To ‘tame’ chance means to break down the very improbable into less improbable small components arranged in series. No matter how improbable it is that an X could have arisen from a Y in a single step, it is always possible to conceive of a series of infinitesimally graded intermediates between them. However improbable a large-scale change may be, smaller changes are less improbable. And provided we postulate a sufficiently large series of sufficiently finely graded intermediates, we shall be able to derive anything from anything else, without invoking astronomical improbabilities. We are allowed to do this only if there has been sufficient time to fit all the intermediates in. And also only if there is a mechanism for guiding each step in some particular direction, otherwise the sequence of steps will career off in an endless random walk.
It is the contention of the Darwinian world-view that both these provisos are met, and that slow, gradual, cumulative natural selection is the ultimate explanation for our existence. If there are versions of the evolution theory that deny slow gradualism, and deny the central role of natural selection, they may be true in particular cases. But they cannot be the whole truth, for they deny the very heart of the evolution theory, which gives it the power to dissolve astronomical improbabilities and explain prodigies of apparent miracle.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Alberts, B., Bray, D., Lewis, J., Raff, M., Roberts, K. & Watson, J. D. (1983) Molecular Biology of the Cell. New York: Garland.
2. Anderson, D. M. (1981) Role of interfacial water and water in thin films in the origin of life. In J. Billingham (ed.) Life in the Universe. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
3. Anderson, M. (1982) Female choice selects for extreme tail length in a widow bird. Nature, 299: 818–20.
4. Arnold, S. J. (1983) Sexual selection: the interface of theory and empiricism. In P. P. G. Bateson (ed.), Mate Choice, pp. 67–107. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
5. Asimov, I. (1957) Only a Trillion. London: Abelard-Schuman.
6. Asimov, I. (1980) Extraterrestrial Civilizations. London: Pan.
7. Asimov, I. (1981) In the Beginning. London: New English Library.
8. Atkins, P. W. (1981) The Creation. Oxford: W. H. Freeman.
9. Attenborough, D. (1980) Life on Earth. London: Reader’s Digest, Collins & BBC.
10. Barker, E. (1985) Let there be light: scientific creationism in the twentieth century. In J. R. Durant (ed.) Darwinism and Divinity, pp. 189–204. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
11. Bowler, P. J. (1984) Evolution: the history of an idea. Berkeley: University of California Press.
12. Bowles, K. L. (1977) Problem-Solving using Pascal. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
13. Cairns-Smith, A. G. (1982) Genetic Takeover. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
14. Cairns-Smith, A. G. (1985) Seven Clues to the Origin of Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
15. Cavalli-Sforza, L. & Feldman, M. (1981) Cultural Transmission and Evolution. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press.
16. Cott, H. B. (1940) Adaptive Coloration in Animals. London: Methuen.
17. Crick, F. (1981) Life Itself. London: Macdonald.
18. Darwin, C. (1859) The Origin of Species. Reprinted. London: Penguin.
19. Dawkins, M. S. (1986) Unravelling Animal Behaviour. London: Longman.
20. Dawkins, R. (1976) The Selfish Gene. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
21. Dawkins, R. (1982) The Extended Phenotype. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
22. Dawkins, R. (1982) Universal Darwinism. In D. S. Bendall (ed.) Evolution from Molecules to Men, pp. 403–25. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
23. Dawkins, R. & Krebs, J. R. (1979) Arms races between and within species. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B, 205: 489–511.
24. Douglas, A. M. (1986) Tigers in Western Australia. New Scientist, 110 (1505): 44–7.
25. Dover, G. A. (1984) Improbable adaptations and Maynard Smith’s dilemma. Unpublished manuscript, and two public lectures, Oxford, 1984.
26. Dyson, F. (1985) Origins of Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
27. Eigen, M., Gardiner, W., Schuster, P., & Winkler-Oswatitsch. (1981) The origin of genetic information. Scientific American, 244 (4): 88–118.
28. Eisner, T. (1982) Spray aiming in bombardier beetles: jet deflection by the Coander Effect. Science, 215: 83–5.
29. Eldredge, N. (1985) Time Frames: the rethinking of Darwinian evolution and the theory of punctuated equilibria. New York: Simon & Schuster (includes reprinting of original Eldredge & Gould paper).
30. Eldredge, N. (1985) Unfinished Synthesis: biological hierarchies and modern evolutionary thought. New York: Oxford University Press.
31. Fisher, R. A. (1930) The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2nd edn paperback. New York: Dover Publications.
32. Gillespie, N. C. (1979) Charles Darwin and the Problem of Creation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
33. Goldschmidt, R. B. (1945) Mimetic polymorphism, a controversial chapter of Darwinism. Quarterly Review of Biology, 20: 147–64 and 205–30.
34. Gould, S. J. (1980) The Panda’s Thumb. New York: W. W. Norton.
35. Gould, S. J. (1980) Is a new and general theory of evolution emerging? Paleobiology, 6: 119–30.
36. Gould, S. J. (1982) The meaning of punctuated equilibrium, and its role in validating a hierarchical approach to macroevolution. In R. Milkman (ed.) Perspectives on Evolution, pp. 83–104. Sunderland, Mass: Sinauer.
37. Gribbin, J. & Cherfas, J. (1982) The Monkey Puzzle. London: Bodley Head.
38. Griffin, D. R. (1958) Listening in the Dark. New Haven: Yale University Press.
39. Hallam, A. (1973) A Revolution in the Earth Sciences. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
40. Hamilton, W. D. & Zuk, M. (1982) Heritable true fitness and bright birds: a role for parasites? Science, 218: 384–7.
41. Hitching, F. (1982) The Neck of the Giraffe, or Where Darwin Went Wrong. London: Pan.
42. Ho, M-W. & Saunders, P. (1984) Beyond Neo-Darwinism. London: Academic Press.
43. Hoyle, F. & Wickramasinghe, N. C. (1981) Evolution from Space. London: J. M. Dent.
44. Hull, D. L. (1973) Darwin and his Critics. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
45. Jacob, F. (1982) The Possible and the Actual. New York: Pantheon.
46. Jerison, H. J. (1985) Issues in brain evolution. In R. Dawkins & M. Ridley (eds) Oxford Surveys in Evolutionary Biology, 2: 102–34.
47. Kimura, M. (1982) The Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
48. Kitcher, P. (1983) Abusing Science: the case against creationism. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
49. Land, M. F. (1980) Optics and vision in invertebrates. In H. Autrum (ed.) Handbook of Sensory Physiology, pp. 471–592. Berlin: Springer.
50. Lande, R. (1980) Sexual dimorphism, sexual selection, and adaptation in polygenic characters. Evolution, 34: 292–305.
51. Lande, R. (1981) Models of speciation by sexual selection of polygenic traits. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 78: 3721–5.
52. Leigh, E. G. (1977) How does selection reconcile individual advantage with the good of the group? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 74: 4542–6.
53. Lewontin, R. C. & Levins, R. (1976) The Problem of Lysenkoism. In H. & S. Rose (eds) The Radicalization of Science. London: Macmillan.
54. Mackie, J. L. (1982) The Miracle of Theism. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
55. Margulis, L. (1981) Symbiosis in Cell Evolution. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman.
56. Maynard Smith, J. (1983) Current controversies in evolutionary biology. In M. Grene (ed.) Dimensions of Darwinism, pp. 273–86. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
57. Maynard Smith, J. (1986) The Problems of Biology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
58. Maynard Smith, J. et al. (1985) Developmental constraints and evolution. Quarterly Review of Biology, 60: 265–87.
; 59. Mayr, E. (1963) Animal Species and Evolution. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
60. Mayr, E. (1969) Principles of Systematic Zoology. New York: McGraw-Hill.
61. Mayr, E. (1982) The Growth of Biological Thought. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
62. Monod, J. (1972) Chance and Necessity. London: Fontana.
63. Montefiore, H. (1985) The Probability of God. London: SCM Press.
64. Morrison, P., Morrison, P., Eames, C. & Eames, R. (1982) Powers of Ten. New York: Scientific American.
65. Nagel, T. (1974) What is it like to be a bat? Philosophical Review, reprinted in D. R. Hofstadter & D. C. Dennett (eds). The Mind’s I, pp. 391–403, Brighton: Harvester Press.
66. Nelkin, D. (1976) The science textbook controversies. Scientific American 234 (4): 33–9.
67. Nelson, G. & Platnick, N. I. (1984) Systematics and evolution. In MW Ho & P. Saunders (eds), Beyond Neo-Darwinism. London: Academic Press.
68. O’Donald, P. (1983) Sexual selection by female choice. In P. P. G. Bateson (ed.) Mate Choice, pp. 53–66. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
69. Orgel, L. E. (1973) The Origins of Life. New York: Wiley.
70. Orgel, L. E. (1979) Selection in vitro. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B, 205: 435–42.
71. Paley, W. (1828) Natural Theology, 2nd edn. Oxford: J. Vincent.
72. Penney, D., Foulds, L. R. & Hendy, M. D. (1982) Testing the theory of evolution by comparing phylogenetic trees constructed from five different protein sequences. Nature, 297: 197–200.
73. Ridley, M. (1982) Coadaptation and the inadequacy of natural selection. British Journal for the History of Science, 15: 45–68.
74. Ridley, M. (1986) The Problems of Evolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
75. Ridley, M. (1986) Evolution and Classification: the reformation of cladism. London: Longman.
76. Ruse, M. (1982) Darwinism Defended. London: Addison-Wesley.
77. Sales, G. & Pye, D. (1974) Ultrasonic Communication by Animals. London: Chapman & Hall.
78. Simpson, G. G. (1980) Splendid Isolation. New Haven: Yale University Press.
79. Singer, P. (1976) Animal Liberation. London: Cape.
80. Smith, J. L. B. (1956) Old Fourlegs: the story of the Coelacanth. London: Longmans, Green.
81. Sneath, P. H. A. & Sokal, R. R. (1973) Numerical Taxonomy. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman.
82. Spiegelman, S. (1967) An in vitro analysis of a replicating molecule. American Scientist, 55: 63–8.
83. Stebbins, G. L. (1982) Darwin to DNA, Molecules to Humanity. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman.
84. Thompson, S. P. (1910) Calculus Made Easy. London: Macmillan.
85. Trivers, R. L. (1985) Social Evolution. Menlo Park: Benjamin-Cummings.
86. Turner, J. R. G. (1983) ‘The hypothesis that explains mimetic resemblance explains evolution’: the gradualist-saltationist schism. In M. Grene (ed.) Dimensions of Darwinism, pp. 129–69. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
87. Van Valen, L. (1973) A new evolutionary law. Evolutionary Theory, 1: 1–30.
88. Watson, J. D. (1976) Molecular Biology of the Gene. Menlo Park: Benjamin-Cummings.
89. Williams, G. C. (1966) Adaptation and Natural Selection. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
90. Wilson, E. O. (1971) The Insect Societies. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
91. Wilson, E. O. (1984) Biophilia. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
92. Young, J. Z. (1950) The Life of Vertebrates. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
INDEX AND KEY TO BIBLIOGRAPHY
This book is meant to be read from cover to cover. It is not a work of reference. Many items in the index will mean something only to people that have already read the book and want to find a particular place again. In such a book, footnotes are an irritating distraction. The following index, in addition to performing the normal function of an index, is intended to replace footnotes by acting as a key to the bibliography. The numbers in parentheses refer to the numbered books or articles in the bibliography. Other numbers refer to pages in the book. Where an indexed word recurs on a consecutive series of pages, normally only the first page, or the page where a definition will be found, is given.
Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device's search function to locate particular terms in the text.
Acquired characteristics, inheritance of, 409, 422, (22)
Adaptation, 16, 253, 407, (19, 89)
Addressing, memory and genes, 166
Aesop, 273, (21)
Altruism, 379, (20, 52)
Ambulance Effect, 41
Amniotes, 366, (92)
Amoeba, 164, 356
Amplifier analogy, 358
Anderson, D. M., 223, (2)
Andersson, M., 304, (3)
Angel wings, 437
Anteaters, 149
Antennapaedia, 328
Ants, 151–55, (90)
in Panama, 153, 277
Archaeopteryx, 372
Archives, DNA, 173
fidelity of, 174
Argument from Design, 7, 10, (71)
Argyll, Duke of, 355, (73)
Arms race, 252, (21, 23)
cyclical, 304
economic end to, 271
between sexes, 252, 262, (85)
Asdic, 32
Asimov, I., 63–64, (5)
Atkins, P. W., 22, (8)
Australian fauna, 142, (78)
Australopithecus, 324, 329
Bacteria, 164, 186, 249
Baghdad, walk to, 58
Bateson, W., 431, (quoted in 22)
Bats, 30–53, (38, 77)
conference of, 50
detector, 34
diversity of, 33
Doppler sensitivity of, 44
ear muscles, 39
economics, 36
frequency modulated cries, 41
lack of angel wings, 437
problems of, 37, 39, 45, (19)
subjective experience of, 47
Bear, polar, 55, (63)
Beaver, 192, (21)
Bee-flower, 87, 90
Beetle, bombardier, 121, (28)
Bennet, G., 56, (quoted in 63)
Best sellers, 313
Biblical Creation, 359, (quoted in 10)
Biochemical pathway, 241
Biomorphs, 78, 333, 441
Birds, echolocation by, 134
Birmingham, Bishop of, 54–59, 449, (63)
Blacksmith, 410
Blueprint, theory of embryology, 415
Boeing 747, random assembly, 12, 333, 354, (43)
Brain, evolution of, 268, 307, 324, (46)
Cairns-Smith, A. G., 211–36, (13, 14)
Cake, analogy for development, 419
Calluses, 421
Carrier frequency, 40
Cataract, 113
Catastrophism, 343–44
Cheetah, 255
Chemists, 205
Chess, 93
Chimpanzee, 167, 372
Chirp radar, 40
Choice discrepancy, 297
Cicadas, periodical, 140–42, (21)
Clade, 367, 396
Cladism, 365, 392–96, (75)
transformed, 396, 398
Classification, 361–403, (60, 75, 81)
arbitrariness of non-biological, 363
cladistic, 365, 392, (75)
molecular, 382, 389, (37, 72)
numerical, 396, (81)
‘traditional’, 393, (60)
uniqueness of biological, 365, 381
Clay, 213, (13, 14)
‘power’, 218
Clouds, 65, 71
Coadaptation, 240
Coelacanth, 351, (80)
Coincidence, 227, 389
Colour, hypothesis of bat sensation, 49
Combination lock, 12
Compact disc, 159, 217
Complexity
but not with hindsight, 13
/> as heterogeneity of form, 11
as statistical improbability, 12
Computer, explanation of, 20
biomorphs, 72
chess-playing, 93
disc analogy, 245
games, 88
model, 90
typing Shakespeare, 67
underestimated, 90, 225
value of, 105
Constant speedism, 349, 373
Constraints on evolution, 436, (58)
Constructive evolution, 239
Continental drift, 142, (39)
Convergence, evolutionary, 133, (92)
by RNA in test-tubes, 190, (27)
Copernicus, 360
Costs and benefits, 36, 270
Cott, H. B., 267, (16)
Covenant, Ark of the, 154
Creationism, 327, 344, 359, 402, 449, (10, 48, 66, 76)
smuggled into evolution, 355, 449
Creator, 23, 200, 449
Cromwell, O., 325
Crystal, 213
Cuckoo, 58
Cultural evolution, 308
Cumulative selection, 64
DC8, stretched, 333, (22)
DNA information technology, 157–95, (1, 57, 88)
computer disc analogy, 245
conservatism, 177
origin, 198, 224
as ROM, 166
selfish, 164, (20, 21)
Dam
beaver, 194, (21)
clay, 220
Darwin, C., 7, 431, (11, 18, 32)
and Argument from Personal Incredulity, 54, (63)
complex organs, 128
gaps in fossil record, 326, 342–43
inheritance of acquired characteristics, 410
miraculous saltations, 355, (32, 73)
and punctuationists, 319, (22)
sexual selection, 285
species, 337
stasis, 348
Darwin, E., 407
Darwinian, caricature, 437
Darwinism, opposition to, 358, (10, 48, 66, 76)
Dating, fossils, 321
Dawkins, J. E., randomizing device, 66
Dealion, unit of improbability, 230
Design
Argument from, 7, 10, (71)
defined, 29
Development, 75, 240, 415, (57)
De Vries, H., 431
Dewdrop analogy, 181
Digital codes, 159
Dinosaur beds, fake human footprints in, 321, 413, (76)
Dog, evolution of, 57, 81
Dollos’s Law, 132
The Blind Watchmaker Page 43
