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Loading... Darwin's Island: The Galapagos in the Garden of England (2009)| 225 | 4 | 120,930 | 
(3.95) | 5 | Charles Darwin is of course best known for The Voyage of the Beagle and The Origin of Species. But he produced many other books over his long career, exploring specific aspects of the theory of evolution by natural selection in greater depth. The eminent evolutionary biologist Steve Jones uses these lesser-known works as springboards to examine how their essential ideas have generated whole fields of modern biology. Earthworms helped found modern soil science, Expression of the Emotions helped found comparative psychology, and Self-Fertilization and Forms of Flowers were important early works on the origin of sex. Through this delightful introduction to Darwin's oeuvre, one begins to see Darwin's role in biology as resembling Einstein's in physics: he didn't have one brilliant idea but many and in fact made some seminal contribution to practically every field of evolutionary study. Though these lesser-known works may seem disconnected, Jones points out that they all share a common theme: the power of small means over time to produce gigantic ends. Called a "world of wonders" by the Timesof London, The Darwin Archipelago will expand any reader's view of Darwin's genius and will demonstrate how all of biology, like life itself, descends from a common ancestor.… (more) |
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To R.C. Simpson, who first taught me biology  | |
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Introduction
The Darwin Archipelago. Charles Darwin, as every schoolchild knows, saw the finches of the Galapagos in the years he spent there while employed as official naturalist on HMS Beagle. Each island had its own species, and Darwin soon worked out that they shared descent from a common ancestor; that they were a product of evolution. Preface
Charles Darwin, as most people know, saw the finches of the Galapagos in the years he spent in the archipelago while employed as official naturalist on HMS Beagle. In 1842 Queen Victoria went to London Zoo. | |
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Such swindlers also flourish in the botanical world - and in orchids most of all. To his considerable surprise, Charles Darwin found that among those elegant flowers dishonesty pays. Many of his specimens had gorgeous displays, but gave no payment to their pollinators. He found it hard to believe that Nature could be so fraudulent or that insects were so foolish as to fall for 'so gigantic an imposture' and suggested, wrongly, that his plants had an as yet undiscovered reward. His finding throws light on a question that he posed but failed to solve: how can natural selection favour the dishonest? The orchids give part of the | |
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Whatever the future holds, the bicentennial of his birth marks a new era in biology of our planet. The changes are not limited to the rain forest, or the coral reefs, or the teeming tropics, but are hard at work on Darwin's own island and on the people who live there. From Shrewsbury to Galapagos and from worms to barnacles to human beings, there has been a triumph of the average. The earth is, as a result, a far less interesting place than it was when HMS Beagle set the sails. Whether it becomes even less so—and whether it survives at all—depends on the talents of the only creature ever to step beyond the limits of Darwinian evolution. (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Perhaps today's science of the soil will return the compliment by allowing worms and their fellows to restore the damage done to their product: the vegetable mould that keeps us all alive. (main text) (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Envoi
Whether it becomes even less so—and whether it survives at all—depends on the talents of the only creature ever to step beyond the limits of Darwin's theory and to be capable of concern about the future. (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.) | |
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Published in the USA as The Darwin Archipelago : the naturalist's career beyond Origin of Species. An earlier edition of this book was published in Great Britain in 2009 by Little, Brown as Darwin's Island: The Galapagos in the Garden of England." T.p. verso | |
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▾References References to this work on external resources.  Wikipedia in English (1)
▾Book descriptions Charles Darwin is of course best known for The Voyage of the Beagle and The Origin of Species. But he produced many other books over his long career, exploring specific aspects of the theory of evolution by natural selection in greater depth. The eminent evolutionary biologist Steve Jones uses these lesser-known works as springboards to examine how their essential ideas have generated whole fields of modern biology. Earthworms helped found modern soil science, Expression of the Emotions helped found comparative psychology, and Self-Fertilization and Forms of Flowers were important early works on the origin of sex. Through this delightful introduction to Darwin's oeuvre, one begins to see Darwin's role in biology as resembling Einstein's in physics: he didn't have one brilliant idea but many and in fact made some seminal contribution to practically every field of evolutionary study. Though these lesser-known works may seem disconnected, Jones points out that they all share a common theme: the power of small means over time to produce gigantic ends. Called a "world of wonders" by the Timesof London, The Darwin Archipelago will expand any reader's view of Darwin's genius and will demonstrate how all of biology, like life itself, descends from a common ancestor. ▾Library descriptions No library descriptions found. ▾LibraryThing members' description |
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3
An interesting book by geneticist Steve Jones. It's the fourth in a series about Darwin, reflecting his interests and updating them to the present day (which I think is about 2005); I haven't read the others, so I was missing some of the context. However, Darwin's thoughts on worms, barnacles, insects, insectivore plants, sexual selection and our facial expressions are interesting in themselves, and Jones' updating to current research is also pretty fascinating. I felt however that it lacked an overarching structure; the book is fairly granular, each chapter taking one (or more) of Darwin's publications on a particular subject, and linked to the others only in that Darwin cared about the topic. The title is provocative, making the point that the island that really mattered to Darwin was not one of the Galapagos archipelago but the one he was born, married and died on; but we don't get any corresponding exploration of Darwin's Englishness or Britishness. (I'd love to know where he stood on Irish issues, for instance.) It's also just a little out of date - Jones proclaims firmly that modern humans have no Neanderthal DNA, a view that was overturned in 2005. However, the writing is good and engaging, and I might look out for some of the earlier books in this series. (