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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 575.0162 EAN: 9780393316827 ISBN: 0393316823 Label: W. W. Norton & Company Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 352 Publication Date: 1997-09 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Studio: W. W. Norton & Company Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: How do species evolve? Richard Dawkins, one of the world's most eminent zoologists, likens the process to scaling a huge, Himalaya-size peak, the Mount Improbable of his title. An alpinist does not leap from sea level to the summit; neither does a species utterly change forms overnight, but instead follows a course of "slow, cumulative, one-step-at-a-time, non-random survival of random variants"--a course that Charles Darwin, Dawkins's great hero, called natural selection. Illustrating his arguments with case studies from the natural world, such as the evolution of the eye and the lung, and the coevolution of certain kinds of figs and wasps, Dawkins provides a vigorous, entertaining defense of key Darwinian ideas. Product Description: A brilliant book celebrating improbability as the engine that drives life, by the acclaimed author of The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker. The human eye is so complex and works so precisely that surely, one might believe, its current shape and function must be the product of design. How could such an intricate object have come about by chance? Tackling this subject--in writing that the New York Times called "a masterpiece"--Richard Dawkins builds a carefully reasoned and lovingly illustrated argument for evolutionary adaptation as the mechanism for life on earth. The metaphor of Mount Improbable represents the combination of perfection and improbability that is epitomized in the seemingly "designed" complexity of living things. Dawkins skillfully guides the reader on a breathtaking journey through the mountain's passes and up its many peaks to demonstrate that following the improbable path to perfection takes time. Evocative illustrations accompany Dawkins's eloquent descriptions of extraordinary adaptations such as the teeming populations of figs, the intricate silken world of spiders, and the evolution of wings on the bodies of flightless animals. And through it all runs the thread of DNA, the molecule of life, responsible for its own destiny on an unending pilgrimage through time. Climbing Mount Improbable is a book of great impact and skill, written by the most prominent Darwinian of our age. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Like a music box that keeps on playing the same tuneThe beginning of this book is wonderful: astonishing examples of animal mimicry, convergence and divergence, and the marvels of spiders' web construction. This is the sort of biology I love, and Dawkins is one of the best writers of it. But he can't keep it up for long. Almost at the beginning we start to see little hints that this is not just a book of biological wonders - well, the title really gives it away, but then there are things like that word "designoid", and soon we have another ... Read More Rating:  - STILL AT THE FOOT OF MOUNT IMPROBABLEI read CLIMBING MOUNT IMPROBABLE many years ago. I consider it Dawkins's best work. Since I accept the fact of evolution no less than he does, I have no argument with his explanation of the mechanisms by which improbable evolutionary structures evolved. It is his understanding of the nature of these mechanisms as blind and random that I find completely unconvincing. This review is an elaboration of why. Among people who disagree with Dawkins's opinions it is common to point out that his ... Read More Rating:  - Dawkins' Plethora of Illustrated Examples of Gradual Evolution via Natural SelectionClimbing Mount Improbable may be treated as the sequel to The Blind Watchmaker but really reads more like a development of those thoughts. In fact Climbing Mount Improbable is an expanded transcript of Dawkins' Growing Up in the Universe, first broadcast in 1991 in five episodes, which was filmed during a series of Royal Institution Christmas Lectures (which have been held in London annually since 1825 first started by Michael Faraday). For those who have seen the series, Climbing Mount Improbable is that ... Read More Rating: - Evolution of eyes, spiderwebs, wings, and clamshellsMany people find it difficult to understand how complex structures like eyes and wings evolved through random evolution. Dawkins does a thorough job here laying out just how evolution works. He makes it clear that evolution is not random--it is the accumulation of gradual changes, over centuries and millenia. Mutations are random; evolution is not. Dawkins is very good at explaining how each gradual change to a complex structure like an eye or a wing would have been useful enough to the animal possessing ... Read More Rating: - Not the Best Dawkins BookAlthough I called this "Not the best Dawkins Book," notice I still gave it four stars. If you're looking for a dispute against creationism as I know a lot of Dawkins' readers are, then I'd recommend The Blind Watchmaker instead. However, if you're looking for a few interesting examples of the beauty of natural selection at work, Dawkins articulates them well in this book touching on: elephant trunks, spider webs, wasps & figs, the eye, flying things, and some molluscs. |
