The Evolutionary World: How Adaptation Explains Everything from Seashells to Civilization - Hardcover

Vermeij, Geerat J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031259108X ISBN 13: 9780312591083

Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books, 2010

Synopsis

"One of the master naturalists of our time" (American Scientist) reveals how evolutionary theory explains and affects not just the natural world but our society---and its future.

Evolution has outgrown its original home in biology and geology. The Evolutionary World shows how evolution---descent with modification---is a concept that organizes, explains, and predicts a multitude of unconnected facts and phenomena. Adaptation plays a role not only in the development of new species but the development of human civilization. By understanding how evolutionary theory has played out in areas such as our economic system, our preparation for catastrophes, and even the development of communities, we can learn not just how these systems work but also what challenges lie ahead.

Blind since the age of three, Dr. Geerat J. Vermeij has become renowned for his unique abilities to recognize details in the natural world that other scientists would never have noticed. In this book, he presents a new argument for evolution's broader importance. He explores similarities between genomes and languages, the contrasting natural economies of islands and continents, the emergence and importance of human values, the long-range consequences of global warming, and the perils of monopoly. He also shows that the lessons of evolution have implications for education, our system of laws, and economic growth.

The Evolutionary World makes a fascinating argument about the broad-reaching impact and importance of evolution. It offers a way for us to understand and work with evolution's principles so that we can devise better solutions for our own lives, society, and the environment around us.

About this title

About the Author

GEERAT J. VERMEIJ, Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor of Geology at the University of California at Davis. Vermeij was born in the Netherlands and came to the United States with his family in 1955. He has received the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal by the National Academy of Sciences and was honored as a MacArthur Fellow. He has published more than two hundred scientific papers and five books and served as editor for Evolution and Paleobiology, the foremost journals in their respective fields.

Reviews

Starred Review. Combining superb writing with first rate science, Vermeij, a UC-Davis geologist and MacArthur fellow, explores the intricacies of evolution in a way that "show how understanding its mechanisms and consequences yields an emotionally satisfying, esthetically pleasing, and deeply meaningful worldview in which the human condition is bathed in a new light." He focuses on the importance of adaptation, how organisms interact with their environment, and examines the ways that both are altered. Making liberal use of his expertise in natural history, he supports his arguments with thoroughly engaging examples from ecosystems around the globe. Vermeij also redefines the longstanding question of nature vs. nurture so as to make it more accessible to future investigation by asking: "In which circumstances does genetic determination become so rigid that environmental influences on variation wane?" Had Vermeij stopped here, he would have written a wonderful book. He goes on, though, using the concept of adaptation in natural systems to discuss how these principles influence all aspects of human society, from religion to morality. This fabulous book deserves widespread attention by specialists and lay readers alike. (Dec.) (c)
Copyright © PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Vermeij’s first scientific love was for seashells. That led him marine biology to paleontology and, eventually, to the profession of geology, the discipline that, through Lyell’s influence on Darwin, midwifed evolution and remains critical to demonstrating that evolution is the correct mode of thinking about the development of life. In each of 13 chapters, Vermeij takes an aspect of the theory of evolution through adaptation and discusses how the physical evidence ascertained by science verifies the theory. Of course, this involves a lot of particulars about different creatures in different circumstances, all of which his congenial instructive tone and clear exposition make an absorbing joy to read. In each chapter, he also states how the aspect of adaptation at hand can be seen in human development, from the phenotype to civilization. He says his aim is to convince us that no supernatural agency is necessary to the development of life. But he’s no philosopher and misses that mark completely. As an explicator of evolution, however, he’s first class. --Ray Olson

Edition details

• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 031259108X
• ISBN 13: 9780312591083
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336