The Essential Darwin
Author: Charles Darwin
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Published: 2006-01-01
Total Pages: 162
ISBN-13: 0486452301
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The Essential Darwin
Author: John Gribbin
Publisher: Constable
Published: 2014-04-01
Total Pages: 36
ISBN-13: 1472116038
DOWNLOAD EBOOKCharles Darwin was the epitome of the Victorian gentleman amateur scientist, living entirely off inherited wealth and the income from his books. At the same time, however, he was the most professional scientist of his day. Darwin's life is full of contrast. In his youth, he seemed likely to become a wastrel, yet he became a hard-working and renowned scientist. His family life in a small Kentish village was mostly idyllically happy; but the loss of his favourite daughter, Annie, brought him intense misery that lasted long after her death. Darwin shunned publicity; but he became the most famous scientist of his time, for an idea which shook the foundations of Victorian society. Even today, some people reject his idea - evolution by natural selection - without bothering to find out what Darwin said. But it is one of those great achievements of the human intellect with which everyone should be acquainted.
Charles Darwin
Author: Bill Price
Publisher: Oldcastle Books
Published: 2011-10-19
Total Pages: 141
ISBN-13: 1842435590
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe publication of The Origin of Species in 1859 was the culmination of more than twenty years of work by Charles Darwin and the ideas he presented in it would lead to a fundamental change in the way we think about life on earth. Evolution, as it came to be known, described how the extraordinary variety of life could develop and adapt by natural means rather than being entirely the creation of a supreme being. It was controversial at the time and now, as the bicentenary of Darwin's birth approaches in 2009, it remains the subject of bitter argument, with the opposing sides of the debate, the supporters of Darwinian evolution like Richard Dawkins and the proponents of intelligent design, as polarised as they have ever been. Bill Price looks at the origins of Darwin's theory and the arguments that have surrounded it ever since.
Reinventing Darwin
Author: Niles Eldredge
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Published: 1995-04-17
Total Pages: 264
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAn 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
Why Darwin Matters
Author: Michael Shermer
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2007-04-01
Total Pages: 230
ISBN-13: 1429900903
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA creationist-turned-scientist demonstrates the facts of evolution and exposes Intelligent Design's real agenda Science is on the defensive. Half of Americans reject the theory of evolution and "Intelligent Design" campaigns are gaining ground. Classroom by classroom, creationism is overthrowing biology. In Why Darwin Matters, bestselling author Michael Shermer explains how the newest brand of creationism appeals to our predisposition to look for a designer behind life's complexity. Shermer decodes the scientific evidence to show that evolution is not "just a theory" and illustrates how it achieves the design of life through the bottom-up process of natural selection. Shermer, once an evangelical Christian and a creationist, argues that Intelligent Design proponents are invoking a combination of bad science, political antipathy, and flawed theology. He refutes their pseudoscientific arguments and then demonstrates why conservatives and people of faith can and should embrace evolution. He then appraises the evolutionary questions that truly need to be settled, building a powerful argument for science itself. Cutting the politics away from the facts, Why Darwin Matters is an incisive examination of what is at stake in the debate over evolution.
Darwin in Galápagos
Author: K. Thalia Grant
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2009-11-22
Total Pages: 376
ISBN-13: 0691142106
DOWNLOAD EBOOKRecreates the scientist's historic visit to the Galapagos Islands using his original notebooks and logs, the latest findings by scholars and researchers, and the authors' first-hand knowledge of the archipelago.
Darwin's Fossils
Author: Adrian Lister
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
Published: 2018-04-24
Total Pages: 233
ISBN-13: 158834617X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKReveals how Darwin's study of fossils shaped his scientific thinking and led to his development of the theory of evolution. Darwin's Fossils is an accessible account of Darwin's pioneering work on fossils, his adventures in South America, and his relationship with the scientific establishment. While Darwin's research on Galápagos finches is celebrated, his work on fossils is less well known. Yet he was the first to collect the remains of giant extinct South American mammals; he worked out how coral reefs and atolls formed; he excavated and explained marine fossils high in the Andes; and he discovered a fossil forest that now bears his name. All of this research was fundamental in leading Darwin to develop his revolutionary theory of evolution. This richly illustrated book brings Darwin's fossils, many of which survive in museums and institutions around the world, together for the first time. Including new photography of many of the fossils--which in recent years have enjoyed a surge of scientific interest--as well as superb line drawings produced in the nineteenth century and newly commissioned artists' reconstructions of the extinct animals as they are understood today, Darwin's Fossils reveals how Darwin's discoveries played a crucial role in the development of his groundbreaking ideas.
Darwin
Author: Philip Appleman
Publisher: New York : Norton
Published: 1970
Total Pages: 694
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis collection of Darwin's writing, those of his critics and those of his intellectual descendants, incorporates excerpts from The Voyage of the Beagle, On The Tendency of Species to Form Varieties as well as Origin of Species and The Descent of Man.
Darwin's Doubt
Author: Stephen C. Meyer
Publisher: Harper Collins
Published: 2013-06-18
Total Pages: 605
ISBN-13: 0062071491
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhen Charles Darwin finished The Origin of Species, he thought that he had explained every clue, but one. Though his theory could explain many facts, Darwin knew that there was a significant event in the history of life that his theory did not explain. During this event, the “Cambrian explosion,” many animals suddenly appeared in the fossil record without apparent ancestors in earlier layers of rock. In Darwin’s Doubt, Stephen C. Meyer tells the story of the mystery surrounding this explosion of animal life—a mystery that has intensified, not only because the expected ancestors of these animals have not been found, but because scientists have learned more about what it takes to construct an animal. During the last half century, biologists have come to appreciate the central importance of biological information—stored in DNA and elsewhere in cells—to building animal forms. Expanding on the compelling case he presented in his last book, Signature in the Cell, Meyer argues that the origin of this information, as well as other mysterious features of the Cambrian event, are best explained by intelligent design, rather than purely undirected evolutionary processes.
Darwin's On the Origin of Species
Author: Daniel Duzdevich
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2014-02-24
Total Pages: 348
ISBN-13: 0253011744
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAn essential new edition of the 19th-century scientific masterpiece that translates Darwin’s Victorian prose into modern English: “Most useful” (Walter Brock, Columbia University). Charles Darwin’s most famous book On the Origin of Species is without question one of the most important books ever written. Yet many students have great difficulty understanding it. While even the grandest works of Victorian English can be a challeng for modern readers, Darwin’s dense scientific prose is especially difficult to navigate. For an era in which Darwin is more talked about than read, doctoral student Daniel Duzdevich offers a clear, modern English rendering of Darwin’s first edition. Neither an abridgement nor a summary, this version might best be described as a translation for contemporary English readers. A monument to reasoned insight, the Origin illustrates the value of extensive reflection, carefully gathered evidence, and sound scientific reasoning. By removing the linguistic barriers to understanding and appreciating the Origin, this edition brings 21st-century readers into closer contact with Darwin’s revolutionary ideas.
