Includes bibliographical references (pages [154]-174) and index.
Contents:
Introduction: an age of enlightenment and evolution -- The organization man -- Big thinking with Buffon -- The life of the lunaticks -- Lamarck and Cuvier: think oil and water -- Watch out for giants -- Erasmus's grandson -- Aboard the Beagle: five years at sea -- Darwin's big idea -- The other guy -- Three papers and an entangled bank -- Mendel minding peas -- Treading a primrose path -- Looking ahead.
Summary:
"Can species change? Or go extinct? In the eighteenth century, most people answer no to both questions. But in the century that follows, that certainty gets challenged as some people in Europe question the common belief that all creatures are the same as they've been since life's creation. The Evolution of an Idea, the second volume of Discovering Life's Story, opens with the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus, who attempts to create an organizing system for the myriad forms of life on earth. It continues into the late 1800s, when two Englishmen-Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace-each develop their own version of a startling new theory of how life-forms change over time. This evolutionary idea will alter the understanding of our place in the great web of life on earth. In this remarkable volume, author Joy Hakim continues charting the path of human discovery and shows how groundbreaking thinkers began to unlock the biological secrets of our own existence"-- Provided by publisher.
Series:
Discovering life's story ; Volume two Hakim, Joy. Discovering life's story ; v. 2.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.