Chance in Evolution

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022640191X
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (264 download)

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Book Synopsis Chance in Evolution by : Grant Ramsey

Download or read book Chance in Evolution written by Grant Ramsey and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-10-25 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This illuminating volume explores the effects of chance on evolution, covering diverse perspectives from scientists, philosophers, and historians. The evolution of species, from single-celled organisms to multicellular animals and plants, is the result of a long and highly chancy history. But how profoundly has chance shaped life on earth? And what, precisely, do we mean by chance? Bringing together biologists, philosophers of science, and historians of science, Chance in Evolution is the first book to untangle the far-reaching effects of chance, contingency, and randomness on the evolution of life. The book begins by placing chance in historical context, starting with the ancients and moving through Darwin to contemporary biology. It documents the shifts in our understanding of chance as Darwin’s theory of evolution developed into the modern synthesis, and how the acceptance of chance in Darwinian theory affected theological resistance to it. Other chapters discuss how chance relates to the concepts of genetic drift, mutation, and parallel evolution—as well as recent work in paleobiology and the experimental evolution of microbes. By engaging in collaboration across biology, history, philosophy, and theology, this book offers a comprehensive overview both of the history of chance in evolution and of our current understanding of the impact of chance on life.

Improbable Destinies

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Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0399184937
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (991 download)

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Book Synopsis Improbable Destinies by : Jonathan B. Losos

Download or read book Improbable Destinies written by Jonathan B. Losos and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-08-08 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major new book overturning our assumptions about how evolution works Earth’s natural history is full of fascinating instances of convergence: phenomena like eyes and wings and tree-climbing lizards that have evolved independently, multiple times. But evolutionary biologists also point out many examples of contingency, cases where the tiniest change—a random mutation or an ancient butterfly sneeze—caused evolution to take a completely different course. What role does each force really play in the constantly changing natural world? Are the plants and animals that exist today, and we humans ourselves, inevitabilities or evolutionary flukes? And what does that say about life on other planets? Jonathan Losos reveals what the latest breakthroughs in evolutionary biology can tell us about one of the greatest ongoing debates in science. He takes us around the globe to meet the researchers who are solving the deepest mysteries of life on Earth through their work in experimental evolutionary science. Losos himself is one of the leaders in this exciting new field, and he illustrates how experiments with guppies, fruit flies, bacteria, foxes, and field mice, along with his own work with anole lizards on Caribbean islands, are rewinding the tape of life to reveal just how rapid and predictable evolution can be. Improbable Destinies will change the way we think and talk about evolution. Losos's insights into natural selection and evolutionary change have far-reaching applications for protecting ecosystems, securing our food supply, and fighting off harmful viruses and bacteria. This compelling narrative offers a new understanding of ourselves and our role in the natural world and the cosmos.

The Logic of Chance

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Publisher : FT Press
ISBN 13 : 013262317X
Total Pages : 530 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (326 download)

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Book Synopsis The Logic of Chance by : Eugene V. Koonin

Download or read book The Logic of Chance written by Eugene V. Koonin and published by FT Press. This book was released on 2011-06-23 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Logic of Chance offers a reappraisal and a new synthesis of theories, concepts, and hypotheses on the key aspects of the evolution of life on earth in light of comparative genomics and systems biology. The author presents many specific examples from systems and comparative genomic analysis to begin to build a new, much more detailed, complex, and realistic picture of evolution. The book examines a broad range of topics in evolutionary biology including the inadequacy of natural selection and adaptation as the only or even the main mode of evolution; the key role of horizontal gene transfer in evolution and the consequent overhaul of the Tree of Life concept; the central, underappreciated evolutionary importance of viruses; the origin of eukaryotes as a result of endosymbiosis; the concomitant origin of cells and viruses on the primordial earth; universal dependences between genomic and molecular-phenomic variables; and the evolving landscape of constraints that shape the evolution of genomes and molecular phenomes. "Koonin's account of viral and pre-eukaryotic evolution is undoubtedly up-to-date. His "mega views" of evolution (given what was said above) and his cosmological musings, on the other hand, are interesting reading." Summing Up: Recommended Reprinted with permission from CHOICE, copyright by the American Library Association.

Evolution, Chance, and God

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Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1628929863
Total Pages : 249 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (289 download)

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Book Synopsis Evolution, Chance, and God by : Brendan Sweetman

Download or read book Evolution, Chance, and God written by Brendan Sweetman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-10-22 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evolution, Chance, and God looks at the relationship between religion and evolution from a philosophical perspective. This relationship is fascinating, complex and often very controversial, involving myriad issues that are difficult to keep separate from each other. Evolution, Chance, and God introduces the reader to the main themes of this debate and to the theory of evolution, while arguing for a particular viewpoint, namely that evolution and religion are compatible, and that, contrary to the views of some influential thinkers, there is no chance operating in the theory of evolution, a conclusion that has great significance for teleology. One of the main aims of this book is not simply to critique one influential contemporary view that evolution and religion are incompatible, but to explore specific ways of how we might understand their compatibility, as well as the implications of evolution for religious belief. This involves an exploration of how and why God might have created by means of evolution, and what the consequences in particular are for the status of human beings in creation, and for issues such as free will, the objectivity of morality, and the problem of evil. By probing how the theory of evolution and religion could be reconciled, Sweetman says that we can address more deeply key foundational questions concerning chance, design, suffering and morality, and God's way of acting in and through creation.

Chance and Error

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 244 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Chance and Error by : Marsh Hopkins

Download or read book Chance and Error written by Marsh Hopkins and published by . This book was released on 1923 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Chance or Purpose?

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Publisher : Ignatius Press
ISBN 13 : 1681490854
Total Pages : 157 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (814 download)

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Book Synopsis Chance or Purpose? by : Christoph Schoenborn

Download or read book Chance or Purpose? written by Christoph Schoenborn and published by Ignatius Press. This book was released on 2009-09-03 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cardinal Christoph Schönborn's article on evolution and creation in The New York Times launched an international controversy. Critics charged him with biblical literalism and 'creationism'. In this book, Cardinal Schönborn responds to his critics by tackling the hard questions with a carefully reasoned "theology of creation". Can we still speak intelligently of the world as 'creation' and affirm the existence of the Creator, or is God a 'delusion'? How should an informed believer read Genesis? If God exists, why is there so much injustice and suffering? Are human beings a part of nature or elevated above it? What is man's destiny? Is everything a matter of chance or can we discern purpose in human existence? In his treatment of evolution, Cardinal Schönborn distinguishes the biological theory from 'evolutionism', the ideology that tries to reduce all of reality to mindless, meaningless processes. He argues that science and a rationally grounded faith are not at odds and that what many people represent as 'science' is really a set of philosophical positions that will not withstand critical scrutiny. Chance or Purpose? directly raises the philosophical and theological issues many scientists today overlook or ignore. The result is a vigorous, frank dialogue that acknowledges the respective insights of the philosopher, the theologian and the scientist, but which calls on them to listen and to learn from each another.

Chance in Evolution

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Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022640188X
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (264 download)

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Book Synopsis Chance in Evolution by : Grant Ramsey

Download or read book Chance in Evolution written by Grant Ramsey and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-10-25 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book to synthesize scientific and philosophical work on chance, this edited volume brings together leading biologists, philosophers of science, and historians of science, who collectively explore the role that chance plays or doesn t play, as the case may be in evolution. The first part of the volume places chance in historical context and explores how Darwin, along with his contemporaries, understood chance in addition to its related concepts; how these various concepts changed as Darwin s theory of evolution by natural selection developed into the Modern Synthesis; and how the chanciness of Darwinian theory affected theological resistance to it. The second part explores the importance of chance in current evolutionary theory. The third and final part focuses on recent empirical work in microbial experimental evolution and paleobiology, with the goal of determining how much of a role chance and contingency has played and continues to play in the history of life. The volume s final chapter investigates the perennial topic of chance in human evolution, beginning with the pre-Darwinian, theistic view that humans are at the pinnacle of the natural world and ending with the Darwinian view, which leaves no room for biological progress. It ultimately presents a more tempered view of biological progress and suggests that although our arrival on the evolutionary scene might not have been inevitable, it might not have been due to chance alone. "

Not by Chance!

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781880582244
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (822 download)

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Book Synopsis Not by Chance! by : Lee M. Spetner

Download or read book Not by Chance! written by Lee M. Spetner and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author criticies neo-Darwinism and suggests replacing it with "the nonrandom evolutionary hypothesis (NREH)"--p. 209.

Randomness in Evolution

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400846420
Total Pages : 149 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (8 download)

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Book Synopsis Randomness in Evolution by : John Tyler Bonner

Download or read book Randomness in Evolution written by John Tyler Bonner and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-03-21 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The important role that randomness plays in evolutionary change John Tyler Bonner, one of our most distinguished and insightful biologists, here challenges a central tenet of evolutionary biology. In this concise, elegantly written book, he makes the bold and provocative claim that some biological diversity may be explained by something other than natural selection. With his customary wit and accessible style, Bonner makes an argument for the underappreciated role that randomness—or chance—plays in evolution. Due to the tremendous and enduring influence of Darwin's natural selection, the importance of randomness has been to some extent overshadowed. Bonner shows how the effects of randomness differ for organisms of different sizes, and how the smaller an organism is, the more likely it is that morphological differences will be random and selection may not be involved to any degree. He traces the increase in size and complexity of organisms over geological time, and looks at the varying significance of randomness at different size levels, from microorganisms to large mammals. Bonner also discusses how sexual cycles vary depending on size and complexity, and how the trend away from randomness in higher forms has even been reversed in some social organisms. Certain to provoke lively discussion, Randomness in Evolution is a book that may fundamentally change our understanding of evolution and the history of life.

Darwin Deleted

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226068676
Total Pages : 329 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (26 download)

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Book Synopsis Darwin Deleted by : Peter J. Bowler

Download or read book Darwin Deleted written by Peter J. Bowler and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-03-22 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of science text imagining how evolutionary theory and biology would have been understood if Darwin had never published his "Origin of Species" and other works.--publisher summary.

A Series of Fortunate Events

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691201757
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

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Book Synopsis A Series of Fortunate Events by : Sean B. Carroll

Download or read book A Series of Fortunate Events written by Sean B. Carroll and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Fascinating and exhilarating—Sean B. Carroll at his very best."—Bill Bryson, author of The Body: A Guide for Occupants From acclaimed writer and biologist Sean B. Carroll, a rollicking, awe-inspiring story of the surprising power of chance in our lives and the world Why is the world the way it is? How did we get here? Does everything happen for a reason or are some things left to chance? Philosophers and theologians have pondered these questions for millennia, but startling scientific discoveries over the past half century are revealing that we live in a world driven by chance. A Series of Fortunate Events tells the story of the awesome power of chance and how it is the surprising source of all the beauty and diversity in the living world. Like every other species, we humans are here by accident. But it is shocking just how many things—any of which might never have occurred—had to happen in certain ways for any of us to exist. From an extremely improbable asteroid impact, to the wild gyrations of the Ice Age, to invisible accidents in our parents' gonads, we are all here through an astonishing series of fortunate events. And chance continues to reign every day over the razor-thin line between our life and death. This is a relatively small book about a really big idea. It is also a spirited tale. Drawing inspiration from Monty Python, Kurt Vonnegut, and other great thinkers, and crafted by one of today's most accomplished science storytellers, A Series of Fortunate Events is an irresistibly entertaining and thought-provoking account of one of the most important but least appreciated facts of life.

Chance, Calculation and Life

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Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1786306670
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (863 download)

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Book Synopsis Chance, Calculation and Life by : Thierry Gaudin

Download or read book Chance, Calculation and Life written by Thierry Gaudin and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2021-05-25 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chance, Calculation and Life brings together 16 original papers from the colloquium of the same name, organized by the International Cultural Center of Cerisy in 2019. From mathematics to the humanities and biology, there are many concepts and questions related to chance. What are the different types of chance? Does chance correspond to a lack of knowledge about the causes of events, or is there a truly intrinsic and irreducible chance? Does chance preside over our decisions? Does it govern evolution? Is it at the origin of life? What part do chance and necessity play in biology? This book answers these fundamental questions by bringing together the clear and richly documented contributions of mathematicians, physicists, biologists and philosophers who make this book an incomparable tool for work and reflection.

Why Evolution is True

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Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 019164384X
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (916 download)

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Book Synopsis Why Evolution is True by : Jerry A. Coyne

Download or read book Why Evolution is True written by Jerry A. Coyne and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2010-01-14 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For all the discussion in the media about creationism and 'Intelligent Design', virtually nothing has been said about the evidence in question - the evidence for evolution by natural selection. Yet, as this succinct and important book shows, that evidence is vast, varied, and magnificent, and drawn from many disparate fields of science. The very latest research is uncovering a stream of evidence revealing evolution in action - from the actual observation of a species splitting into two, to new fossil discoveries, to the deciphering of the evidence stored in our genome. Why Evolution is True weaves together the many threads of modern work in genetics, palaeontology, geology, molecular biology, anatomy, and development to demonstrate the 'indelible stamp' of the processes first proposed by Darwin. It is a crisp, lucid, and accessible statement that will leave no one with an open mind in any doubt about the truth of evolution.

Chance and Necessity

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780140256468
Total Pages : 198 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (564 download)

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Book Synopsis Chance and Necessity by : Jacques Monod

Download or read book Chance and Necessity written by Jacques Monod and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Change and necessity is a statement of Darwinian natural selection as a process driven by chance necessity, devoid of purpose or intent.

Human By Design

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Human By Design by :

Download or read book Human By Design written by and published by . This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Evolutionary Theory

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 022642619X
Total Pages : 394 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (264 download)

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Book Synopsis Evolutionary Theory by : Niles Eldredge

Download or read book Evolutionary Theory written by Niles Eldredge and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-09-23 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The natural world is infinitely complex and hierarchically structured, with smaller units forming the components of progressively larger systems: molecules make up cells, cells comprise tissues and organs that are, in turn, parts of individual organisms, which are united into populations and integrated into yet more encompassing ecosystems. In the face of such awe-inspiring complexity, there is a need for a comprehensive, non-reductionist evolutionary theory. Having emerged at the crossroads of paleobiology, genetics, and developmental biology, the hierarchical approach to evolution provides a unifying perspective on the natural world and offers an operational framework for scientists seeking to understand the way complex biological systems work and evolve. Coedited by one of the founders of hierarchy theory and featuring a diverse and renowned group of contributors, this volume provides an integrated, comprehensive, cutting-edge introduction to the hierarchy theory of evolution. From sweeping historical reviews to philosophical pieces, theoretical essays, and strictly empirical chapters, it reveals hierarchy theory as a vibrant field of scientific enterprise that holds promise for unification across the life sciences and offers new venues of empirical and theoretical research. Stretching from molecules to the biosphere, hierarchy theory aims to provide an all-encompassing understanding of evolution and—with this first collection devoted entirely to the concept—will help make transparent the fundamental patterns that propel living systems.

Adaptation and Natural Selection

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691185506
Total Pages : 335 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis Adaptation and Natural Selection by : George Christopher Williams

Download or read book Adaptation and Natural Selection written by George Christopher Williams and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-30 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biological evolution is a fact—but the many conflicting theories of evolution remain controversial even today. When Adaptation and Natural Selection was first published in 1966, it struck a powerful blow against those who argued for the concept of group selection—the idea that evolution acts to select entire species rather than individuals. Williams’s famous work in favor of simple Darwinism over group selection has become a classic of science literature, valued for its thorough and convincing argument and its relevance to many fields outside of biology. Now with a new foreword by Richard Dawkins, Adaptation and Natural Selection is an essential text for understanding the nature of scientific debate.