Money and Finance
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Related books:
On the Origin of Species
Voyaging
The Power of Place
The Blind Watchmaker
The Mismeasure of Man
Evolution
Ever Since Darwin
Why Evolution is True
The Selfish Gene
Climbing Mount Improbable
The Extended Phenotype
Related link: Growing Up in the Universe
- River Out Of Eden And A Universe From Nothing
In a recent reddit Q&A for the movie The Unbelievers, Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss mentioned their favorite books by the other: Lawrence Krauss: My favorite book of Richard's is River Out of Eden. It is the most beautifully...
- Nigel Goldenfeld: We Need A Theory Of Life
Link to interview: Nigel Goldenfeld: We Need a Theory of LifeNigel Goldenfeld: The prejudice that one runs into often (but not always) when one talks about evolution is that evolution really is dominated by what's called vertical gene transfer, where...
- Beautiful Minds: Richard Dawkins
Link to video: Beautiful Minds: Richard Dawkins ................... Related link: Growing Up in the Universe Related books: The Greatest Show on Earth The Selfish Gene The Blind Watchmaker ...
- Why We Don’t Believe In Science – By Jonah Lehrer
I knew the numbers were high, but if the 46% number is an accurate reflection, that is pretty remarkable. 10,000 years? Really? Last week, Gallup announced the results of their latest survey on Americans and evolution. The numbers were a stark blow to...
- Paper: William D. Hamilton’s Work In Evolutionary Game Theory
Abstract William D. Hamilton’s impact on contemporary views of evolution has been nothing short of revolutionary, and his contributions to our reasoning on kin selection, genomic conflicts, parasitism and costs of sex dominate these fields. He also...
Money and Finance
FiveBooks Interview: Jerry Coyne on Evolution
The evolutionary biologist tells us why Darwin is still essential reading and sifts the vast amount of more recent writing on evolution for books that are both inspiring to scientists and accessible to general readers
I know you had a hard time narrowing your list down to just five books. In the end you chose books that are not only accessible but also your personal favourites.
Yes. There are books, like Richard Dawkins’s The Ancestor’s Tale or The Greatest Show on Earth, which give you evidence for evolution and are educational. But they weren’t inspirational to me in the way that these five books are. These are books that would be of benefit not only to the layperson but also to the working biologist.
I actually canvassed a lot of my colleagues, who are all evolutionary biologists, to get their ideas about what books to recommend. Most of them said they don’t read popular books on evolution, which I found kind of appalling. You can always learn stuff – nobody knows everything about evolution. Also, these books teach you how to write, how to promulgate your ideas and be a better educator. That’s part of our function as scientists, to communicate what we do.
I left aside more technical, textbook-type titles like The Selfish Gene by Dawkins and Adaptation and Natural Selection by George Williams, which is a bit of an arcane book. They’re inspirational to me as a scientist, but not so much as a scientist interested in communicating with the general public. It was a tough call. I had to leave out Carl Sagan. The good thing is that there is a plethora of books out there to educate the public about evolutionary biology. The bad thing is that the public doesn’t seem to be reading them, because 40% of Americans still reject evolution.
I know you had a hard time narrowing your list down to just five books. In the end you chose books that are not only accessible but also your personal favourites.
Yes. There are books, like Richard Dawkins’s The Ancestor’s Tale or The Greatest Show on Earth, which give you evidence for evolution and are educational. But they weren’t inspirational to me in the way that these five books are. These are books that would be of benefit not only to the layperson but also to the working biologist.
I actually canvassed a lot of my colleagues, who are all evolutionary biologists, to get their ideas about what books to recommend. Most of them said they don’t read popular books on evolution, which I found kind of appalling. You can always learn stuff – nobody knows everything about evolution. Also, these books teach you how to write, how to promulgate your ideas and be a better educator. That’s part of our function as scientists, to communicate what we do.
I left aside more technical, textbook-type titles like The Selfish Gene by Dawkins and Adaptation and Natural Selection by George Williams, which is a bit of an arcane book. They’re inspirational to me as a scientist, but not so much as a scientist interested in communicating with the general public. It was a tough call. I had to leave out Carl Sagan. The good thing is that there is a plethora of books out there to educate the public about evolutionary biology. The bad thing is that the public doesn’t seem to be reading them, because 40% of Americans still reject evolution.
….................
Related books:
On the Origin of Species
Voyaging
The Power of Place
The Blind Watchmaker
The Mismeasure of Man
Evolution
Ever Since Darwin
Why Evolution is True
The Selfish Gene
Climbing Mount Improbable
The Extended Phenotype
Related link: Growing Up in the Universe
- River Out Of Eden And A Universe From Nothing
In a recent reddit Q&A for the movie The Unbelievers, Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss mentioned their favorite books by the other: Lawrence Krauss: My favorite book of Richard's is River Out of Eden. It is the most beautifully...
- Nigel Goldenfeld: We Need A Theory Of Life
Link to interview: Nigel Goldenfeld: We Need a Theory of LifeNigel Goldenfeld: The prejudice that one runs into often (but not always) when one talks about evolution is that evolution really is dominated by what's called vertical gene transfer, where...
- Beautiful Minds: Richard Dawkins
Link to video: Beautiful Minds: Richard Dawkins ................... Related link: Growing Up in the Universe Related books: The Greatest Show on Earth The Selfish Gene The Blind Watchmaker ...
- Why We Don’t Believe In Science – By Jonah Lehrer
I knew the numbers were high, but if the 46% number is an accurate reflection, that is pretty remarkable. 10,000 years? Really? Last week, Gallup announced the results of their latest survey on Americans and evolution. The numbers were a stark blow to...
- Paper: William D. Hamilton’s Work In Evolutionary Game Theory
Abstract William D. Hamilton’s impact on contemporary views of evolution has been nothing short of revolutionary, and his contributions to our reasoning on kin selection, genomic conflicts, parasitism and costs of sex dominate these fields. He also...