The Evolutionary World

The Evolutionary World PDF Author: Geerat J. Vermeij
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1429925779
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
"One of the master naturalists of our time" (American Scientist) reveals how evolutionary theory explains and affects not just the natural world but our society---and its future. Evolution has outgrown its original home in biology and geology. The Evolutionary World shows how evolution---descent with modification---is a concept that organizes, explains, and predicts a multitude of unconnected facts and phenomena. Adaptation plays a role not only in the development of new species but the development of human civilization. By understanding how evolutionary theory has played out in areas such as our economic system, our preparation for catastrophes, and even the development of communities, we can learn not just how these systems work but also what challenges lie ahead. Blind since the age of three, Dr. Geerat J. Vermeij has become renowned for his unique abilities to recognize details in the natural world that other scientists would never have noticed. In this book, he presents a new argument for evolution's broader importance. He explores similarities between genomes and languages, the contrasting natural economies of islands and continents, the emergence and importance of human values, the long-range consequences of global warming, and the perils of monopoly. He also shows that the lessons of evolution have implications for education, our system of laws, and economic growth. The Evolutionary World makes a fascinating argument about the broad-reaching impact and importance of evolution. It offers a way for us to understand and work with evolution's principles so that we can devise better solutions for our own lives, society, and the environment around us.

The Evolutionary World

The Evolutionary World PDF Author: Geerat J. Vermeij
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1429925779
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Get Book Here

Book Description
"One of the master naturalists of our time" (American Scientist) reveals how evolutionary theory explains and affects not just the natural world but our society---and its future. Evolution has outgrown its original home in biology and geology. The Evolutionary World shows how evolution---descent with modification---is a concept that organizes, explains, and predicts a multitude of unconnected facts and phenomena. Adaptation plays a role not only in the development of new species but the development of human civilization. By understanding how evolutionary theory has played out in areas such as our economic system, our preparation for catastrophes, and even the development of communities, we can learn not just how these systems work but also what challenges lie ahead. Blind since the age of three, Dr. Geerat J. Vermeij has become renowned for his unique abilities to recognize details in the natural world that other scientists would never have noticed. In this book, he presents a new argument for evolution's broader importance. He explores similarities between genomes and languages, the contrasting natural economies of islands and continents, the emergence and importance of human values, the long-range consequences of global warming, and the perils of monopoly. He also shows that the lessons of evolution have implications for education, our system of laws, and economic growth. The Evolutionary World makes a fascinating argument about the broad-reaching impact and importance of evolution. It offers a way for us to understand and work with evolution's principles so that we can devise better solutions for our own lives, society, and the environment around us.

Evolutionary Worlds Without End

Evolutionary Worlds Without End PDF Author: Henry C. Plotkin
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0199544956
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
In Evolutionary Worlds without end, Henry Plotkin considers whether there is any general theory in biology, including the social sciences, that is in any way equivalent to the general theories of physics. He starts by examining Ernest Rutherford's dictum as to what science is. In the later chapters he considers the possibility, within an historical framework, of a general theory being based upon selection processes. --

New World Monkeys

New World Monkeys PDF Author: Alfred L. Rosenberger
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691143641
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
"This book is a broad synthesis of new world monkey evolution, integrating their unique evolutionary story into the bigger picture of primate evolution and Amazon biodiversity. Capsule For more than 30 million years, New World monkeys have inhabited the forests of South and Central America. Whether these primates originally came from Africa by rafting across the Atlantic or crossing overland from North America, they soon flourished. This book tells the story of these New World monkeys. Integrating data from fossil and living animals, it explores the evolution of the three major New World monkey lineages as well as how they fit into the broader story of primate evolution and Amazon biodiversity. After providing readers with necessary background in primate taxonomy and systematics, Rosenberger shows that the notion of adaptive zones is central to our understanding of primate evolution. The idea of adaptive zones can explain how radiations evolve, morphological adaptations appear, and communities form. From here, Rosenberger synthesizes what is known about New World monkeys' unique ecological adaptations, including those involving feeding and locomotion, as well as their social behaviour. The book's concluding chapters explore theories of how primates first arrived in South America and what their future looks like given the threat of extinction. Biography Internal Use Only Alfred L. Rosenberger is Professor Emeritus of Biological Anthropology at Brooklyn College. An expert on the origin and evolution of New World Monkeys, Rosenberger has contributed numerous articles in edited volumes and his work is published in journals such as Nature, Journal of Human Evolution and American Journal of Primatology . Audience The audience for this book is scholars and graduate students in biological/physical anthropolog and primatology, and to a lesser extent conservation biology, evolutionary biology, and behavioral ecology . Rationale - no copy text Other Relevant Info - no copy text"--

The Evolution of Beauty

The Evolution of Beauty PDF Author: Richard O. Prum
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0385537220
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
A FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, SMITHSONIAN, AND WALL STREET JOURNAL A major reimagining of how evolutionary forces work, revealing how mating preferences—what Darwin termed "the taste for the beautiful"—create the extraordinary range of ornament in the animal world. In the great halls of science, dogma holds that Darwin's theory of natural selection explains every branch on the tree of life: which species thrive, which wither away to extinction, and what features each evolves. But can adaptation by natural selection really account for everything we see in nature? Yale University ornithologist Richard Prum—reviving Darwin's own views—thinks not. Deep in tropical jungles around the world are birds with a dizzying array of appearances and mating displays: Club-winged Manakins who sing with their wings, Great Argus Pheasants who dazzle prospective mates with a four-foot-wide cone of feathers covered in golden 3D spheres, Red-capped Manakins who moonwalk. In thirty years of fieldwork, Prum has seen numerous display traits that seem disconnected from, if not outright contrary to, selection for individual survival. To explain this, he dusts off Darwin's long-neglected theory of sexual selection in which the act of choosing a mate for purely aesthetic reasons—for the mere pleasure of it—is an independent engine of evolutionary change. Mate choice can drive ornamental traits from the constraints of adaptive evolution, allowing them to grow ever more elaborate. It also sets the stakes for sexual conflict, in which the sexual autonomy of the female evolves in response to male sexual control. Most crucially, this framework provides important insights into the evolution of human sexuality, particularly the ways in which female preferences have changed male bodies, and even maleness itself, through evolutionary time. The Evolution of Beauty presents a unique scientific vision for how nature's splendor contributes to a more complete understanding of evolution and of ourselves.

World Societies

World Societies PDF Author: Stephen K. Sanderson
Publisher: Allyn & Bacon
ISBN: 9780205359486
Category : Macrosociology
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"Surveys 10,000 years of social evolution from the earliest pre-industrial socities to the contemporary globalized world."--Page 4 of cover.

The Evolving World

The Evolving World PDF Author: David P. Mindell
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674041089
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
In the 150 years since Darwin, evolutionary biology has proven as essential as it is controversial, a critical concept for answering questions about everything from the genetic code and the structure of cells to the reproduction, development, and migration of animal and plant life. But today, as David P. Mindell makes undeniably clear in The Evolving World, evolutionary biology is much more than an explanatory concept. It is indispensable to the world we live in. This book provides the first truly accessible and balanced account of how evolution has become a tool with applications that are thoroughly integrated, and deeply useful, in our everyday lives and our societies, often in ways that we do not realize. When we domesticate wild species for agriculture or companionship; when we manage our exposure to pathogens and prevent or control epidemics; when we foster the diversity of species and safeguard the functioning of ecosystems: in each of these cases, Mindell shows us, evolutionary biology applies. It is at work when we recognize that humans represent a single evolutionary family with variant cultures but shared biological capabilities and motivations. And last but not least, we see here how evolutionary biology comes into play when we use knowledge of evolution to pursue justice within the legal system and to promote further scientific discovery through education and academic research. More than revealing evolution's everyday uses and value, The Evolving World demonstrates the excitement inherent in its applications--and convinces us as never before that evolutionary biology has become absolutely necessary for human existence.

The Darwinian Tourist

The Darwinian Tourist PDF Author: Christopher Wills
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191625035
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
In this magnificently illustrated book, Christopher Wills takes us on a series of adventures. From the underwater life of Indonesia's Lambeh Strait to a little valley in northern Israel, to an earthquake in the coral reef off the island of Yap and the dry valleys of western Mongolia, Wills demonstrates how ecology and evolution have interacted to yield the world we live in. Each chapter features a different location and brings out a different and important message. With the author's own stunning photographs of the wildlife he discovered on his travels, he draws out the evolutionary stories behind the wildlife and shows how our understanding of the living world can be deepened by a Darwinian perspective. Wills demonstrates how looking at the world with evolutionary eyes leaves us with a renewed sense of wonder about life's astounding present-day diversity, along with an appreciation of our evolutionary history.

World Trade Evolution

World Trade Evolution PDF Author: Lili Yan Ing
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351061526
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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Book Description
The book provides theoretical and empirical evidence on how world trade evolves, how trade affects resource allocation, how trade competition affects productivity, how China shock affects world trade and how trade affects large and small countries. It is a useful reference which focuses on new approaches to international trade by looking into country-specific as well as firm-product level-specific cases.

Thought in a Hostile World

Thought in a Hostile World PDF Author: Kim Sterelny
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
ISBN: 9780631188872
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
WINNER OF THE 2004 LAKATOS AWARD! Thought in a Hostile World is an exploration of the evolution of cognition, especially human cognition, by one of today's foremost philosophers of biology and of mind. Featuresan exploration of the evolution of human cognition. Written by one of today’s foremost philosophers of mind and language. Presents a set of analytic tools for thinking about cognition and its evolution. Offers a critique of nativist, modular versions of evolutionary psychology, rejecting the example of language as a model for thinking about human cognitive capacities. Applies to the areas of cognitive science, philosophy of mind, and evolutionary psychology.

The Singing Heart of the World: Creation, Evolution, and Faith

The Singing Heart of the World: Creation, Evolution, and Faith PDF Author: John Feehan
Publisher: Orbis Books
ISBN: 1608332195
Category : Creation
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description