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List Price: £10.99
Our Price: £4.91
Author:
Edward O Wilson
By Penguin
 A calm and balanced view of biodiversity and extinction, 2004-04-19
If you watch nature programmes, Edward O Wilson is one of those intrepid biologists you see fairly frequently, looking serious and concerned, dressed for the jungle and being interviewed about deforestation, biodiversity, ecology and so on. He's one of my favourite "talking heads", along with the likes of David Attenborough. This is the first time I've read one of his books and I found it fascinating. His writing style is not as easy and fluent as some other writers I could mention. The best plain English writer in this general area (well, close enough: evolutionary biology, which is just as potentially technical and complicated) is Richard Dawkins, in my opinion. But Mr Wilson's style gets easier after a couple of chapters as you settle into his flow.There's a comprehensive Foreword and, at the end there are Notes, a Glossary and an Index. the body of the book is divided into 3 sections: 1) "Violent Nature, Resilient Life" covers the destructive forces of nature such as those that have wiped out vast numbers of species in the past and describes how life clings on and returns to repopulate zones of devastation. 2) "Biodiversity Rising" covers the generation of biodiversity: how and why new species evolve; the time this takes; potential extent of the diversity in various types of habitat. 3) "The Human Impact" covers the ways humans have driven and are driving species to extinction, the speed of destruction, the time it would take to re-establish a high level of biodiversity, the possible consequences of severe reduction in biodiversity for life on earth and humanity in particular, and what can be done to slow down and reverse the impoverishment trend. The author presents his facts and lays out the case for conservation in a very cool and logical way. He doesn't give the impression of emotional over-reaction that some people in government and industry (those with a strong economic interest) accuse environmentalists of showing. The case set out in this book is chillingly clear and convincing. It's a subject that should concern everyone on the planet so I recommend this book to all of them.
List Price: £7.99
Our Price: £2.87
Author:
Kim Sterelny
By Icon Books Ltd
Really nice overview of both evolutionary theory and the Gould v Dawkins conflict, 2008-04-11
I spent some time looking for a decent primer on evolutionary theory. I've not as yet found something which strikes the right balance between simplicity and depth, but in looking I came across this.
It really is an excellent little book. Gould vs Dawkins for beginners was never going to be easy because you have the challenge of explaining both their actual argument, and the theory behind their argument which is often quite complex. Sterelny manages this well, his explanations are comprehensible to someone who hasn't studied science since GCSE but not too patronising for someone who already grasps the ideas pretty well.
Explaining the differences between Dawkins and Gould is in itself a difficult task because at the end of the day they're pretty slim. But after I'd read the book I felt like I'd picked up a fair understanding of not only what those differences are (or were) but also how they fit into the wider picture of Dawkin and Gould's approaches to science.
Definitely a must for anyone who wants to know a little more about the theory of evolution.
List Price: £12.99
Our Price: £7.99
Author:
Alister E. McGrath
By WileyBlackwell
 Insightful analysis that could be better, 2008-09-07
Reading many of the other reviews of this book, it's pretty clear that most had their minds made up before they ever opened it. I don't recognize in many of the hostile reviews the book that I read. This probably shows that both Dawkins and McGrath are inevitably preaching to the choir, to use a religious metaphor - that Dawkins (writing about religion) will persuade many zealous atheists, despite the (sometimes almost unbelievable!) superficiality of his analysis, and that McGrath will persuade many devout Christians, despite the circularity of some of his arguments.
So, having said all that, Dawkins' God is a lucidly written book, which homes in relentlessly on the weaknesses in Dawkins' treatment of religion - it's strength is that it covers a wide range of Dawkins' writings (rather than just book - a number of Amazon reviewers seem to have missed this, terming Dawkins' God a rebuttal of The God Delusion - read the footnotes!). Its weaknesses are threefold, I think.
First is that at times McGrath on Dawkins is guilty of the same sin as Dawkins on religion - he asserts without sufficient evidence. Yes, this is a short book, for general readers, but some more substantiation is needed of claims about the nature of faith. McGrath is doubtless right that many university-based theologians don't treat faith as simplistic, which is one of Dawkins' major arguments, and very annoying to the many Christians who do blend faith and reason. But there are also many religious people who DO have a very simple faith - and in fact many Christians, at any rate, are proud of that, and actively try to promote simple and simplistic faith, rejecting any use of reason or science. McGrath's characterization of the nature of Christian is not substantiated, in effect he says "It's so because I say it's so" - and thus he fails to acknowledge the complexity and nuances of the nature of religious faith is more complex. (Dawkins is, of course, exactly the same!)
The second weakness is that the writing, though lucid and attractive, is sometimes disorganised. The structure and transitions from one section to the next don't always make sense. This is not always the case and even when present it sometimes is only an irritation, but at times it's a serious weakness.
The chapter on the 'battle between science and religion' is an example - McGrath keeps asserting that in fact the idea that science and religion have always been in conflict is wrong - but he doesn't really substantiate that in his text (I'll come back to that in a minute) and just keeps repeating it, writing around and around in a circle. To be fair to McGrath, his notes cite a series of works on the history of the relationship between science and religion which do support his view - but he doesn't summarize their arguments very well, so that there is no evidence in the text - and there really needs to be, it can't all be left to reading a dozen monographs or articles.
Third, at times McGrath descends into petty points scoring. Again, it isn't frequent, but I think it happens more as the book advances, and while Dawkins is actually much nastier, personally, about people of faith than McGrath is about Dawkins, it still isn't to McGrath's credit. When the arguments become ad hominem, too, it is likely to make a reader doubt the argument.
Nevertheless, much of the book is a detailed and insightful dissection of Dawkins' writings, which superbly brings out that Dawkins is a superb writer with a gift for a brilliant turn of phrase, but that he completely loses his detachment when dealing with religion, in response to which tends to assemble a series of weak, even inane, arguments that have been around forever, and advances them as though they are somehow new, brilliant insights. However, the occasional circularity of some of McGrath's own arguments and a slight tendency to assume, rather than demonstrate, the accuracy of some of his assertions, mean that some of Dawkins' criticisms of religion are unanswered. This is insightful, and exposes the superficiality of much of Dawkins' writing on religion - but it is not the comprehensive critique of Dawkins that the book's publicity claims it to be.
List Price: £8.99
Our Price: £5.11
Author:
Kenneth R. Miller
By HarperPerennial
Fundamentalists will hate it - for everyone else this is brilliant, 2008-04-23
Let me start by saying that both Christian and Atheist fundamentalists will HATE this book! This is a book that shows beyond doubt that religion and science need not be in conflict and the aims of one can be entirely compatable with the other. The fundamentalists on either side would much rather have us believe that having faith in God prevents you having faith in science and vice versa.
This is a book that is both entertaining and written so that it is understandable to those of us without any scientific training. Despite the fact that this book deals with some weighty subjects such as molecular biology, geology and particle physics, there is no point at which you think "this is too complicated for me" and yet you never feel he's talking down to you.
Miller shows that not only are the arguments of the creationists and the proponents of ID wrong, they are also incompatible with true belief - they impose human limits on God and the way He can act. He also shows that those scientists who try to claim that evolution and modern science has shown that God doesn't exist use similarly flawed reasoning.
Miller shows that science and religion can co-exist and more than that, that science shows us a God-created universe that is infinately more subtle, more complex and more fantastic than anything the "puff-of-smoke" creationists could ever envisage.
Forget Dawkins. If you are trully interested in the evolution/ religion debate read this. If you think the world is only 6000 years old - I wouldn't.
List Price: £7.99
Our Price: £2.29
Author:
Brian Charlesworth, Deborah Charlesworth
By OUP Oxford
An excellent summary of current knowledge, 2005-11-11
It is a sign of the times that the authors on occasion take a defensive attitude to their subject. Creationism, for whatever reason, has proved remarkably adaptive and, strange as it may seem, evolutionary biologists still feel obliged to painstakingly lay out the evidence for evolution per se, rather than just discuss its mechanisms or trace its history. The Charlesworths do a good job of this, albeit in a rather dry, academic style that may not suit readers that just want a light, readable introduction to the basic principles of evolution. The book contains a fairly heavy dose of microbiology, as the authors go to some lengths to detail the biological functions underlying heredity and evolution. This is useful revision for readers with high school science, but tough going for the complete beginner. Similarly, the style is plain and succinct but never light or breezy. This is not a dummy's guide. Evolution theory took a spectacular wrong turn in the latter part of the 20th century with the emergence of the idea that selection acts only at the gene level, a view popularized by Dawkins's The Selfish Gene. This bizarre notion gained a considerable following and was the subject of a heated dispute between Dawkins and Gould that ended only with the latter's death. Thankfully, sanity has been restored and it is now once again recognized that selection can take place at any level, and it is refreshing to see the Charlesworths, in this book, stating unequivocally (p 74) that there can be selection at species level and at other levels (p 73). Interestingly, there is an extract from a very favorable review by Dawkins of this book, on the back cover. Did he skip pages 73 and 74 or has he at last seen the light? This series is prone to typos and the mutant printing gene has not been bred out of this particular book. Figure 19 is a monumental example. It is printed in landscape rather than portrait mode, effectively sideways (you'd have to see it to understand) thus leaving half the page blank and half the figure missing. The birds and mammals are therefore cruelly pruned from the tree of life. OUP really should get a grip. Look elsewhere if you want a true introductory text, but select this if you want an excellent summary of the current state of knowledge of evolution and its underlying biological processes.
List Price: £12.99
Our Price: £5.99
Author:
Robert Wright
By Abacus
Challenging and mind-expanding, if sometimes difficult to swallow, 2006-08-09
Occasionally a book comes along that changes you in a profound way. It's partly the book, partly you, and partly where you are in your life when you read it. For me, this was one of those books.
Robert Wright ranges all over. Sex, marriage, monogomy, families, kin bonding and support, social hierarchy and status, reciprocal altruism, and modern morality. If you are interested in the nature of human behaviour and morality, and what modern genetics has to say about it, this book will tell you.
The author doesn't preach. He's very aware that this is a young science and much of what he discusses is speculation. This makes the book stronger: much of it is questions to ponder, not 'truths' to be believed. Open minded rather than didactic.
He also thoroughly debunks many of the myths surrounding evolutionary psychology. As a discipline, it has fallen victim to many mis-respresentations. It's a shame that so much of the discussion around it in the media is so off-base and mis-informed. This book is an excellent way to sort the reality from the propaganda.
Very highly recommended.
List Price: £7.99
Our Price: £5.19
Author:
Alison Gopnik, Patricia K Kuhl, Andrew Meltzoff
By Phoenix
Learning begins in the first days of life. Scientists are now beginning to realise that from birth babies already know a staggering amount about the world around them. In the first book of its kind for a popular audience, three leading scientists draw on 25 years of research in philosophy, psychology, computer science, linguistics and neurosciences to reveal what babies know and how they learn it.
Fascinating, 2007-06-23
Help you understand how babies and young children think.
There are some surprising findings about how much even newborns know.
I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who has young children in their life (and I'm only an uncle). (I've given copies of it to a few new parents I know).
List Price: £19.99
Our Price: £16.20
Author:
Tim D. White, Pieter Arend Folkens
By Academic Press
Very handy, 2006-10-17
I would highly recommend this book to any student of human anatomy, and to any archaeologist who may come into contact with human remains. As with the authors' earlier text "Human Osteology", this book has excellent photographs and descriptions of human bones, but has the added benefit of being small and light enough to carry about, and is cheap enough to take on site without fear. The photographs are now labelled with the names of the bones, rather than an alphabetical key, which makes this a better quick-reference text. Other sections have been expanded and updated, and the front and back covers include very handy fold out photo targets. I gave this book 4 out of 5 because in a few cases (ie the foot) the photos are displayed across two pages and so parts of the pictures are obscured. Overall, though it's great; don't buy Bass, buy this book instead.
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