The Beak of the Finch

by WEINER, JONATHAN

• ISBN13: 9780679733379
• ISBN10: 067973337X
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-05-30
• Publisher: Vintage

Summary

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize On a desert island in the heart of the Galapagos archipelago, where Darwin received his first inklings of the theory of evolution, two scientists, Peter and Rosemary Grant, have spent twenty years proving that Darwin did not know the strength of his own theory. For among the finches of Daphne Major, natural selection is neither rare nor slow: it is taking place by the hour, and we can watch. In this dramatic story of groundbreaking scientific research, Jonathan Weiner follows these scientists as they watch Darwin's finches and come up with a new understanding of life itself. The Beak of the Finchis an elegantly written and compelling masterpiece of theory and explication in the tradition of Stephen Jay Gould.

Author Biography

Jonathan Weiner, formerly a writer and editor for <b>The Sciences</b>, is the author of <b>Planet Earth</b> and <b>The Next One Hundred Years</b>.  He lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with his wife and their two sons.

Table of Contents

PART ONE: EVOLUTION IN THE FLESH	3	(112)
1. Daphne Major	3	(14)
2. What Darwin Saw	17	(20)
3. Infinite Variety	37	(12)
4. Darwin's Beaks	49	(21)
5. A Special Providence	70	(13)
6. Darwin's Forces	83	(16)
7. Twenty-five Thousand Darwins	99	(16)
PART TWO: NEW BEINGS ON THIS EARTH	115	(98)
8. Princeton	115	(11)
9. Creation by Variation	126	(14)
10. The Ever-Turning Sword	140	(17)
11. Invisible Coasts	157	(20)
12. Cosmic Partings	177	(13)
13. Fusion or Fission?	190	(13)
14. New Beings	203	(10)
PART THREE: G.O.D.	213	(81)
15. Invisible Characters	213	(11)
16. The Gigantic Experiment	224	(12)
17. The Stranger's Power	236	(15)
18. The Resistance Movement	251	(16)
19. A Partner in the Process	267	(11)
20. The Metaphysical Crossbeak	278	(16)
Epilogue: God and the Galapagos	294	(11)
Bibliography	305	(18)
Acknowledgments	323	(2)
Index	325