Evolution Making Sense of Life 2nd Edition Chapter 2

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 · 108 ratings  · 14 reviews

Start your review of Evolution: Making Sense of Life

A phenomenally informative book about evolution, its mechanisms and affects, how scientists learn about it and use it, and how modern medicine has started to take advantage of it.

Read for USF's Organic Evolution lecture course.

To begin with, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The language was clear and concise, making the subject matter considerably more palatable to read than similar texts have in the past. The accompanying images and graphs are good throughout, and helped me to build on my understanding of the material by offering numerous visual cues. That being said, the concision of the writing often reduced the subjects and terminology into ideas beyond full c

Read for USF's Organic Evolution lecture course.

To begin with, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The language was clear and concise, making the subject matter considerably more palatable to read than similar texts have in the past. The accompanying images and graphs are good throughout, and helped me to build on my understanding of the material by offering numerous visual cues. That being said, the concision of the writing often reduced the subjects and terminology into ideas beyond full comprehension, offering little or no contextual support, and requiring me to seek information from outside sources. This was especially true when completing the accompanying quizzes and study guides, which often focused on concepts poorly covered in the text, and were rife with errors of every design and order.

This entire course was spent compensating for--and criticizing--what the text and accompanying materials lack. Though unconventional, the structure of the course, as it was forced by the limitations of the text, allowed for increased insight into many of the concepts surrounding evolutionary theory.

In general, I like the direction Zimmer and Emlen took with this textbook. The concept is great--introducing university students to evolution through succinct, modern, and highly readable language--and it has the potential to be an excellent addition to the lexicon of the life sciences. I do hope the authors recognize these shortcomings and produce more thorough editions in the future.

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Great textbook, wish I could teach a whole course!

Well written and accessible for a text book.

Nov 20, 2018 Isabell rated it it was amazing

A very interesting and inspiring book about evolution. Before reading this I had no clue there were som many different aspects of evolution. It covers pretty much every thing you have to know about it but it does so in a sensible way.

Not bad for a university textbook. The writing wasn't dry, and was actually sometimes fun to read! Not bad for a university textbook. The writing wasn't dry, and was actually sometimes fun to read! ...more

Aug 22, 2018 Natalie rated it really liked it

Obviously read for a college course. The graphics are great. The real-life scenarios that are in the book are interesting. I enjoyed learning about the topic.

Used for UCLA's LS1 class

Zimmer dryly covers a lot of basic terminology in biology, which makes this a pretty average textbook. He includes a lot of specific anecdotes of animals to make his point and then adds a picture of the animal, which I thought was the best part of the book. The pictures are colorful and a warm welcome when faced with a page of dry text defining some obscure term in biology. Plus, whereas you'll never care (or, in my case, remember) what the Buri experiment is, at least y

Used for UCLA's LS1 class

Zimmer dryly covers a lot of basic terminology in biology, which makes this a pretty average textbook. He includes a lot of specific anecdotes of animals to make his point and then adds a picture of the animal, which I thought was the best part of the book. The pictures are colorful and a warm welcome when faced with a page of dry text defining some obscure term in biology. Plus, whereas you'll never care (or, in my case, remember) what the Buri experiment is, at least you'll remember what a Harlequin beetle or an okapi looks like. The book is already slightly outdated as it mentions that "over half of the genome is composed of neither genes, nor vestiges of human genes, nor regulatory regions" (p.132) though the junk DNA concept has been debunked; again, just part of being an average textbook. If you're looking for something interesting in biology to read, pick up Bryson's Short History of Nearly Everything or go search up animal pictures and see where that takes you. In three words: expensive, dry, basic.

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I read this text for BWU's Bio310: Evolution and thoroughly enjoyed it. The text is easy to read and understand. The authors provide many examples and illustrations to tie concepts to real life. Likewise, the graphs and charts are accessible. I would precariously suggest that they improve one or two chapters that are heavier on math.

Nevertheless, this text is perfect for students and enthusiasts who want to leant more about evolution.

I read this text for BWU's Bio310: Evolution and thoroughly enjoyed it. The text is easy to read and understand. The authors provide many examples and illustrations to tie concepts to real life. Likewise, the graphs and charts are accessible. I would precariously suggest that they improve one or two chapters that are heavier on math.

Nevertheless, this text is perfect for students and enthusiasts who want to leant more about evolution.

...more

Great textbook on evolution, a pleasure to read and explains things well. Lots of great illustrations, figures and tables. The index could be better.

Carl Zimmer is a columnist for the New York Times and the author of 13 books about science. His latest book, She Has Her Mother's Laugh, will be published in May 2018. Zimmer is a frequent guest on Radiolab and has written hundreds of articles for magazines such as National Geographic, The Atlantic, and Wired. He is, to his knowledge, the only writer after whom a species of tapeworm has been named Carl Zimmer is a columnist for the New York Times and the author of 13 books about science. His latest book, She Has Her Mother's Laugh, will be published in May 2018. Zimmer is a frequent guest on Radiolab and has written hundreds of articles for magazines such as National Geographic, The Atlantic, and Wired. He is, to his knowledge, the only writer after whom a species of tapeworm has been named. Visit him at carlzimmer.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/carlzimmerauthor and on Twitter @carlzimmer. ...more

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Evolution Making Sense of Life 2nd Edition Chapter 2

Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25785066-evolution

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