The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time

Description

Part one. Evolution in the flesh. Daphne major ; What Darwin saw ; Infinite variety ; Darwin's beaks ; A special providence ; Darwin's forces ; Twenty-five thousand Darwins -- Part two. New beings on this earth. Princeton ; Creation by variation ; The ever-turning sword ; Invisible coasts ; Cosmic partings ; Fusion or fission? ; New beings -- Part three. G.O.D. Invisible characters ; The gigantic experiment ; The stranger's power ; The resistance movement ; A partner in the process ; The metaphysical crossbeak.;Following in Darwin's footsteps in the Galapagos were Peter and Rosemary Grant, who studied the features of the beaks of various species of finches and confirmed Darwin's theory of natural selection. On a desert island in the heart of the Galapagos archipelago, where Darwin received his first inklings of the theory of evolution, two scientists, Peter and Rosemary Grant, have spent twenty years proving that Darwin did not know the strength of his own theory. For among the finches of Daphne Major, natural selection is neither rare nor slow: it is taking place by the hour, and we can watch. In this dramatic story of groundbreaking scientific research, Jonathan Weiner follows these scientists as they watch Darwin's finches and come up with a new understanding of life itself. The Beak of the Finch is an elegantly written and compelling masterpiece of theory and explication in the tradition of Stephen Jay Gould. From the Trade Paperback edition. Part one. Evolution in the flesh. Daphne major What Darwin saw Infinite variety Darwin's beaks A special providence Darwin's forces Twenty-five thousand Darwins -- Part two. New beings on this earth. Princeton Creation by variation The ever-turning sword Invisible coasts Cosmic partings Fusion or fission? New beings -- Part three. G.O.D. Invisible characters The gigantic experiment The stranger's power The resistance movement A partner in the process The metaphysical crossbeak.