Darwin's Ghost: The Origin of the Species Updated
by Steve Jones

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Book Reviews of Darwin's Ghost: The Origin of the Species Updated

Book Review: Darwin's argument, much advanced
Summary: 5 Stars

Darwin knew that the persuasion would be the hard part. Now a hundred and forty-two years later, many people are still not persuaded, perhaps the vast majority of people. In his introduction Jones notes that, according to an opinion poll taken in 1991, a hundred million Americans believe that "God created man pretty much in his present form at one time during the last ten thousand years." So Jones too has his work cut out for him. Although his lively prose is perhaps more accessible to a modern reader than Darwin's Victorian cadences, he, like Darwin, will reach only a very small minority of the human race. That's a shame since Jones's arguments and evidence for the veritable fact of evolution are overwhelmingly powerful and impossible to deny. They are also fascinating to read. Some examples:

So powerful is the process of evolution that zoos, human institutions that attempt to preserve threatened species, cannot. Instead the animals evolve within the constraints of their new environment and become (eventually) altered versions of their wild ancestors (p. 36).

On the differentiation of sex cells into sperm and egg, Jones writes, "Long ago...sex cells were all the same size and fused to make an embryo... Then self-interest made an appearance and one partner moved to making smaller but more abundant cells. He (for such was, from that moment, his gender) might have hungry young, but there were more of them" (pp. 81-82)

On the "Cambrian Explosion": "...a failure of the geological record rather than of the Darwinian machine. Its radical new groups reflect not a set of exceptional events, but something more banal: the first appearance of animals with parts capable of preservation" (p. 207)

Professor Jones does not limit himself strictly to observations on evolution. His erudition includes references and allusions to literature, classic and modern, notably Shakespearean, where the grave digger from Hamlet makes an appearance in order to further our knowledge of the decomposition of buried bodies. Jones is particularly strong on using knowledge from other disciplines to illustrate the process of evolution. He notes, for example, that a new Hawaiian island, "to be named Loihi" is "under construction" and due to "break the surface in thirty thousand years" (p. 262) On page 287, we learn that there is a fresh water lake beneath the Antarctic ice that scientists want to drill into "in the hope of finding yet another universe of life." On page 231 we are reminded that four hundred million years ago our year was four hundred days long, the evidence coming from the growth rings of corals.

Part of the illuminating power of this book is in the effective use of metaphor and analogy. Thus a new island rising out of the ocean is compared to a new born child, waiting to be invaded by flora and fauna, grasses and/or bacteria, as the case may be. Or, on page 307, junk DNA is compared to "the letters in a word, still retained in the spelling, but become useless in the pronunciation." Twice Jones refers to species becoming nonsexual as "abandoning their males," an expression that sheds stark light on the nature of sexuality. Sometimes Jones decorates his text with sly, humorous asides, as on page 237 where he is discussing grape varieties he notes that "Britain has an Anything but Chardonnay club." Or on page 294 where he makes the observation that our brain has become "so elaborate as--so far--to be unable to understand itself."

The only weakness of this book--and perhaps it is not a weakness at all--is the conversational tone that contrasts somewhat with Darwin's laboriously cast sentences as he oh, so carefully advanced his argument. Jones knows that the argument is long past the point of being overwhelming. What is really needed is a greater acquaintance with the argument by a larger public. Jones's lively tome, packed with fascinating information, is a small, but welcome step in that direction.

Summary of Darwin's Ghost: The Origin of the Species Updated

More than a polemic, though, Darwin's Ghost is nearly as pleasurable a read as its ancestor is--one suspects that part of Jones's mission is to inspire today's readers to turn back to the grand but humble Origin of Species. While he may not be able to quite match Darwin's vast erudition or hawk's eye for detail, he still makes the theory of evolution shudder and breathe on the page. Dog breeding, mass extinctions, and weird fossils of tiny elephants all march to his drumbeat and--just when you least expect it--return to the main point that all living things share a common ancestor. Whether you're one of the elite who's had the pleasure of Darwin's literary company or you'd like a taste of what you're missing, Darwin's Ghost will bring the spirit of the great man back into your world of ideas. --Rob Lightner

Evolution Books

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