Elegantly and persuasively makes the case that “evolution is part lawn, part bush, part tree, part ladder. It defies simple...
A short, reader-friendly discourse on the accidental rise of creatures great and small—emphasis on accidental.
Which is to say that invertebrate-zoologist Arthur (Zoology/National University of Ireland, Galway) tackles the issue of complexity. How do we account, he asks, for the development over eons of bigger organisms with diverse cells and organs? Before Darwin, the answer was God and nature’s ladder, which had a rung for every living thing from lowest bacteria to highest human beings. Darwin went far to discredit the ladder, but it has taken modern genetics and embryology to come up with a nonreligious explanation for why evolution has produced complexity over time. This happened initially, Arthur notes, by a random mutation that allowed single cells to clump together to become multi-cellular. Then came mutations that changed simple critters’ shapes from round to bilateral, which allowed for left and right halves of the body, a rear and a head end that oriented the creature forward. Over millions of years, some creatures got bigger, and their heads got packed not only with mouths for food, but with eyes and ears and noses, the better to explore the environment, and a brain to control them. Copying mistakes could account for all these changes, Arthur observes, particularly duplications of genes that create redundancies of function. Fish have four gill slits on each side but don’t need that many to breathe. So in some species, the forward pair evolved to become jaws. Besides examples from nature, Arthur points to the commonality in the sets of master genes that program the development of the embryo, from fruit flies to humans. He emphasizes that evolution is messy, neither gradual nor saltatory, in prose that is always gentle and professorial—except when it comes to today’s creationists and Intelligent Design advocates, whom he blasts as blatantly dishonest.
Elegantly and persuasively makes the case that “evolution is part lawn, part bush, part tree, part ladder. It defies simple models.”Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2006
ISBN: 0-8090-4321-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Hill and Wang/Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2006
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both...
Italian theoretical physicist Rovelli (General Relativity: The Most Beautiful of Theories, 2015, etc.) shares his thoughts on the broader scientific and philosophical implications of the great revolution that has taken place over the past century.
These seven lessons, which first appeared as articles in the Sunday supplement of the Italian newspaper Sole 24 Ore, are addressed to readers with little knowledge of physics. In less than 100 pages, the author, who teaches physics in both France and the United States, cogently covers the great accomplishments of the past and the open questions still baffling physicists today. In the first lesson, he focuses on Einstein's theory of general relativity. He describes Einstein's recognition that gravity "is not diffused through space [but] is that space itself" as "a stroke of pure genius." In the second lesson, Rovelli deals with the puzzling features of quantum physics that challenge our picture of reality. In the remaining sections, the author introduces the constant fluctuations of atoms, the granular nature of space, and more. "It is hardly surprising that there are more things in heaven and earth, dear reader, than have been dreamed of in our philosophy—or in our physics,” he writes. Rovelli also discusses the issues raised in loop quantum gravity, a theory that he co-developed. These issues lead to his extraordinary claim that the passage of time is not fundamental but rather derived from the granular nature of space. The author suggests that there have been two separate pathways throughout human history: mythology and the accumulation of knowledge through observation. He believes that scientists today share the same curiosity about nature exhibited by early man.
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both scientists and general readers.Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-18441-3
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A magnificent account of a central reality of our times, incorporating deep scientific expertise, broad political and social knowledge, and ethical insight, and Idled with beautifully written biographical sketches of the men and women who created nuclear physics. Rhodes describes in detail the great scientific achievements that led up to the invention of the atomic bomb. Everything of importance is examined, from the discovery of the atomic nucleus and of nuclear fission to the emergence of quantum physics, the invention of the mass-spectroscope and of the cyclotron, the creation of such man-made elements as plutonium and tritium, and implementation of the nuclear chain reaction in uranium. Even more important, Rhodes shows how these achievements were thrust into the arms of the state, which culminated in the unfolding of the nuclear arms race. Often brilliantly, he records the rise of fascism and of anti-Semitism, and the intensification of nationalist ambitions. He traces the outbreak of WW II, which provoked a hysterical rivalry among nations to devise the bomb. This book contains a grim description of Japanese resistance, and of the horrible psychological numbing that caused an unparalleled tolerance for human suffering and destruction. Rhodes depicts the Faustian scale of the Manhattan Project. His account of the dropping of the bomb itself, and of the awful firebombing that prepared its way, is unforgettable. Although Rhodes' gallery of names and events is sometimes dizzying, his scientific discussions often daunting, he has written a book of great drama and sweep. A superb accomplishment.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1986
ISBN: 0684813785
Page Count: 932
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1986
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