Publisher's Weekly Review
Dawkins (The Selfish Gene) pictures evolution as a vast river of DNA-coded information flowing over millennia and splitting into three billion branches, of which 30 million branchestoday's extant speciessurvive. Emphasizing that the genetic code is uncannily computer-like, comprising long strings of digital information, the eminent Oxford evolutionary biologist surmises that we are ``survival machines'' programmed to propagate the database we carry. From his perspective, nature is not cruelonly indifferentand the goal of a presumed Divine Engineer is maximizing DNA survival. Dawkins cautiously endorses the controversial ``African Eve'' theory, according to which the most recent common ancestor of all modern humans probably lived in Africa fewer than 250,000 years ago. The author's narrative masterfully deals with controversies in evolutionary biology. Natural Science Book Club dual main selection; Library of Science alternate. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Dawkins (Zoology/Oxford Univ.) returns to the concerns of his The Blind Watchmaker (1986), presenting the case for Darwinian natural selection as the only reasonable explanation for biological diversity. The book's initial premise is that the ""purpose"" of life is the transmission of DNA down through the generations. Dawkins offers the metaphor of a river branching into myriad substreams to explain the central phenomenon of evolution: Each species has ancestors in common with other species but is in the present day separate and distinct; traced far enough back, each can be related to all the others. Thus, the study of the DNA in human cells (transmitted only from female ancestors), combined with fairly straightforward mathematics, leads to the conclusion that an ""African Eve"" -- one woman who lived some 200,000 years ago -- is ancestral to all living humans. (Dawkins hastens to add that she is not the only such common ancestor, nor even, probably, the most recent.) He looks at the roles of predation, cooperation, varying sex ratios, and other ""strategies"" that organisms develop to promote survival of their DNA. And he disposes, quietly but firmly, with arguments that certain structures in modern organisms -- wings, eyes, orchid blossoms -- appear so perfectly adapted that no cruder version could accomplish the tasks they perform so well. These structures, in fact, improved in slow increments, states Dawkins. The length of time for natural selection to evolve a complex eye, starting with a light-sensitive spot on the skin and incorporating minuscule changes with each generation, was less than half a million years, and the trick has been done independently at least 15 times. Finally, he considers the question of whether life on Earth is unique, or whether other planets might have evolved intelligent species. Clear and lively, with concrete examples throughout, this account addresses the major issues in modern evolutionary theory without dodging or pulling punches. An excellent overview of the subject. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The newest volume in the new Science Masters series [BKL O 1 94] condenses the subject of inherited genes for readers wanting maximum absorption in a single sitting. As with fellow authors in the series, British biologist Dawkins brings the success of a popular science work (The Selfish Gene, 1989) to the goal of introducing the curious to his specialty, evolution. Dawkins' lecture-like text stakes out firm beliefs in gradualism, rather than variants of "creationism," as the motive force in biological change. To a clerical letter-writer who divines divine design in wasp behavior (and by extension, in the intricate structure of life), Dawkins playfully opposes perfectly natural reasons for bee dances. Another chapter attacks the common notion of purposefulness in any biological process--except for DNA's primal drive to self-replicate. The work is crammed with illustrative examples of Dawkins' conceptions; and although it can get ruthlessly grim, the playful exposition earns Dawkins a place on the biology shelves, again. --Gilbert Taylor
Choice Review
The central, unifying concept of modern biology is evolution, and as such, it provides a perspective on life that is, at times, placed in contrast to religious views. We are all familiar with the encounters between fundamentalists and evolutionists that have sometimes raged, and at other times smoldered, for well over a century. Even at the end of the 20th century we find many in the US who would gladly supplant evolutionary explanations with theist ones. Dawkins's book is a masterful discourse on the genetic underpinnings of evolution, the mechanisms by which biological organisms change over time, and current evolutionary questions. He addresses a wide array of topics, including heredity, DNA, mitochondrial Eve, and human evolution, as well as many of the criticisms of Darwinian evolution raised by creationists. Dawkins has a particular knack for drawing analogies that make even rather complex processes quite clear. He provides straightforward responses to those who would argue for a creationist view, while demonstrating the elegance of scientific reasoning. A mechanistic, yet inspiring, view of life is explored in this deceptively easy-to-read book. All levels. M. L. Weiss; Wayne State University
Library Journal Review
Dawkins continues discussion of the evolutionary themes introduced in his previous popular works, The Selfish Gene (LJ 12/1/76) and The Blind Watchmaker (LJ 2/1/87). Using the concept of a digital river of DNA, he explores the evolution of humans from a single ancestor; evolutions of specific organs (e.g., eyes) and coadaptation of species (e.g., wasps and orchids); nature's physical and behavioral mechanisms to maximize survival of DNA; and, finally, the ultimate results when our DNA reaches out into space. His arguments and examples are clear, compelling, and often amusing. Offering alternative and potentially controversial views of nature and its evolutionary processes, Dawkins's book is an enjoyable read, written in terms understandable to nonspecialists but with nuances appealing to more specialized readers. Recommended for academic and larger public science collections.Jeanne Davidson, Oregon State Univ., Corvallis (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.