How The Leopard Changed Its Spots: Evolution of Complexity

by Brian Goodwin (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1997

  $3.48

  Challenging Darwin's theories, Brian Goodwin argues that it is possible to understand evolution as a process that is pushed by the intrinsic properties of living matter, rather than pulled by natural selection. He shows how seemingly complex strucures such as wings or eyes can be built up in a series of simple, self-organising steps. Goodwin's new biology is not only an exact science, it is also a science for a new age that transforms the competitive individualism into a post-modern science of qualities.

• Used

  Paperback
  1995

  $3.27

  Darwin's concept of the origin of species by natural selection has been a spectacularly successful and durable scientific theory, but it arguably fails in a basic objective, which is to explain the origins of the qualitative differences of structure between species. Life on earth is described purely in historical terms, with no explanation of how different forms of organisms are generated. This text argues that it is possible to understand evolution as a process that is pushed by the intrinsic properties of living matter, rather than pulled by natural selection. It shows that seemingly complex structures such as wings or eyes can be built up in a series of simple self-organizing steps, self-organizing in the sense that they arise directly from the chemistry of the developing organism's tissues. In this way, developmental biology acquires the precision of the physical sciences.