Research Catalog

Details

Additional authors

1. Ridley, Mark

Description

1. viii, 430 pages : illustrations; 22 cm

Summary

1. Charles Darwin started it: the debate the divided Victorian society and set the questions which shaped scientific research through this century. Today evolution is being used to explain hot topics, such as how we choose our partners, emerging scientific generalizations such as the molecular clock, long-standing mysteries such as homology, and astonishing lab-bench results such as the eyeless gene. Mark Ridley's unique Oxofrd Reader represents a multitude of viewpoints, featuring major contributions to the universal debate by writers such as Charles Darwin, Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Dawkins, Jacques Monod, Theodosius Dobzhansky, and Francis Crick. -- from back cover.

Series statement

1. Oxford readers

Uniform title

1. Oxford readers

Subject

1. Evolution (Biology)
2. Biological Evolution
3. evolution
4. Evolution
5. Quelle
6. Theorie
7. Evolutie
8. Evolutietheorie
9. Evolucao (teoria)
10. Évolution (biologie)

Contents

1. Section A : From Darwin to the modern synthesis -- Extract from an unpublished work on species -- Abstract of a letter from C. Darwin, Esq., to Prof. Asa Gray, Boston, USA -- Weismann and modern biology -- The nature of inheritance -- The roles of mutation, inbreeding, crossbreeding, and selection in evolution -- Disease and evolution -- Section B : Selection in action -- Protection afforded by sickle-cell trait against subtertian malarial infection -- Notes on sickle-cell polymorphism -- Birth weight and gestation time in relation to maternal age, parity, and infant survival -- Natural selection associated with birth weight : towards the end of the stabilizing component -- A résumé of investigations on the evolution of melanism in the Lepidoptera -- The theory of selection for melanism in Lepidoptera -- Oscillating selection on Darwin's finches -- Bacterial resistance to antibiotics -- Section C : Neutral drift and molecular evolution -- The paradox of variation -- Recent developments of the neutral theory viewed from the Wrightian tradition of theoretical population genetics -- The current significance and standing of neutral and nearly neutral theories -- The neutral theory is dead. Long live the neutral theory -- Section D : Adaptation -- The nature of adaptation -- Adaptation and natural selection -- An operational, nonhistorical definition of adaptation -- The genetics of adaptation : a reassessment -- The perfection of animals -- The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm : a critique of the adaptationist programme -- Artifact hermeneutics, or reverse engineering -- Section E : Biodiversity -- Typological versus population thinking -- Species concepts and their application -- Laboratory experiments on speciation : what have we learned in 40 years? -- Hybrid speciation -- Role of gene interactions in hybrid speciation : evidence from ancient and experimental hybrids -- Microorganisms associated with chromosome destruction and reproductive isolation between two insect species -- Can classification do without evolution? -- Section F : Reconstructing the past -- Studying human evolution by computer -- Homology : an unsolved problem -- The eyeless gene -- Molecules and morphology : where's the homology? -- Section G : Macroevolution -- Oriented evolution : orthogenesis and trends -- Rates of evolution -- Speciation in the fossil record -- The fundamental law of organic evolution -- Three poems -- The zootype and the phylotypic stage -- Section H : Case studies -- An unsolved problem of biology -- The origin of the genetic code -- The maintenance of sex -- A caricature of seed dispersal by animal guts -- A pessimistic estimate of the time required for an eye to evolve -- Co-option of eye structures and genes -- Disparate rates, differing fates : tempo and mode of evolution changed from the Precambrian to the Phanerozoic -- Burgess Shale faunas and the Cambrian explosion -- Molecular evidence for deep Precambrian divergences among Metazoan phyla -- Section I : Human evolution -- Immunological time scale for hominid evolution -- A systematic assessment of early African hominids -- The penalty for relaxing natural selection -- On the non-existence of human races -- The scars of human evolution -- The big bang -- Section J : Evolution in education, ethics, philosophy, and religion -- One hundred years without Darwin are enough -- Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution -- The argument from design -- On the molecular theory of evolution -- Evolution and ethics -- Gaia, nature worship, and biocentric fallacies.

Owning institution

1. Princeton University Library

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (p. [408]-410) and index.