Product Description

In Darwin's Ghost, Steve Jones has taken on the exciting challenge of rewriting the book of the millennium: Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species. Before The Origin, biology was a set of unconnected facts, but Darwin made it into a science, linked by the theory of evolution (the grammar of the living world). Darwin used the biology of the nineteenth century to prove his theory. Now, using the astonishing advances of the twentieth century, Steve Jones reargues the case. His "new version" of The Origin is a bold and fascinating tour of evolution's wonders, revealing ties between cancer and the genetics of fish, between brewing beer and inheriting disease, between the sex lives of crocodiles and the politics of Brazil.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #855536 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-27
• Released on: 2001-03-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

From Amazon.com
Biologists have a dirty little secret: while practically everyone knows of The Origin of Species (and owes much to it), almost nobody has read it. British geneticist Steve Jones wants to make the arguments contained in that great text accessible to modern audiences, and succeeds with the delightful Darwin's Ghost. Approximating the structure of Darwin's opus, Jones uses the original chapter headings and summaries as a scaffolding to build an up-to-date demonstration of the power of a few simple ideas. Heredity, variation, and natural selection are all you need to infer evolution over time, and now that Jones can fill in the gaps in Darwin's pre-Mendelian understanding of genetics, the case becomes airtight.

More than a polemic, though, Darwin's Ghost is nearly as pleasurable a read as its ancestor is--one suspects that part of Jones's mission is to inspire today's readers to turn back to the grand but humble Origin of Species. While he may not be able to quite match Darwin's vast erudition or hawk's eye for detail, he still makes the theory of evolution shudder and breathe on the page. Dog breeding, mass extinctions, and weird fossils of tiny elephants all march to his drumbeat and--just when you least expect it--return to the main point that all living things share a common ancestor. Whether you're one of the elite who's had the pleasure of Darwin's literary company or you'd like a taste of what you're missing, Darwin's Ghost will bring the spirit of the great man back into your world of ideas. --Rob Lightner

From Library Journal
Using recent empirical evidence, Jones (genetics, Univ. Coll., London) has updated Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (l859) so that the fact of organic evolution is both understandable and relevant to today's general reader. He focuses on dogs, whales, snails, insects, bacteria, and, particularly, the AIDS retrovirus in order to illustrate the struggle for existence and descent with modification through genetic variation and natural selection. Special attention is given to social instincts, biogeography, biodiversity, and the evolutionary affinities among similar species through a common descent. The author stresses that all species and their environments are continuously changing (sometimes rapidly, sometimes slowly), e.g., the organisms and their habitats on the Galapagos and Hawaiian Islands. Furthermore, since Darwin's writings, serious problems with the theory of evolution are being solved in light of ongoing scientific discoveries in population genetics, geopaleontology, and radiometric dating techniques. Very informative and cogently argued, this book is an important addition to the natural history literature. Recommended for all science collections.
-H. James Birx, Canisius Coll., Buffalo
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
One hundred forty-one years after Darwin's opus was published, evolution continues to be rejected by many people. Jones, a British geneticist, possesses the popular touch and deploys it in this mighty effort to explain, for anyone with an open mind, the logic of the theory. His organization emulates the original chapters and subheadings of Darwin's book, though Jones' illustrations of the actions of evolution are altered for familiarity to contemporaries: in Darwin's day, an example used was the breeding of pigeons; in Jones' book, it's the mutation of HIV viruses. Jones' command of biological knowledge and adroitness in presenting it would be for naught but for the forcefulness of his discussion of Darwin's principles: the imperfectibility of reproduction, the slight advantages (or disadvantages) conferred by such imperfections, all worked on by the relentless struggle for existence and the staggering immensity of time, which inexorably leads to descent with modification, that is, to new species. Jones has written an inspiring argument supporting the theory of evolution, vital for anyone doubtful of creationist views but not sure why. Gilbert Taylor