Reinventing Darwin

Reinventing Darwin PDF Author: Niles Eldredge
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
An insider's provocative account of one of the most contentious debates in science today When Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould, two of the world's leading evolutionary theorists, proposed a bold new theory of evolution—the theory of "punctuated equilibria"—they stood the standard interpretation of Darwin on its head. They also ignited a furious debate about the true nature of evolution. On the one side are the geneticists. They contend that evolution proceeds slowly but surely, driven by competition among organisms to transmit their genes from generation to generation. On the other are the paleontologists, like Eldredge and Gould, who show in the fossil record that in fact evolution proceeds only sporadically. Long periods of no change—equilibria—are "punctuated" by episodes of rapid evolutionary activity. According to the paleontologists, this pattern shows that evolution is driven far more by environmental forces than by genetic competition. How can the prevailing views on evolution be so different? In Reinventing Darwin, Niles Eldredge offers a spirited account of the dispute and an impressive case for the paleontologists' side of the story. With the mastery that only a leading contributor to the debate can provide, he charts the course of theory from Darwin's day to the present and explores the fundamental mysteries and crucial questions that underlie the current quarrels. Is evolution fired by a gentle and persistent motor and fueled by the survival instincts of "selfish genes"? Or does it proceed in fits and starts, as the fossil record seems to show? What is the role of environmental changes such as habitat destruction and of cataclysmic events like meteor impacts? Are most species inherently stable, changing only very little until they succumb to extinction? Or are species highly adaptable, changing all the time? Eldredge sorts through the major findings and interpretations and presents a lively introduction to the leading edge of evolutionary theory today. Reinventing Darwin offers a rare insider's view of the sometimes contentious, but always stimulating work of scientific inquiry. PRAISE FOR NILES ELDREDGE'S PREVIOUS BOOKS The Miner's Canary: Unraveling the Mysteries of Extinction "The Miner's Canary rings with integrity. The author takes care to present opposing views. Some readers, indeed, might view Mr. Eldredge as a little too self-effacing; he is, after all, one of the world's leading experts in his field."—The New York Times Book Review Fossils: The Evolution and Extinction of Species ". . . an important and informative book. It is also delightfully idiosyncratic. This is no scholarly treatise defending academic argument. It is an essay for everyone interested in the story of earthly life."—The Christian Science Monitor Life Pulse: Episodes from the Story of the Fossil Record "This is Earth history on a grand scale; those who enjoy the works of Stephen Jay Gould will appreciate Life Pulse."—Publishers Weekly

Reinventing Darwin

Reinventing Darwin PDF Author: Niles Eldredge
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Get Book

Book Description
An insider's provocative account of one of the most contentious debates in science today When Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould, two of the world's leading evolutionary theorists, proposed a bold new theory of evolution—the theory of "punctuated equilibria"—they stood the standard interpretation of Darwin on its head. They also ignited a furious debate about the true nature of evolution. On the one side are the geneticists. They contend that evolution proceeds slowly but surely, driven by competition among organisms to transmit their genes from generation to generation. On the other are the paleontologists, like Eldredge and Gould, who show in the fossil record that in fact evolution proceeds only sporadically. Long periods of no change—equilibria—are "punctuated" by episodes of rapid evolutionary activity. According to the paleontologists, this pattern shows that evolution is driven far more by environmental forces than by genetic competition. How can the prevailing views on evolution be so different? In Reinventing Darwin, Niles Eldredge offers a spirited account of the dispute and an impressive case for the paleontologists' side of the story. With the mastery that only a leading contributor to the debate can provide, he charts the course of theory from Darwin's day to the present and explores the fundamental mysteries and crucial questions that underlie the current quarrels. Is evolution fired by a gentle and persistent motor and fueled by the survival instincts of "selfish genes"? Or does it proceed in fits and starts, as the fossil record seems to show? What is the role of environmental changes such as habitat destruction and of cataclysmic events like meteor impacts? Are most species inherently stable, changing only very little until they succumb to extinction? Or are species highly adaptable, changing all the time? Eldredge sorts through the major findings and interpretations and presents a lively introduction to the leading edge of evolutionary theory today. Reinventing Darwin offers a rare insider's view of the sometimes contentious, but always stimulating work of scientific inquiry. PRAISE FOR NILES ELDREDGE'S PREVIOUS BOOKS The Miner's Canary: Unraveling the Mysteries of Extinction "The Miner's Canary rings with integrity. The author takes care to present opposing views. Some readers, indeed, might view Mr. Eldredge as a little too self-effacing; he is, after all, one of the world's leading experts in his field."—The New York Times Book Review Fossils: The Evolution and Extinction of Species ". . . an important and informative book. It is also delightfully idiosyncratic. This is no scholarly treatise defending academic argument. It is an essay for everyone interested in the story of earthly life."—The Christian Science Monitor Life Pulse: Episodes from the Story of the Fossil Record "This is Earth history on a grand scale; those who enjoy the works of Stephen Jay Gould will appreciate Life Pulse."—Publishers Weekly

Reinventing Darwin

Reinventing Darwin PDF Author: Niles Eldredge
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN: 9780460861465
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This is a first-hand account of the discussions that are going on between biologists of different persuasions. On the one side are the Ultra-Darwinists - mainly theoretical geneticists - whose ranks include Richard Dawkins, John Maynard Smith and George C. Williams. They emphasize the supremacy of the gene and of natural selection. The other side is a more diverse group, the self-styled Naturalists, who focus on whole creatures rather than genes and who think in terms of complex interacting ecological processes; here we find Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge.

Reinventing Darwin

Reinventing Darwin PDF Author: Niles Eldredge
Publisher: Phoenix
ISBN: 9781857995084
Category : Evolution (Biology)
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
This is a first hand account of the discussions that are going on between biologists of different persuasions.On the one side are the ultradarwinians, whose ranks include Richard Dawkins and George C Williams.They emphasise the supremacy of the gene and of natural selection.The other side is a more diverse group,the self styled naturalists,who focus on whole creatures rather than genesand who think in terms of complex interacting ecological processes.

Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations

Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations PDF Author: Carl C. Gaither
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461411149
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 2800

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Book Description
This unprecedented collection of 27,000 quotations is the most comprehensive and carefully researched of its kind, covering all fields of science and mathematics. With this vast compendium you can readily conceptualize and embrace the written images of scientists, laymen, politicians, novelists, playwrights, and poets about humankind's scientific achievements. Approximately 9000 high-quality entries have been added to this new edition to provide a rich selection of quotations for the student, the educator, and the scientist who would like to introduce a presentation with a relevant quotation that provides perspective and historical background on his subject. Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations, Second Edition, provides the finest reference source of science quotations for all audiences. The new edition adds greater depth to the number of quotations in the various thematic arrangements and also provides new thematic categories.

Back To Darwin

Back To Darwin PDF Author: John B. Cobb
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 0802848370
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
This book provides a distinctive, radical way beyond the quarrels between evolutionary science and Christian belief. Leading scientists, philosophers, and theologians critically discuss the metaphysical assumptions of neo-Darwinism and offer concrete ways of broadening mainstream evolutionary theory. Their open exchange, moderated by veteran process theologian John B. Cobb, presents a holistic case for evolution that both theists and nontheists can accept. Contributors: Francisco J. Ayala Ian G. Barbour Charles Birch Philip Clayton John B. Cobb Jr. John Greene David Ray Griffin A. Y. Gunter John F. Haught Lynn Margulis Reg Morrison Dorion Sagan Jeffrey Schloss Robert J. Valenza Howard J. Van Till

Where Darwin Meets the Bible

Where Darwin Meets the Bible PDF Author: Larry Witham
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780195182811
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
Where Darwin Meets the Bible provides an account of the lasting conflict between creationists and evolutionists.

Darwin Loves You

Darwin Loves You PDF Author: George Levine
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9781400827336
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Jesus and Darwin do battle on car bumpers across America. Medallions of fish symbolizing Jesus are answered by ones of amphibians stamped "Darwin," and stickers proclaiming "Jesus Loves You" are countered by "Darwin Loves You." The bumper sticker debate might be trivial and the pronouncement that "Darwin Loves You" may seem merely ironic, but George Levine insists that the message contains an unintended truth. In fact, he argues, we can read it straight. Darwin, Levine shows, saw a world from which his theory had banished transcendence as still lovable and enchanted, and we can see it like that too--if we look at his writings and life in a new way. Although Darwin could find sublimity even in ants or worms, the word "Darwinian" has largely been taken to signify a disenchanted world driven by chance and heartless competition. Countering the pervasive view that the facts of Darwin's world must lead to a disenchanting vision of it, Levine shows that Darwin's ideas and the language of his books offer an alternative form of enchantment, a world rich with meaning and value, and more wonderful and beautiful than ever before. Without minimizing or sentimentalizing the harsh qualities of life governed by natural selection, and without deifying Darwin, Levine makes a moving case for an enchanted secularism--a commitment to the value of the natural world and the human striving to understand it.

From Aristotle's Teleology to Darwin's Genealogy

From Aristotle's Teleology to Darwin's Genealogy PDF Author: M. Solinas
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137445777
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
From Aristotle to Darwin, from ancient teleology to contemporary genealogies, this book offers an overview of the birth and then persistence of Aristotle's framework into modernity, until its radical overthrow by the evolutionary revolution.

Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection

Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection PDF Author: Fred Bortz
Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc
ISBN: 1477718117
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 82

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Book Description
This book explains Charles Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection while telling how a hypothesis became not merely a theory but the foundation of an entire science.

Darwin's Fishes

Darwin's Fishes PDF Author: Daniel Pauly
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139451812
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
In Darwin's Fishes, Daniel Pauly presents an encyclopaedia of ichthyology, ecology and evolution, based upon everything that Charles Darwin ever wrote about fish. Entries are arranged alphabetically and can be about, for example, a particular fish taxon, an anatomical part, a chemical substance, a scientist, a place, or an evolutionary or ecological concept. The reader can start wherever they like and are then led by a series of cross-references on a fascinating voyage of interconnected entries, each indirectly or directly connected with original writings from Darwin himself. Along the way, the reader is offered interpretation of the historical material put in the context of both Darwin's time and that of contemporary biology and ecology. This book is intended for anyone interested in fishes, the work of Charles Darwin, evolutionary biology and ecology, and natural history in general.