The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time

The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time
by Jonathan Weiner

The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time
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Book Summary Information

Author: Jonathan Weiner
Edition: Paperback
Published: 1995-05-30
ISBN: 067973337X
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Vintage

Book Reviews of The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time

Book Review: Interesting, as well as scientific
Summary: 5 Stars

We visited Galapagos recently and saw the island where most of the story takes place, but were not allowed to land. Although visiting the islands gives you a feel for the location, it is not necessary to enjoy the book. The findings of the research on the finch beaks were very enlightening, explaining how evolution can take place quite quickly. The size of the beaks of the finch would fluctuate back and forth, depending on the climate. It is explained very well.

Summary of The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time

Rosemary and Peter Grant and those assisting them have spend twenty years on Daphne Major, an island in the Galapagos studying natural selection. They recognize each individual bird on the island, when there are four hundred at the time of the author's visit, or when there are over a thousand. They have observed about twenty generations of finches -- continuously.
Jonathan Weiner follows these scientists as they watch Darwin's finches and come up with a new understanding of life itself.
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 Finch is an elegantly written and compelling masterpiece of theory and explication in the tradition of Stephen Jay Gould.

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