City Travel Guides > Books > Evolution

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.The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary Edition--with a new Introduction by the Author
City Travel Guides > Books > Evolution
by: Richard Dawkins

May 25, 2006
Wow. When I finished this book, I did something I had never done before: I read the same book again. The second time through, I underlined things and scribbled thoughts on the inside covers and in the margins and wrote emails to friends about questions forming in my mind. After that second pass, I bought and read Dawkins's "The Blind Watchmaker" and "The God Delusion" and watched his TED video and several other videos of his on YouTube. "The Ancestor's Tale" and "The Extended Phenotype" are on my to-do list. I am quite impressed with this guy.

"The Selfish Gene" is my clear favorite of his books so far, and quite possibly my favorite read of all time. I thought I already knew a lot about evolution, but this book refined my ... Read More:
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.Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
City Travel Guides > Books > Evolution
by: Jared Diamond

July 11, 2005
I know everyone says this - just adding my voice.

The author needs to define his terms - what does he mean by 'smart' when talking about the New Guineans. What does he mean by calling Australia 'backwards'? I wish he developed these vague/biased terms.
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.Molecular Biology of the Cell
City Travel Guides > Books > Evolution
by: Bruce Alberts, Alexander Johnson, Julian Lewis, Martin Raff, Keith Roberts, Peter Walter

November 31, 2007
It was the textbook I was assigned. It was cheap, it came quickly and has a lot of information.
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.Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body
City Travel Guides > Books > Evolution
by: Neil Shubin

January 15, 2008
This is a somewhat breezy overview of the deep links between humans and all other animals that have lived on earth, including not merely fish but worms, jellyfish and even the earliest one-celled creatures. Choosing different aspects of the human body (e. g. hands, heads, sense of smell, hearing, vision etc) Shubin describes how they developed from features present in ancient forms. The earlier forms often served quite different functions but were modified over eons of time in ways quite traceable through the fossil record or DNA. Indeed one of Shubin's main points is that the ancient forms were not replaced but were virtually endlessly modified over time to assume and support (often awkwardly) new functions and support different ways of life. The bodies of living ... Read More:
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.The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist's Guide to Success in Business and Life
City Travel Guides > Books > Evolution
by: Avinash K. Dixit, Barry J. Nalebuff

September 29, 2008
"What do I do when I reach the top of the mountain?" the young man asked the master.
"Keep on climbing," replied the master.

Dixit and Nalebuff got to the top of the mountain with the first edition of this book in 1991. They have continued to climb the last 17 years.

I know of no higher praise.
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.Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique
City Travel Guides > Books > Evolution
by: Michael S. Gazzaniga

June 24, 2008
This fascinating book contains the latest in scientific research. It presents in an unbiased manner, information that is on the bleeding edge of our knowledge of the brain. The areas of research where there is no consensus yet are very clearly disclosed. Even if you aren't a biology major, this book is not just readable, it is captivating.
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.The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology
City Travel Guides > Books > Evolution
by: Ray Kurzweil

September 26, 2006
Very interesting. Author has thought a lot about the topic -- not just surface-level hype that is so common nowadays. But the text drags in some chapters. I'd like to see around 100 of the 500 pages cut out.
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.The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design
City Travel Guides > Books > Evolution
by: Richard Dawkins

September 19, 1996
Dawkins says evolution consists of two things: variation and selection. Variation (in the form of mutation) is indeed the result of random chance. Selection, however, is not at all random, and (when acting on variations) eventually results in the things we recognize as "life".

Most people are unaware that science is now starting to focus in earnest on prebiotic evolution, or what Dawkins has called "universal evolution". Just this week the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published an article on this.

Dawkins does an excellent job of describing the difference between biotic evolution and prebiotic evolution (biotic evolution replicates; prebiotic "evolution" is more like a sieve that "sorts" things and passes no or little information forward. ... Read More:
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.The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature
City Travel Guides > Books > Evolution
by: Matt Ridley

April 29, 2003
"The Red Queen" by Matt Ridley. A review by Ralph Hermansen.
I would buy Matt Ridley's next book without hesitation, no matter what the topic. He is one of the few authors who thoroughly researches his subject and understands the science underlying it. He then delivers the information to you in an interesting way. You certainly get your money's worth in his books.

"The Red Queen" is about the evolutionary forces which has shaped us as human beings. The significance of Lewis Carroll's Red Queen from the book, "Alice in Wonderland", is that we have to run just to stand still. So it is with evolution. We have to improve our survival skills over the generations to keep pace with the other plants and animals which are also advancing in their survival skills.

Much ... Read More:
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.The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (P.S.)
City Travel Guides > Books > Evolution
by: Jared M. Diamond

January 03, 2006
A good read for anyone who's interested in anthropology or evolution. One of Diamond's main points in this book is that humans are not so different from our biological cousins, the apes. In fact, he says, we are more genetically close to chimpanzees than some species of orangutans are to other species of orangutan. Not to spoil the story, but this is a good read!
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