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diya95's review
4.0
My relationship with all things Science had ended in 2006 after I completed my class 10 exams. So this read was quite out of my "domain" so to speak. But Steve Jones sounds like the kind of professor who would be a brilliant conversationalist at a dinner party. He keeps his sense of humour intact in the most unexpected places. I wish I could take pictures of all the brilliant bits that this book is made of but that won't even begin to cover its whole essence.
I look at flowers, bees, orchids...even worms... differently now. It has been so good to make your acquaintance Prof. Jones.
I look at flowers, bees, orchids...even worms... differently now. It has been so good to make your acquaintance Prof. Jones.
suzanna_m's review
4.0
Darwin is most famous for his seminal work On the Origin of Species, and his journey on the Beagle. Upon his return Darwin spent the remainder of his life in England, studying plant and animal life there, eventually paving the way for modern biological study. Jones’ book chronicles these adventures, discussing the questions Darwin asked and the experiments he conducted, and then reviewing the research that has been done since Darwin on the various subjects. He includes diverse topics ranging from barnacles and earthworms, to plant domestication and plant sex. I had little interest in many subjects, but Jones’ anecdotal and simplified writing, as well as his propensity for infusing it with amazing facts, made this book very compelling and fun to read. I lost count of how many times I verbalized my amazement.
This is a popular science book that anyone can enjoy, whether you believe evolution is a fact, theory, or the crazy ramblings of an old bearded man. It is a book on science, life, and the inextricable fusion of all things. My only qualm was the lack of a bibliography or further reading section; as an academic I like to know the source of things, but also I want to learn more on many of these topics now!
This is a popular science book that anyone can enjoy, whether you believe evolution is a fact, theory, or the crazy ramblings of an old bearded man. It is a book on science, life, and the inextricable fusion of all things. My only qualm was the lack of a bibliography or further reading section; as an academic I like to know the source of things, but also I want to learn more on many of these topics now!
nwhyte's review
4.0
An interesting book by geneticist Steve Jones. It's the fourth in a series about Darwin, reflecting his interests and updating them to the present day (which I think is about 2005); I haven't read the others, so I was missing some of the context. However, Darwin's thoughts on worms, barnacles, insects, insectivore plants, sexual selection and our facial expressions are interesting in themselves, and Jones' updating to current research is also pretty fascinating. I felt however that it lacked an overarching structure; the book is fairly granular, each chapter taking one (or more) of Darwin's publications on a particular subject, and linked to the others only in that Darwin cared about the topic. The title is provocative, making the point that the island that really mattered to Darwin was not one of the Galapagos archipelago but the one he was born, married and died on; but we don't get any corresponding exploration of Darwin's Englishness or Britishness. (I'd love to know where he stood on Irish issues, for instance.) It's also just a little out of date - Jones proclaims firmly that modern humans have no Neanderthal DNA, a view that was overturned in 2005. However, the writing is good and engaging, and I might look out for some of the earlier books in this series.
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