Customer Reviews

Darwin: A Life in Science

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4 star:		(2)
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I bought a copy of this book at the Natural History Museum in London last week, and did indeed read it on the plane back to Seattle. While I did notice some discussions repeated in more than one chapter, I actually found these brief repetitions helpful, as they saved me from leafing back to review material that hadn't sunk in the first time.

I had been looking for a light, quick introduction to Darwin's obstacle-laden pursuit of verifiable truth to give my son as he tackles "On the Origin of Species" in college this year, and I found it in this book. It's not a substitute for reading Darwin's own best works (which are the 1845 edition of "The Voyage of the Beagle" and the first edition [1859] of "Origin"), of course, but that's okay, because that's not its purpose.

Darwin: A Life in Science covers the main details of Darwin's life as well as the background and content of his discoveries, with chapters generally alternating between the personal and the scientific. It avoids the main pitfalls of other Darwin biographies that neglect scientific detail, bog the reader down in historical minutiae, or engage in endless psychologizing in a search for feet of clay.

The White-Gribbin team gives a superior overview of Charles Darwin's life and work. Their focus on Darwin's scientific achievements avoids slipping into the floundering depths of "cultural artefact" or psychological probings offered by some modern students. The pair's straightforward account makes this book a fine initial starting point for those needing an introduction to Darwin's thinking and accomplishments. As they point out firmly, there's much more to the great naturalist's work than simply "The Origin of Species". They trace the fundamental ideas Darwin conceived in generating his various works, showing how some were related to Origin's thesis while others remained a naturalist's observations. In particular, Darwin's long effort to understand the strange lifestyles of barnacles was the vehicle establishing his validity as a zoologist. That status allowed him to express views on the more general workings of nature. He was thus able to produce Origin from an accredited position.

White and Gribben assert that Darwin was but one of several scientists attempting to explain evolution's mechanism. Albert Russell Wallace is, of course, the best known as the co-discoverer of natural selection. Publisher Robert Chambers floated an anonymous proposal in 1844, to almost universal condemnation. That book has been held as the greatest inhibitor to Darwin's publishing his thesis. Yet, according to White and Gribbin, Darwin did publish his concept, scattered through a larger text and almost completely camouflaged.

After building the framework leading to Origin, the authors go on to present accounts of the debates following its publication. There are good sketches of Darwin's defenders, Huxley and Hooker, as well as his opponents, Owen, Mivart and Sedgewick. Darwin's problem of inheritance, which plagued him throughout the remainder of his life, is given skillfully. That he [nor anyone else] had any inkling of Mendelian genetics didn't deter him from offering a scientific proposal based on then current knowledge. The "great barrier" to universal acceptance of evolution remained, as it does among some today, was its application to humans. Even his "co-founder" of natural selection, Albert Russell Wallace demurred at applying the idea to humans. The issue was the human brain and the means of its expression, language. The authors touch lightly on this subject, as did Darwin. In the concluding chapters, however, White and Gribbin pay tribute to today's science of sociobiology in providing many answers to this seeming conundrum.

While not an "in-depth" study of Darwin, this work stands as a testimony to his originality and persistence. The authors make good use of available sources, both primary and secondary. They examine the opposition to evolution today, strenuously recommending Jonathon Weiner's "The Beak of the Finch" as a fitting explanation of how evolution works. They rightly feel it is an important support of Darwin's idea. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

I bought this book at Bethany Beach, Delaware for a summer read-- and enjoyed it as a biography first-- with historical perspectives of the science. I will leave it around for my daughter as she enters high school-- a perfect introduction to Darwin and the scientific method of observation.

Darwin : A Life in Science ....another lovely offspring of the White-Gribbin Series on scientists who changed the way science works... It gives us an as-much-needed account of events in Darwin's life that are necessary to understand the Making of a Scientist...It covers pre-Darwin as well as post-Darwin thinking on Evolution and contradicting thoughts of Darwins's contemporaries and how Darwin used to work unperturbed against all odds...

Having read all these streams of thoughts You are left impressed by the predominant Darwinism.It's interesting to read the account of how Darwin hinted at the error in measuring Earth's Age as carried out by Newton & other stalwarts and how Darwin's theory actually is a preamble to Einstein's theory of Relativity.

This fascinating book doesn't ask of You to be a technocrat as it talks in a lucid , layman's language about great scintific terms. It is a must read for all those who have slightest curiosity about the Origin of mankind or how actually nature works and who won't like to go thru the cryptic original papers on the Theory of Evolution...

After reading this reader is left amazed by thinking of the Herculean task Darwin has carried out although it was recognised posthumosly to Darwin. Very Enjoyable indeed...!!!

Jumping back and forth, this book is disconcerting because of repetions that confuse rather than illuminate. At one point, Mivart, whose ideas have been discussed, is reintroduced as if we had never heard of him. Text is encountered that you could swear you've read before and you continue wondering if a mistake was made by the printer until you are rescued with "as we mentioned in chapter three." Descriptions of the theory and the scientific background within which it appeared are well done. Very easy reading to pass that long plane trip but leaves you feeling less than well acquainted with the man; better simply as an introduction to his theory. When done reading, I felt like a carnivore who has just consumed a plate of vegetables. Not memorable. No demands made on the mind of the reader.

A good intro to Darwin that covers familiar ground in a breezy, readable style. Lots of personal anecdotes. Doesn't delve too deeply into the science itself - I would have liked to see more of the actual debate between Darwin's supporters and detractors. Not particularly well-organized or well-written as evidenced by the amount of repetition. A discernible British tone. Lots of swipes at various organized Religions. In the end, I felt I got to know more about Darwin's personal life than what he actually said. Nevertheless, the book is a good travel guide for further reading on Darwin and evolution, sort of like an intellectual Michelin guide.

This book does indeed gives a good insight into Darwin's life giving a detailed description of his life from young and a brief introduction into how he spreads his ideas of evolution. However the author falls short in giving his readers a more detailed ideas about his works on evolution but instead devotes a large part of the biography on his journey on board the beagle.

This is a well written book, but it is somehow disappointing. For the begginers in the study of Darwin, if you don't care about the constant repetitions in this book.

Oh dear! The authors didn't do their homework and like so much on Darwin is not aware of recent research. Lots of inaccuracies and hopeless on Fanny his first girl friend, whose grave I walk over most days of the week. The bigots in "The Battle aganist Bigotry" are the authors themselves as they give a crude parody of Sam Wilberforce who gave stand SCIENTIFIC objections to Darwin. Why do publishers publish such rubbish?