Intellectual Whiplash?

Jun 5, 2006 by Naomi.

Drinking too much coffee stimulates in me what Carl Zimmer calls intellectual whiplash where thoughts jump from one subject to another so quickly they are distractions. It occurs in my head often especially when I should be going to sleep. The immediate cause tonight is a book called “At the Water’s Edge” which is the easiest reading of hard science - biology, actually - that I recently came across. Not all the evolutionary biology is easily understood by me and my lack of education but what makes it easy reading are statements after explanations of deep science such as - Darwin’s heart sank. What a picture of disappointment that describes! Or Jarvik would have wept. Or in the changes in gene switches he likens one to slices of a loaf of bread. And there are many others. Relevant diagrams are included to clarify descriptions.

I came across reference to “At the Water’s Edge” when reading “Endless Forms Most Beautiful” as well as several other references to Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Dawkins. They are also good reading. Time is the restriction. At least for me.

Every new description of evolution makes science exciting! And evolution moreso. Not nearly the letdown some folks consider as too much revelation of reality that spoils the fantasy. This reality is truly fantastic in the truest sense of the word.

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