- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; New Ed edition (6 July 1995)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0099468719
- ISBN-13: 978-0099468714
- Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 2.3 x 21.1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 507,716 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
This is one of the easiest-to-read, most exciting books on evolution of the past twenty years. It describes evolution happening before our eyes among the isolated bird populations of the Galapagos - the very finches observed by Darwin on his Beagle voyage - and its heroes are an unsung British couple. It is uncannily fascinating to imagine the beak of the finch changing in our lifetime in response to evolutionary pressure. . . .
From the Back Cover
'Jonathan Weiner's powerful and elegant book is a meditation on Darwinism, from its beginnings to our current planetary crisis...At its core is a study of the changes that are still happening to the 13 finch species that inhabit the Galapagos Islands. They are famous (and fabled) birds, whose eccentric adaptations to the raw, unformed habitats of these young volcanoes gave Darwin one of the crucial clues in the development of his theory of "the Origin of the Species by means of Natural Selection"'
-Richard Mabey, Independent on Sunday
'No other book has displayed so dramatically the tiny but momentous changes that are taking place all around us in the living world. Darwin would be cheering'
-Derwent May, Evening Standard
'This is a work of huge fascination and importance...It has every chance of becoming a classic'
-Nigel Hawkes, The Times
'The subtle interweaving of historical fact, hard scientific detail and humorous anecdote makes this the kind of popular science writing to which many authors aspire but which so few achieve'
-Economist
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book, written for the lay-person, gives an excellent and absorbing account of evolution as an on-going process in today's world. It has been assumed that evolution is such a slow process that it cannot be observed occurring and that the process of evolution cannot be proved by active scientific observation of living animal populations. This book, based predominantly on the work of Peter and Rosemary Grant with Galapagos finches, disproves this and shows that evolution can occur at a rapid and actively observable rate. For anyone that doubts that evolution is a real process and very much a part of the natural world, this book is an absolute must-read! An excellent read by a prize-winning author.
Format:Paperback
It's hard to imagine a more effective way to consign a book to the remainder bin: give it a drab off-white cover bearing sketches of birds' heads, an impossibly dull title that begs to be misfiled under 'birds' instead of 'science', and round it off with those untrimmed pages that are supposed to evoke the charm of nineteenth century book binding but which actually suggest poor quality control. On presentation alone this one ought to go extinct pretty quickly.
The Beak of The Finch is, however, an interesting book. It's about evolution and more specifically about the finer points of speciation. The central question - how can separate species form without geographical isolation - is explored through the recent history of Darwin's Finches in the Galapagos Islands. The book reports and analyses the work of Rosemary and Peter Grant, who have spent more than twenty years following the ebb and flow of finches on a single island. During this time they have individually tagged, weighed and measured almost 19,000 birds - the entire population of finches across fifty generations.
The Grants discovered that natural selection never sleeps and the boundaries between species of Darwin's finches are being relentlessly shoved this way and that by upheavals in the adaptive landscape. During their stay the Grants witnessed two major selection events and recorded the most complete set of measurements ever taken of evolution in action. From their measurements they have drawn new insights into the speed of evolution, which prompts the book's subtitle 'Evolution In Real Time' (perhaps this would have made for a better title!) The Grants have also drawn conclusions about specific mechanisms of natural selection, including the importance of hybridization as a source of diversity.
What I like about this book is that it's easy to read. The arguments don't get unnecessarily technical or involved (but the references are there if you want them) and it really conveys well the idea that 'species' is really a poor concept because the boundaries are constantly shifting. It's also a good example of evolutionary biology as hard science.
The Beak of The Finch is, however, an interesting book. It's about evolution and more specifically about the finer points of speciation. The central question - how can separate species form without geographical isolation - is explored through the recent history of Darwin's Finches in the Galapagos Islands. The book reports and analyses the work of Rosemary and Peter Grant, who have spent more than twenty years following the ebb and flow of finches on a single island. During this time they have individually tagged, weighed and measured almost 19,000 birds - the entire population of finches across fifty generations.
The Grants discovered that natural selection never sleeps and the boundaries between species of Darwin's finches are being relentlessly shoved this way and that by upheavals in the adaptive landscape. During their stay the Grants witnessed two major selection events and recorded the most complete set of measurements ever taken of evolution in action. From their measurements they have drawn new insights into the speed of evolution, which prompts the book's subtitle 'Evolution In Real Time' (perhaps this would have made for a better title!) The Grants have also drawn conclusions about specific mechanisms of natural selection, including the importance of hybridization as a source of diversity.
What I like about this book is that it's easy to read. The arguments don't get unnecessarily technical or involved (but the references are there if you want them) and it really conveys well the idea that 'species' is really a poor concept because the boundaries are constantly shifting. It's also a good example of evolutionary biology as hard science.
Format:Paperback
Weiner has written a great book on evolutionary science. Instead of a frozen doctrine whose outlines are generally agreed upon as a quasi-religion, Weiner demonstrates how the modalities of evolution - how it actually occurs in nature - are still under investigation. It is a snapshot of an evolving science, carried out over a lifetime of research by two distinguished scientists.
One of the particular things they are attempting to observe directly is a speciation event - the creation of a new species of finch - which we long assumed must take place over geologic time and hence is unobservable. But in the process, Weiner reviews the notion of evolution, with fascinating tidbits from Darwin's original research and thoughts on these same finches of the Galopagos. It is a brilliant portrait of the cutting edge in science as well as a detailed review of many basic notions of evolution.
It is also a beautifully written book, indeed a masterpiece of elucidation. And it is all hard science, rather than the pseudo-scientific pap that passes for it in so many popular magazines today. While its rigor makes the book a challenge to read, it is well worth the effort.
Recommended, one of the best pieces of scientific journalism I ever read.
One of the particular things they are attempting to observe directly is a speciation event - the creation of a new species of finch - which we long assumed must take place over geologic time and hence is unobservable. But in the process, Weiner reviews the notion of evolution, with fascinating tidbits from Darwin's original research and thoughts on these same finches of the Galopagos. It is a brilliant portrait of the cutting edge in science as well as a detailed review of many basic notions of evolution.
It is also a beautifully written book, indeed a masterpiece of elucidation. And it is all hard science, rather than the pseudo-scientific pap that passes for it in so many popular magazines today. While its rigor makes the book a challenge to read, it is well worth the effort.
Recommended, one of the best pieces of scientific journalism I ever read.
Listmania!
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