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Amazon.co.uk Review
It is a bold and ambitious project, carried off with considerable style and wit. Any suspicion of lightness is misplaced, though, as the seriousness and profundity of the underlying arguments are signalled early in the book: Jones destroys one of the main creationist objections to the theory of evolution--that no-one has ever seen it happen--with a devastating account of the well-documented 50-year evolution of the AIDS virus into its present varieties. The title is not a near-miss reference to Hamlet: it is Darwin himself, speculating on whether a bear seen swimming and catching food with its mouth as it swam, might represent the first, behavioural step on an evolutionary journey towards a new creature" almost like a whale." This is a powerfully entertaining book, engrossing in its science, erudite and cogent. --Robin Davidson --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Charles Darwin’s THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES is the most important book ever written. Not the best known, of course, or most often read. Yet no other publication has changed so many aspects of human outlook. Daniel Dennett rightly calls Darwin’s idea ‘the universal acid’. The concept of change over time ranges over all science from quantum physics to cosmology. Steve Jones’ modernization of ORIGIN is necessarily limited to the biological realm, but as he aptly demonstrates, that’s complicated enough. Biology is a busy science these days, but Jones has brought us as up to date as writing and publication schedules permit. Addressing such a diversity of topics as AIDS, where whales came from [they’re not hairy fish!] and geological time scales, he’s provided us with a detailed scenario of evolution’s course.
There are some interesting omissions in this book. No listing of Mendel’s paper in the bibliography [although the synopsis of his work in the main text is valuable]; in fact, he doesn’t mention that Darwin had a copy of it in his library – unread. Nor is there anything on island biogeography. While it would be unfitting to give Albert Russell Wallace more space in the text, there are several excellent books on a subject ORIGIN was only touched lightly. More significant is the lack of reference to the Grant’s work on Galapagos Finches [see Jonathan Weiner’s THE BEAK OF THE FINCH]. If anyone needs confirmation that evolution works, this three-decade long study will provide it.
None of the lacks are significant shortcomings in this effort to ‘update’ ORIGIN. Jones has presented a stunning wealth of information, but put it together in a highly readable format. He deserves the widest possible readership for this book. With luck, Jones will perform the same service with THE DESCENT OF MAN. There’s little doubt it will be as valuable as this book.
Almost A Whale should not be a mistaken as the rewriting of Darwin's "Origin of Species" as the author never intended it to be. It is a conversation almost between our understanding of the science with that of Darwin's and Huxley's. Both voices, past have present, have something to add to the conversation and it is hard not to be drawn in to it. And it is this style of writing that makes this a science book no heavier or harder to read than your average novel.
This is a fantastic book for anyone, whether your new to the subject or an experienced scientist who never did get round to reading Darwin the first time around. This is an educational book at one of its most effective - because you will read it because you want to and you will learn and understand without trying.
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