By A.C. GRAYLING - BARNES AND NOBLE
Added: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 23:00:00 UTC

Thanks to Sonic for the link.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/bn-review/note.asp?note=21224421


Understanding science is hard for non-scientists because of the technicalities involved, especially the mathematics. But no intellectually responsible non- scientist can get away with ignorance about the sciences, which collectively constitute humanity's greatest achievement. There is no excuse for lacking at least a broad-brush sense of what is happening in fundamental physics, cosmology and biology -- just to take the major areas of contemporary interest -- not least because there are so many good books for the general reader by first-rate practitioners in these fields.

A paradigm case is Jerry Coyne's lucidly brilliant account of evolutionary theory, Why Evolution Is True. For many reasons, among them the rapid advances we are witnessing in contemporary biological science, an understanding of evolution as the central principle of biology is crucial. If we are to be informed participants in the debate about what we want from the applied biological sciences, across the range from medicine to cloning to genetic modification of crops to the saving of endangered species, we need a proper understanding of evolution as the living world's organising principle.

Everyone who reads Coyne's book with attention will acquire this understanding. It is a model of expository clarity and intellectual rigour, a point for other science writers to note; all that readers need note is how accessible it is, and how fascinating. Moreover in it Coyne carefully and conclusively refutes efforts by "intelligent design" creationists to contest evolutionary biology. This, given the state of the debate over biology, is by no means the least important aspect of his book.
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http://www.barnesandnoble.com/bn-review/note.asp?note=21224421

TAGGED: BOOKS, EVOLUTION, REVIEWS