Read Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution By Jonathan B. Losos Full Books Online in HD Quality

A major new work overturning our assumptions about how evolution works

Earth's natural history is full of fascinating instances of convergence: phenomena like eyes and wings and tree-climbing lizards that have evolved independently, multiple times. But evolutionary biologists also point out many examples of contingency, cases where the tiniest change--a random mutation or an ancient butterfly sneeze--caused evolution to take a completely different course. What role does each force really play in the constantly changing natural world? Are the plants and animals that exist today, and we humans ourselves, inevitabilities or evolutionary freaks? And what does that say about life on other planets?

Jonathan Losos reveals what the latest breakthroughs in evolutionary biology can tell us about one of the greatest ongoing debates in science. He takes us around the globe to meet the researchers who are solving the deepest mysteries of life on Earth through their work in experimental evolutionary science. Losos himself is one of the leaders in this exciting new field, and he illustrates how experiments with guppies, fruit flies, bacteria, foxes, and field mice, along with his own work with anole lizards on Caribbean islands, are rewinding the tape of life to reveal just how rapid and predictable evolution can be.

Improbable Destinies will change the way we think and talk about evolution. Losos's insights into natural selection and evolutionary change have far-reaching applications for protecting ecosystems, securing our food supply, and fighting off harmful viruses and bacteria. This compelling narrative offers a new understanding of ourselves and our role in the natural world and the cosmos.

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution

Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution

More Books

Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds

Thomas Halliday

Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves

Frans de Waal

The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us

Steve Brusatte

The Theory of Ecological Communities

Mark Vellend

Pollution Is Colonialism

Max Liboiron

Ten Drugs: How Plants, Powders, and Pills Have Shaped the History of Medicine

Thomas Hager

She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity

Carl Zimmer

Darwin Comes to Town: How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution

Menno Schilthuizen

Your Inner Fish: a Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body

Neil Shubin

A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains

Max Solomon Bennett

Everybody's Fool (Sully, #2)

Richard Russo

Mark Twain

Ron Chernow