One of my fondest childhood memories was from a family vacation to Paris. Of all the wonderful things in that city, one place struck me the most, and my memories, upon a recent revisit, were relit: The Grand Gallery of Evolution. The Grand Gallery is organized far different than American museums. The entire structure is dedicated to placing Darwin's theory of natural selection right in front of you, to let your eyes see the story of life itself. There are few colorful placards, no special themed exhibits, or other things tailored to appeal to pop sensibility. Instead, the viewer is faced with endless rows of skeletal fish, reptiles, amphibians, marsupials, mammals, and crustaceans in one chamber, and a less dense collection of dinosaur fossils in the other room. The skeletons in the first chamber are each placed amidst related species, so as to indicate their shared heritage. The collection spans the smallest fish to the largest whales, the most humble toad to fearsome land predators. There is one particularly morbid shelf that places infant skeletons side-by-side of each ape species, including a human infant skeleton. Above all this is a wide class ceiling window that allows light to pour through onto the specimens. No artificial light is necessary to view life's grandeur.
The Grand Gallery, through the sheer brute facticity of physical evidence, proves what Dawkins in his latest book "The Greatest Show on Earth" proves through citation and argument. Because of his crusading against theism during the 00s, it can be easy to forget that Dawkins is one of the titanic names of evolutionary biology. Not only did he pioneer research into the role played by genetic competition in competitions between organisms, but he has written multiple "user-friendly" guides to the mechanics and intellectual debates within evolution. With this most recent tome, however, Dawkins seeks to provide a much-needed guide to the evidence that proves Darwin's theory. He covers a wide variety of different "sectors" of evolutionary evidence, ranging from fossil dating, comparative anatomy, modern genetics, paleoanthropology, and others. He tackles each of these subjects, and demonstrates that when the study of life is approached with the scientific method in hand, it's impossible not to see the incredible explanatory power of Darwinism. Although Dawkins frequently addresses creationist critiques of evolutionary theory throughout the text, this book has both an effect and appeal beyond those who want to disprove the nonsense known as "Intelligent Design." Dawkins succeeds in paying homage to the awe-inspiring natural history of life itself. The book entertains and inspires, as well as informs.
"The Greatest Show on Earth" is not just some recap of your high school bio courses either. Dawkins is a genuinely talented scientific writer, and his style aids greatly in absorption of the information he presents. However, Dawkins also tells the story of how modern science finally discovered natural selection, along with all the bumps and failures along the way. Furthermore, and this is something I give him a lot of credit for, Dawkins discusses the epistemological challenges that evolutionary biology has struggled to overcome throughout its development. One of the most basic challenges that evolutionary biology faced in its formation, in terms of its conceptual apparatus, was with the way the human mind conceives of living beings themselves. We like to think of living organisms as fixed species, and our complex taxonomical systems help perpetuate this illusion. As Dawkins states though, life is Heraclitean, not Platonic. It is always in flux. Organisms are bundles of genes which constantly compete with each other for expression. All evolutionary changes are contingent by essence. They depend on the pressures and mutations that an individual organism faces. They do not fit into a master plan, and it is clear that there is no intelligence behind their design, at least in the sense that Creationists argue. The physiological and behavioral characteristics that genes express can shift in their usage, and reconfigure to push evolution onwards. Feathers were originally "meant" to keep certain dinosaur species warm, or perhaps aid in sexual selection. However, at some point, natural selection pushed this characteristic towards usage in flight. The eventual usage of feathers for flight was entirely contingent. Evolution easily could have pushed the avian dinosaur species in another direction. This is the same reason, as Dawkins points out, why bats have an entirely different means of flight from birds, because the means by which they gained the ability to fly was contingent. It was based on certain selection pressures they faced at a certain point in their natural history, and was based on what biological tools bats already had in their repertoire, which didn't necessarily have anything to do with flight beforehand. Also, many seemingly complex devices, such as eyes, go through phases of increasing (and sometimes decreasing) complexity, but not because they are working towards an end goal, but because natural selection pushes them in different directions at different points in evolutionary history.
Some of the most fascinating pieces of evidence that Dawkins provides are recent, and highly successful, attempts at recreating species evolution in laboratory settings. By simply exposing microrganisms, inspects, and fish into controlled settings, it has been demonstrated that evolution, and huge leaps in evolution at that, can occur before our very eyes. Many changes that Creationists used to claim were impossible can actually be observed directly by the scientific process!
Aside from this, Dawkins provides the reader with glimpses into the story of natural history in our own bodies, the organs of animals, the fossilized imprints of plants, and countless other sources. The incredible thing, which I don't think I entirely grasped before reading this book, is that the evidence doesn't simply point to the fact that changes occur constantly throughout natural history, but that we can see the battles between competing genes as they're played out in the very bodily being of life itself.
Needless to say, I have a high opinion of this book. If you've been turned off by the sometimes boorish (although often insightful) things Dawkins has to say about organized religion, then I implore you to put aside your prejudices and read this book. Dawkins is a lovely writer when you give him a chance. If you affirm the scientific theory of Darwinism, but don't feel as if you really know much about evolution per se, then this book will go a long way in filling that gap. If you're an ID proponent or a Creationist, then I double dog dare you to read this. I have no doubt that you'll come out shaken.
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Gilderlan brito lima
Beautiful e excelente content about evolution.
Reviewed in Brazil on February 6, 2023
Gilderlan brito lima
Reviewed in Brazil on February 6, 2023
Under this bias, Richard Dawkins presents a very scientific writing, however at the same time filled with a simplicity that makes it possible for anyone to understand the origins and development of life in the whole planet.
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PIEGAIA, Ricardo
Every undergraduate (or high school?) student should read this book, worldwide.
Reviewed in France on November 29, 2014