to the science Darwin set in motion.

Customer Reviews (8)

Excellent content, but poorly produced and published
It's really too bad that Harvard University Press does not possess the in-house expertise and judgment to have stopped the production of this book, and to rethink how best to package its substantial content. As others here have noted, the book is really an (excellent) hodgepodge of a variety of essays and other material. Hidden in this thick tome is a wonderfully useful encyclopedia on evolution written by the best minds in the field. Imagine how much more accessible--and influential--this encyclopedia would have been if Harvard UP had been able to package it as a digital product on the Internet! Instead, this $40 book will languish on the shelves of a relative handful of academic libraries, and in scholarly bookstores for purchase. The result? A scholarly press creates a product that by its nature will gain scant attention in schools, and instead 100s of amateurs are writing material for the Internet--of much inferior quality--that are getting thousands of visits a week by Web-surfing students wishing to learn more about evolution.

Is this the best that a scholarly press can do in providing access to information? The excellent content of this book screams for a better way to present it than in its current form. Whether on the Internet as a subscription-based searchable database, or on people's Kindles as inexpensive ebooks, the material in this book should be out there vigorously contributing to the general education on evolution, and in influencing the current discussion. Instead, it will be purchased only by the relative handful of serious students of evolution and by the better academic libraries willing to spend $40 for an unwieldy 1000-page monster.

The expected
Let me start by affirming that I would be regarded as what one author in this book, Eugenie C. Scott, persistently calls antievolutionist (p.370, ff). That label, however, covers the entire spectrum of opponents of Darwinism, who differ in various ways, especially in that only some reject evolution as a whole, while many reject its purported mechanism.

This mechanism is set down firmly in the Foreword by Edward O. Wilson (p.vii): "So solidly have the fields of biology built upon the Darwinian conception of evolution that it makes sense today to recognize it as one of the two laws...that govern our understanding of life. The first law is that all the elements and processes that define living organisms are ultimately obedient to the laws of physics and chemistry... The second law...is that all elements and processes defining living organisms have been generated by evolution through natural selection."

The questioning of natural selection is the most common objection of opponents. Less common is questioning that all is governed by the laws of physics and chemistry, a questioning that comprises virtual heresy. The known argument against natural selection is that organisms are not the implied result of "blind" natural forces, but are the product of "intelligent design". It is not a clear part of this argument that if natural forces alone are not held adequate for the formation of organisms, then an additional creative force should be posited.

This reviewer has consistently tried to call attention to another factor concerning "our understanding of life" (see 2nd paragraph above): that among the "elements and processes defining living organisms" are their live activities, directed at self-preservation. The cause of this goal-directed, purposive, process can justifiably be regarded as a force distinct from the undirected natural forces solely responsible for lifeless events, in agreement somewhat with Henri Bergson's vital force ("élan vital", pp.446-7 of the book now reviewed), to which "[t]oday, few would openly subscribe".

It should accordingly be reiterated that the foremost law "that govern[s] our understanding of life" is the great property distinguishing it from the lifeless: the purpose of self-preservation. Yet it is sad to say that the index of this massive tome on life includes neither self-preservation nor purpose. I marked the volume for two stars because of its rich scholarship regardless, aided by many illustrations.

Disappointing hodgepodge
This book begins with a collection of essays, some of which are quite interesting, though they don't "hang together" too well.The Alphabetical Guide, which comprises about 60% of the book, is where the real disappointment begins.The Guide isn't indexed and so you must literally look at every page to see what topics are discussed.I'm not sure who wrote the essays in the Alphabetical Guide, most aren't credited to anyone, and are too general to be of much use.The book's dust jacket is misleading because it shows pictures of dinosaurs when the book contains very little information about dinosaurs and the scant four page discussion in the Alphabetical Guide portion of the book is worthless.And, of course, there is little discussion of individual dinosaur species.Similarly, the three pages about Charles Darwin is also shallow.One could mine more interesting information about Darwin after five minutes of Googling than is provided here; there are no insights--nothing special.Since the early 1990's, it has been all but unanimously accepted that the K-T extinction was caused by a boloid.This was due to the rigorous research done worldwide by many scientists verifying the hypothesis proposed by the geologist Walter Alvarez and his father Luis, the Nobel prize winning physicist.Yet, this important discovery and the fascinating story behind it gets little more than a page.An understanding of geology and global warming and cooling periods is crucial to an understanding of evolution, yet there is no focused discussion of these topics.With the bold title "The First Four Billion Years", I would expect an expansive treatment of all of the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic periods and the current understanding of the life forms that evolved during them.Instead, the book uses a vast number of pages giving us the condensed biographies of Goldschmidt, Goethe, Galton, Frisch, Kettlewell, Kimura and dozens of other dead geneticists, biologists, physicians, philosophers and others who, though they played some role in the evolution of our understanding of evolution, take up too much space in a book that I would have preferred to be more about science than about people.All in all, this book would make a good bathroom reader if it were published as a paperback.

If this book is ever revised then I would recommend the following changes:

* additional essays on the topics that I suggested above and others
* gut some of the filler, e.g. the biographies
* index and summarize the Alphabetical Guide after getting rid of most of it
* add appendices which would include a glossary, good geological and evolutionary timelines, trees of life, location of continental masses through the eons and perhaps other reference material not included in the essays
* index all important charts, tables, drawings
* use color, if only sparingly; I realize that this is a bargain-priced book but it should take a few steps up from the basement

Great overview of evolution
Got through the first half of the book, the long essays and I have to say that I am pleased with the material. I haven't gotten to the part on evolution and religion yet, but due to the 'political correctness' in the book, the two chapters covering that topic will most-likely not be too good. I'm a hard core scientist, evolution by natural selection, PERIOD! There is NO acceptable middle ground. I am so hard core that to be called a 'scientist' (the real kind), you MUST believe in evolution by natural selection, if you are a person of faith, YOU ARE NOT A SCIENTIST, you are a creationist, PERIOD! No middle ground here. I even go as far as stating that if you are persons of faith, you have NO BUSINESS CALLING YOURSELF SCIENTISTS and taking jobs away from us who are the real deal. That is not to say that there have not been successful creations doing science, there were, Einstein was a perfect example. However, DO NOT call yourself scientists, you are creationists and it is VERY offensive when you folk marginalize and usurp 'TRUE' scientists belief systems as your own. Religious folk and your war mongering beliefs, GO AWAY!

Dr. Thomas Parker

Exceptional overview
Comprehensive and readable. This book is a great resource for those who, like me, find that evolution makes sense of the world without in any way diminishing its grandeur. ... Read more

Product Description

Foreword: William Dembski, PhD.

Darwinism is a 150–year–old icon that has been propped up byunproven suppositions. The scientific discoveries of the last few decades are now kicking out the props.

Dr. Kenneth Poppe is convinced theicon is ready to topple. Providing extensive scientific evidence of Darwinism’sfailures, this career biology instructor uses enlightening analogies and examplesto explain the theory’s problems:

• blind–luck assembly of the first cell
• mathematical improbabilities
• the laws of thermodynamics
• hypothetical sudden mutations
• biased mind–sets

Spiced with humor and helpful graphics, this popularly targeted text shows readersthat—in regard to objections to evolution—the science is truly there.

A superior resource for students, parents, and private– or public–school educators.

Customer Reviews (10)

Awesome
Dr. Kenneth Poppe does an excellent job to explain the flaws of evolution.I have read his other book as well and he did a great job.He accurately points out what's wrong with evolution and why it just simply doesn't work.Check this one out.

And now for a word from a real scientist
I am a practicing scientist, but not the ivory-tower type.I have been employed in R&D in the private sector since receiving my PhD in 1972.I love science not only for its intellectual beauty and elegance, but because it WORKS.Science solves very real problems that no amount of prayer, poetry, incantation, art, music, or meditation can make a dent in.I blundered upon this book while browsing in the science section (yes, science) of the public library and I checked it out due to curiosity.I found it so disturbing that this book attempts itself off as scientific, that I had to write a review.

Creationists seem to be most concerned about two aspects of Darwinian thought:that humans are related to apes and that life may have arisen from non-living matter.The latter gets a lot of attention in this volume, but despite all the raving on the topic, the possibility that life originated from non-living matter is not central to the theory of evolution (nor is the relationship of humans and apes).The scientific investigation of the origin of life is a much more difficult and much more rudimentary line of inquiry than the study of evolution, which simply deals with how new species of organisms arise (which they undoubtedly do).So, even if this book demonstrated that life cannot arise from non-living matter (it doesn't), its arguments would still not disprove the core concept of evolution:that species evolve from other species through variation and natural selection.

The book repeats the old bogus statistical (Ch. 5-7) and second-law (Ch. 11) arguments that it is impossible for life to originate from non-living matter.These arguments were soundly refuted long ago; yet they resurface here with no response to the rebuttals.Apparently, these arguments are not really science--which can be refuted with evidence--but religious doctrine posing as science.The book insists that the theory of evolution is based on randomness, but there are two key concepts in evolution:variation and selection.Variation may be random, but selection is anything but.All of the goofy metaphors (the watch assembling itself, chimps building a car, a tornado constructing a house, etc.), as entertaining as they are, miss the point--evolution depends at least as much on non-random selection as it does on random variation.By the way, variation arises from normal alleles as well as from mutations.Quite a bit of ink is expended attacking the idea that mutation can produce adaptive traits (Ch. 17), but even if it could not, variation does not depend solely upon mutation.

The version of the second law of thermodynamics put forward here is a complete canard.First, ENTROPY does not determine whether a process can proceed, ENERGY does.Processes involving negative entropy are possible by applying energy; that is why we can make highly organized things like cars, computers, skyscrapers, etc.Second, the second law strictly applies only to closed systems, but the earth is not a closed system since it continuously receives trillions of kilowatts of solar energy.That is enough to overcome a great deal of earthly negative entropy!

In addition to such major conceptual errors, the book is loaded with trivial, annoying, and even amusing errors.An annoying error is the assertion that the LAWS of thermodynamics are more reliable than the THEORY of evolution, since they are "laws", after all.Not only is this is a merely semantic argument, it is also wrong.A trivial error is the statement that the symbol for a change in entropy is the Greek letter [delta] (p. 121).The symbol for entropy is S, and the symbol for a change in entropy is [delta]S.

The origin-of-life issue is belabored at some length in Ch. 8-10, culminating in the claim (p. 114) that the "myth of molecular evolution" has been "thoroughly debunked".As limited as the science in this field is, it still seems more plausible that life developed somehow from non-living matter than that the God of the Jews created the fruit tree, the winged fowl, the great whales, and all the rest, in their modern forms, by simply speaking (now there's a myth!).The creationist assumption seems to be that early life would be very similar to modern life--with 20 or so amino acids, proteins, enzymes, DNA-encoded information, etc.But it is likely that early life was very different, probably not easily recognizable to us, and EVOLVED into the complex and efficient life forms we have today.

At least the book does not endorse "young-earth" creationism (Ch. 14) and appears to acknowledge that the earth is probably more than 4 billion years old.This may solve creationism's big problem with the fossil record, but it does not validate the (literal) biblical version of creation, if only because anatomically modern humans have clearly lived on earth for about 30,000 years longer than the Genesis genealogies account for since Adam and Eve.

After steadfastly maintaining for 276 pages that his objections to evolution are purely scientific, the author at last confesses (p. 277), "I find the answers most compatible with science come in certain biblical texts".In particular, he finds scientific guidance in Psalm 104.Here is the ID agenda writ large:if ID is taught as science in the classroom, the Bible will soon become the textbook.That would be a tragedy.It is no mere coincidence that the flourishing of modern science began when scientists stopped attributing their results to supernatural causes and started doing more experiments to explore what they did not understand.Modern science assumes that supernatural forces are not necessary to explain Nature, not because science is inherently atheistic, but because the assumption WORKS.In other words, scientists believe that Nature is intelligible to the human mind; ID claims the opposite.No matter how "science-y" the trappings of ID, it is simply not compatible with real science.

Finally, I apologize for the length of this review.Believe it or not, I have edited it down!

Notice anything wrong with the cover?
Do you see anything wrong with the cover? Anything "funny" about that DNA molecule? If not, then this book might be for you.

But if you have even an inkling of scientific knowledge, then you'd be hard-pressed to come up with a more apt metaphor for this creationist garbage masquerading as a pseudo-intellectual examination of the most well-supported theory in all of science.

Unfortunately sloppy presentation ... there are better books.
There's not much to recommend this book.The author talks about various objections to Darwinism, but usually garbles them enough to undercut the point.

For example, on p 55 he sets up a thermodynamics experiment with two rooms and a door partition and declares that if you can prevent the temperature from equalizing when the door is opened, "... then we'll talk" (about order coming from disorder).Sounds like a bold challenge, but irrelevant. And it sounds like the author has never lived in a house with a basement.

On page 120 he explains the law of conservation of energy as".. this means that since the event that brought the universe into existence, no new matter has been generated from any other source.It also means you can't make any new atoms and you can never lose the old ones."That's quite wrong.And, indeed, later the author correctly states the principle.

This is the way throughout the book; sloppy phrasing and poor descriptions that undercut the point the author tries to make by injecting error and imprecision into the discussion.

The book reads like an extended posting on the Internet, with the author saying things like:"... I can't think of any off-hand..."(this is a book; you are supposed to research it, readers don't care what you can or cannot think of off the top of your head).Exclamation marks abound.Paragraphs start out "Here it is in simpler terms" or "Here is the main point of all this".

He wastes time critiquing the Drake equation which is something of no importance in the scientificworld, being popular in pop science only.

His discussion about SETI describes how electromagnetic signals from the Earth have only travelled 50 light-years out, leading to his conclusion that "... If we are going to detect radio signals from active aliens, they would have to be virtually living on our block."Apparently, he thinks of the signal bubble surrounding the Earth as being the same as that surrounding an ET civilization (50 years).

This is a book that really need not have been written. It's easy for Darwinists to poke holes in and is the sort of thing that makes the subject disreputable.Library check-out at best, not a keeper.

Can't we just talk about this?
Dr. Poppe's books seems to be asking the question in my review title.He presents many facets of the origins debate.He seems to be attempting to start a discussion that should be on going.One of the prime characteristics of the scientific method is the chance of a scientists being wrong.That prospect is excluded from the discussion of evolution to everyone's detriment. ... Read more

Product Description
Praise for the first edition

". . . clearly written, well illustrated and a pleasure to read." --Quarterly Review of Biology

"This remarkable small volume gives the fortunate reader a summaryintroduction to the intellectual history and recent researchdevelopments concerning the origins of life on planet Earth as well asthe origins of Earth itself." -- National Geographic Research &Exploration

In this book fifteen distinguished scientists discuss the effects oflife--past and present--on planet Earth. Unlike other earth science andbiology books, Environmental Evolution describes the impact of life onthe Earth's rocky surfaces presenting an integrated view of how ourplanet evolved. Modeled on the Environmental Evolution course developedby Lynn Margulis and colleagues, it provides a unique synthesis ofatmospheric, biological, and geological hypotheses that explain thepresent condition of the biosphere. The book develops scientificconcepts essential to the reconstruction of the intertwined history ofEarth's air, rocks, water, and life.

After an introduction by James E. Lovelock on Gaia theory, the materialproceeds in roughly chronological order from the origin of life in theearly Archean Eon to the emergence of new environmental diseases intoday's industrialized world. The second edition has been thoroughlyrevised, with more comprehensive chapters, additional illustrations, andnew references.

Contributors: Elso S. Barghoorn, Robert Buchsbaum, David Deamer, StjepkoGolubic, Jonathan King, Antonio Lazcano, James E. Lovelock, LynnMargulis, Clifford Matthews, Michael McElroy, Mark McMenamin, RaymondSiever, Paul Strother, Tony Swain, Neil Todd. ... Read more

Product Description
Species invasions present significant conservation challenges, but they also provide invaluable information about the functioning of natural systems. In this edited book, experts from the fields of ecology, evolution, and biogeography explore the unique insights species invasions provide. Several key advances emerge in each discipline, and collectively they provide a template for new research that transforms invasion biology into a powerful tool for basic research in ecology, evolution, and biogeography ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

More invasions, or just more research?
What I would like to see this book (and others) address is the question of whether there are enough actual "new invasions" to consider it an "explosion" or whether there has simply been lots more studies done in recent years to look in detail at species movement, population expansion, and adaptation.That would be a scientific approach; take a look at Charles Elton's work on the topic, from the 1950's.World War II was the point at which this idea took off -- the Nazis were BIG into purifying their country in more ways than one and wanted to purge all "non-native" species.To me, that says a LOT about the mind-set of the folks who espouse a "native-species-only" purist attitude.

better as supplement to other readings
This was my textbook for an upper level college invasive species class. Although this book referenced some great case studies, while providing overall generalizations on invasive species, I don't think it was the most effective tool as a study aid. If you want to read about studies on invasive species, it is much more effective to read the studies themselves, and if you are just interested in reading about invasive species for fun, this book is too technical. If you really want to learn about invasive species, I would not trust this book to stand alone.

A Coordinated Series of Articles
Species Invasion has been around about as long as have species. Before mankind entered the scene with ships and aircraft birds and streams carried seeds to new locations. Of late with the advent of air transport we live in a time when there is virtually an explosion of invading species.

This book is a series of articles broken into three major parts providing an insight into Ecology, Evolution, or Biogeography. The articles are written my masters of their respective field and together they bring modern thinking on every aspect of such invasions into view.

Early in the project it was suggested to bring the contributors together for a workshop. This was done in March of 2004 at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. This provided for much synthesis as these presentations and discussions enabled the author to present their findings and to use questions from other authors to refine their findings. ... Read more

Product Description
This ambitious book provides the first unified discussion of the full range of evolutionary transitions. Engagingly written and filled with numerous illustrations, this book can be read with enjoyment by anyone with an undergraduate training in biology.It includes accessible discussions of a wide range of topics, from molecular biology and linguistics to insect societies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A Marvellous and Challenging Read
This is arguably John-Maynard Smith's most challenging project in popular science writing. Written along with Eros Szathmary, a chemist, " The Major Transitions in Evolution" is written primarily for biologystudents, but can be understood by anybody with a solid background inevolutionary theory.How have the ways in which information is transmittedbetween generations changed through time and what were the crucialtransitions that made these changes possible? One early example thatillustrates the effect of these transitions is the origin of chromosomes.Nucleic acid strands (genes) capable of independent replication, at somepoint became linked and thereafter could replicate only as a set of linedgenes (chromosomes). A new way of storing information,a new informationsystem had evolved. How was this transition maintained through time?Would'nt unlinked genes which replicate faster be favoured by naturalselection over linked genes? In effect, would'nt selection at a lower leveldisrupt higher level organizatins? This is a common feature of many of themajor transitions and forms the fundamental theme of this marvellous book. In a series of chapters the authors discuss the evolutions of various levelof complexity. The chapters are arrange in a logical sequence begining withthe origin of life and moving on to successive transitions including theorigin of the genetic code, the origin of the eucaryotes, the origin ofsex, multicellularity, societies and language. The list here is notcomplete. I read the book from start to finish in a sequence, but readerswith a good background in the subject could probably start anywheredepending on their interest. For non-biologist this is not easy reading atall, and I would imagine that even biology students will find portionschallenging. An impressive quality of this book is the constant attempt toincorporate the pecularities of a particular system in developing anexplanation to explain its origin. A discussion on the origin of thegenetic code includes the possibilty that there could be a stero-chemicalbasis for specific amino acid-codon assigments, rather than it being a'frozen accident'. Another example is whether there is a causal connectionbetween haplodiploidy and evolution of sociality in eusocial insects. Theauthor warn against making this apparently intuitive connection, andinstead seek an explanation in split sex ratios and in some cases theparticular features of insect ecology. The highlight of the book for me wasthe last chapter on the origin of language. From Noam Chomsky's work on thestructure of grammer , syntax and language and representation, to anevolutionary explanation for its origin, this was really an informativeessay. The ever recurring argument against the evolution of complexadapatations, in this case language, by a series of adaptive intermediatestages, has been dealt with using examples from animal speech, the geneticsof language disorders and a section on the transitions from pigdin tocreole.The book strikes a good balance between explaining theory and thendiscussing the experimental evidence available. Wherever possible, newexperimental approaches are suggested. Finally, like any really good bookon science the authors not only bring you up to date with what has beendone, but also stress just how much more needs to be done. It is thisfeature about the book that leaves a lasting impression.

Excellent. Industrial strength for biological initiates.
John Maynard Smith gets an automatic thumbs-up from me for anything he writes.He is clear, pleasant, creative, unpretentious, authoritative and thoughtful. For this book he has teamed up with what seems to be anup-and-coming molecular biologist cum evolutionist and the team isimpressively powerful.The writing is all in Maynard-Smith's style as faras I can tell, so I don't know whether Szathmary is an exceptionallycompetent anglophone who shares thesame style, or whether they split thewriting duties to exploit their respective skills.All I can say is thatif you want a really rewarding read and you have a sound, not necessarilyadvanced, understanding of the basics of biochemistry, evolution andcellular physiology, then you cannot do better than this book.It makes nopretence to being comprehensive and gives only the minimum of introductorymaterial to support their views on evolutionary transitions.Even if youare familiar with the field, the book does not lend itself to skimming; itis the distillation of a lot of non-trivial thinking.

An excellent book.Recommended to any professional in the field, to any student of the subjectand to laymen with a good background in the subject and who are notintimidated by a challenge and are willing to skip some of thebiochemistry.The later chapters are more accessible in that they dealwith more difficult subjects, such as speech and culture.

Instead ofwatering down the content for educated laymen, the authors have published aless technical sequel: "The Origins of Life".This is alsoavailable from Amazon and, although it is intended for a wider audience, itis thoroughly rewarding for the professional.

First class
Maynard Smith is one of the world's leading evolutionary biologists (for instance, he was largely responsible for the application of ideas from game theory to biological contests), and here he gives an excellent account of what he considers the most important transitions in evolutionary biology, including the origin of the genetic code, cellularisation, sociality and language. It's an astonishingly wide-ranging book, and highly recommended for anyone with any interest in any of these subjects in particular or in evolution as a whole. The writing is lucid and entertaining, and although some chapters probably require a familiarity with at least basic biology, Maynard Smith, like Richard Dawkins, can be understood by anyone who's prepared to make an effort. ... Read more