1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910963444903321

Autore

Turner J. Scott <1951->

Titolo

The tinkerer's accomplice : how design emerges from life itself / / J. Scott Turner

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge, Mass., : Harvard University Press, 2007

ISBN

9780674267862

0674267869

9780674044487

0674044487

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (293 p.)

Disciplina

576.8/2

Soggetti

Natural selection

Adaptation (Physiology)

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [239]-268) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Prologue -- 1. Cleanthes' Dilemma -- 2. Bernard Machines -- 3. The Joy of Socks -- 4. Blood River -- 5. Knowledgeable Bones -- 6. Embryonic Origami -- 7. A Gut Feeling -- 8. An Intentional Aside -- 9. Points of Light -- 10. Pygmalion's Gift -- 11. Biology's Bright Lines -- Notes -- References -- Acknowledgments -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Physiologist Scott Turner argues eloquently that the apparent design we see in the living world only makes sense when we add to Darwin's towering achievement the dimension that much modern molecular biology has left on the gene-splicing floor: the dynamic interaction between living organisms and their environment. Only when we add environmental physiology to natural selection can we begin to understand the beautiful fit between the form life takes and the way life works.