Monday, March 30, 2009

Ingenious

There are a lot of popular books out there about biology, but Darwin's Ghost, by Steve Jones (the biologist, not the Sex Pistol) is such a clever idea that even if it weren't pretty well done I'd probably recommend it.

Jones knows that Darwin's Origin Of Species, like most historical scientific texts, is not read. So he updated it. The original is one long argument, and Jones follows the argument, chapter by chapter, using the same chapter titles, but replacing the content with up-to-date science.

Ironically, the best chapter may be the final one, "Recapitulation and Conclusion," where Jones simply reprints the original, elegant ending.

By the way, as a title, Darwin's Ghost seems somewhat misleading (you're hardly going to think of Darwin's ghostwriter). On the other hand the UK title is Almost Like A Whale, which seems beside the point.

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