Sean B. Carroll

I've read a lot of books on evolution, and this is one of the best in terms of showing the field work underpinning the science. I especially appreciated including the errors and false trails that science followed, such as the widespread belief that humans must have evolved in Asia, or that huge conflict apparent age conflicts between fossil evidence for human evolution and genetic evidence. The book makes for a series of fascinating real life detective stories as again and again evidence show more comes to light that radically changes our understanding and assumptions of what has come before. show less

This beautifully constructed and written tale of two intellects came as a complete surprise to me. Though I thought I had known both of these thinkers well, I had no idea of the splendid connection they had made before during and after the Occupation of France. Perhaps like Oppenheimer in this country, Jacques Monod informed his scientific thinking and his life choices with a deep understanding of history and the political realities surging around him. While Camus is well-known as both a show more writer of fiction and engaged literary and political commentary, this book shed much light on how his thinking and his actions evolved and became realized. Like the recently published Algerian journals, this text is a must for those of us who love him. All in all a gem not to be missed. Bravo. Vive la France show less

Gobsmacking! From convergent evolution to fossil genes we are here taken through a breathtaking journey into the realm of evolution, with DNA's point of view as sole guide and captain.

Sean B. Carroll's genocentrism is captivating, fascinating, enlightening. His writing style is engaging and very accessible. The whole is a great work absolutely impossible to put down until the last line of the last page!

Brillantly, he also argues for a better recognition of evolutionary science those impact, show more from environmental issues to medicine cannot be underestimated. About, he's not afraid to blow away anti-evolutionary fantasies -from Lyssenko's case in the USSR to the more contemporary and burning debate around the so-called 'Intelligent Design'.

Fantastic! show less

I am well read in popular science and there was little in this book that was wholly new to me. What was new was the idea of synthesizing all into an overarching set of rules that govern “how life works and why.” That is what I found stunning, and that is why I am giving this book five stars. It also gets five stars because it is eminently well written and was a joy to read. It is the type of science book that makes difficult concepts come to life through the telling of real-life stories show more about the amazing men and women who made groundbreaking discoveries. I’d heard most of these stories before in other books and science articles, but their collection here, and use as evidence for a set of rules that govern life on the molecular level to the ecological level, was extraordinary. That is why I purchased the book and I was not disappointed.

However, despite enjoying this book immensely, I can’t help but share how ultimately sorely disappointed I was at the author’s Pollyanna optimism in the end when (very briefly) applying these rules to the health of the planet and the future of life thereon…especially human life. He defended his overt optimism by citing Greg Carr (the American entrepreneur and philanthropist who is primarily responsible for the restoration of Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park) by saying: “Choose optimism because the alternative is a self-fulfilling prophecy.” He’s a scientist; shouldn’t he choose realism? Look almost everywhere and it is so obvious that humankind—mostly by its sheer numbers—is pushing major planet-level natural regulatory systems to the breaking point. Is it not hubris to think that humanity may be able to fix all these complex adaptive systems that we’ve already set careening out of balance and many that we do not yet know we have set out of balance? Personally, I don’t choose either optimism or pessimism; I do choose realism. Doing so does not stop me from enjoying the present moment and still doing whatever I can to make a better future for life on Earth…i.e., to try to do my small part to try to keep the world and its countless array of complex adaptive biological and ecological regulatory systems in balance. show less