Selection : The Mechanism of Evolution Hardback

Thisbookhasbeenwritten tomake a pointand tofulfill a need.

Thepoint is that the importance and the distinctiveness of the process of selection have been undervalued by most biologists.

There is, consequently, the need for a book that describes the principles of selection in a simple but reasonably comprehensive way.

Selection Is a Distinct Kind ofProcess Although we are now well into the second century of Darwinism, the theorythatDarwinand Wallaceannouncedin 1858hasnotyetmademuch progress beyond a small coterie of professional biologists.

The reason is thatit isjarringlyunfamiliar toournormalexperienceofhow things come to be.

Few ofus would be able to design a light bulb or a lathe, still fewer the computerand itsattendant softwarewithwhich this sentence is being written.

But we all have a clear idea of what is meant by "design", and we readily, too readily, transfer this notion to the natural world.

A light bulb or a lathe are prefigured in the mind, and constructed according to a plan. It is entirely reasonable to assume that beetles and daisies must be constructed after the same fashion, especially because they are much morecomplicatedthananythingthathumaningenuityhassofarmanaged to devise.

There is, however, a second route to complex organization, throughtheselectionofrandomvariantsthatpropagatenearlyexactcopies ofthemselves.

Itisofverylittleconsequenceinourdailylives,becauseifis somuchmorelaboriousandexpensivethandeliberatedesign.

However,it isanotherwayofconstructingthings. Indeed, sofarasIknow, itistheonly other way of constructing things that we have ever been able to imagine.