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Book synopsis

Thisbookhasbeenwritten tomake a pointand tofulfill a need. Thepoint is that the importance and the distinctiveness of the process of selection have been undervalued by most biologists. There is, consequently, the need for a book that describes the principles of selection in a simple but reasonably comprehensive way. Selection Is a Distinct Kind ofProcess Although we are now well into the second century of Darwinism, the theorythatDarwinand Wallaceannouncedin 1858hasnotyetmademuch progress beyond a small coterie of professional biologists. The reason is thatit isjarringlyunfamiliar toournormalexperienceofhow things come to be. Few ofus would be able to design a light bulb or a lathe, still fewer the computerand itsattendant softwarewithwhich this sentence is being written. But we all have a clear idea of what is meant by "design", and we readily, too readily, transfer this notion to the natural world. A light bulb or a lathe are prefigured in the mind, and constructed according to a plan. It is entirely reasonable to assume that beetles and daisies must be constructed after the same fashion, especially because they are much morecomplicatedthananythingthathumaningenuityhassofarmanaged to devise. There is, however, a second route to complex organization, throughtheselectionofrandomvariantsthatpropagatenearlyexactcopies ofthemselves. Itisofverylittleconsequenceinourdailylives,becauseifis somuchmorelaboriousandexpensivethandeliberatedesign. However,it isanotherwayofconstructingthings. Indeed, sofarasIknow, itistheonly other way of constructing things that we have ever been able to imagine.

Book details

Book category Books in English Mathematics & science Biology, life sciences Life sciences: general issues

• Full title: Selection
• Subtitle: The Mechanism of Evolution
• Author: Graham Bell
• Language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 699
• EAN: 9781461377399
• ISBN: 1461377390
• ID: 06797032
• Publisher: Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
• Weight: 1098 g
• Dimensions: 235 × 155 × 39 mm
• Date of publishing: 03. October 2012

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