Classic of biology and modern science sets forth seminal "theory of transformation" — that one species evolves into another not by successive minor changes in individual body parts but by large-scale transformations involving the body as a whole. Rich literary style. Over 500 photographs and drawings. Index.
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First published in 1917, On Growth and Form was at once revolutionary and conservative. Scottish embryologist D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1860-1948) grew up in the newly cast shadow of Darwinism, and he took issue with some of the orthodoxies of the day--not because they were necessarily wrong, he said, but because they violated the spirit of Occam's razor, in which simple explanations are preferable to complex ones. In the case of such subjects as the growth of eggs, skeletons, and crystals, Thompson cited mathematical authority: these were matters of "economy and transformation," and they could be explained by laws governing surface tension and the like. (He doubtless would have enjoyed the study of fractals, which came after his time.) In On Growth and Form, he examines such matters as the curve of frequency or bell curve (which explains variations in height among 10-year-old schoolboys, the florets of a daisy, the distribution of darts on a cork board, the thickness of stripes along a zebra's flanks, the shape of mountain ranges and sand dunes) and spirals (which turn up everywhere in nature you look: in the curve of a seashell, the swirl of water boiling in a saucepan, the sweep of faraway nebulae, the twist of a strand of DNA, the turns of the labyrinth in which the legendary Minotaur lived out its days). The result is an astonishingly varied book that repays skimming and close reading alike. English biologist Sir Peter Medawar called Thompson's tome "beyond comparison the finest work of literature in all the annals of science that have been recorded in the English tongue." --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
Why do living things and physical phenomena take the forms they do? Analyzing the mathematical and physical aspects of biological processes, this historic work, first published in 1917, has become renowned as well for the poetry of is descriptions.
--This text refers to an alternate
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
176 of 179 people found the following review helpful
By Golan Levin
Format:Paperback
Don't get me wrong -- "On Growth and Form" is one of my absolute top favorite books of all time. Possibly my favorite book, in fact. This review is a warning to make sure you get the right imprint.
Unfortunately some publishers think that they know better than D'Arcy Thompson, and cut out more than half of the original material. After all, nobody these days actually looks at equations, right? Well I do, and the pathetic edition by Canto (368 pages) weighs with less than 33% of the material in the modern unexpurgated reprint by Dover (1116 pages).
Amazingly enough, the redacted Canto version costs nearly the same as the Dover complete. If you care about this material, take care to get all of it.
Unfortunately some publishers think that they know better than D'Arcy Thompson, and cut out more than half of the original material. After all, nobody these days actually looks at equations, right? Well I do, and the pathetic edition by Canto (368 pages) weighs with less than 33% of the material in the modern unexpurgated reprint by Dover (1116 pages).
Amazingly enough, the redacted Canto version costs nearly the same as the Dover complete. If you care about this material, take care to get all of it.
36 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I heard about this marvellous book as I was reading in the typical popular science literature years ago now but its almost impossible to avoid contact with this tome of the archetypal polymath D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson. A remarkable man with a wonderful open view of science and the, what's now called, interdisciplinarian approach to the world. Refreshingly full of new ideas especially for his day and even now where conservatism as usual is the norm in scientific circles. I hope many scientists read this book and see not just a curiosity but a representation of a whole approach to the world of nature. I will never forget the first time I read the chapter on coordinate transformations in animal shapes, today's schools simply do not inspire in this way and its time this changed. The prescence of this book, well read, on any person's bookshelf is a must.
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
By chelsea girl
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
When I ordered the book, I didn't even realize the edition was abridged. The book arrived suspiciously smaller than I expected it, almost half size. I thought maybe my memory deceived me, but apparently no.
In the introduction of the editor, Mr. John Tyler Bonner, is so kind as to explain that he mistook a classic book on organism and form, for a scientific one. In order to make the book accessible to general public (who said it was not?) and to "correct" Mr. D'Arcy's writing, Mr. Bonner removed the "dangerous" chapters with "vague" (always according to him) arguments, and the "out-of-date" material, and finally to turned D'Arcy's book into his own.
What I want to clarify is that I am not giving two stars to Mr. D'Arcy's book, for this book I did not read. Instead I am giving 2 stars to Mr. Bonner, to Cambridge University Press, to Canto and to Amazon (for not noting this is an abridged piece of work) for destroying a classic.
REMINDER: THE BOOK IS ABRIDGED EDITION, and the editor not so great
In the introduction of the editor, Mr. John Tyler Bonner, is so kind as to explain that he mistook a classic book on organism and form, for a scientific one. In order to make the book accessible to general public (who said it was not?) and to "correct" Mr. D'Arcy's writing, Mr. Bonner removed the "dangerous" chapters with "vague" (always according to him) arguments, and the "out-of-date" material, and finally to turned D'Arcy's book into his own.
What I want to clarify is that I am not giving two stars to Mr. D'Arcy's book, for this book I did not read. Instead I am giving 2 stars to Mr. Bonner, to Cambridge University Press, to Canto and to Amazon (for not noting this is an abridged piece of work) for destroying a classic.
REMINDER: THE BOOK IS ABRIDGED EDITION, and the editor not so great
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Unreadable
This is the worst product I have ever purchased online.
It is unreadable. It is a photocopy of an earlier publication. Read more
It is unreadable. It is a photocopy of an earlier publication. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Maureen McHugh
5.0 out of 5 stars
Clean
Excellent copy and shipped fast. This is one of the books that I have been waiting to read. clean book.
Published 3 months ago by Sabri Gokmen
2.0 out of 5 stars
Check the number of pages before you buy !!!
This wonderful book contains in its original form more than a thousand clearly written pages, and over five hundred illustrations. Read more
Published 12 months ago by E at C
3.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful book, poor reproduction
I've had this book out from the library so many times that when I saw that it was so affordable on amazon I bought it quickly. Read more
Published 14 months ago by ErinP
1.0 out of 5 stars
Beware this edition
This is about this edition not the book itself. What I received was literally unreadable. Imagine using a copier to copy the pages of a book, with the "darkness" factor set high. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Tron
1.0 out of 5 stars
Unreadable because of poor production
I wish I had read the reviews to this edition before I bought it because I would not have wasted my money. However, my complaint is different from that of the others I have read. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Sarah
4.0 out of 5 stars
On Growth and Form
Amazing book. Like a scientific Ulysses. Every sentence contains an un-footnoted reference or allusion to some other work--literary, scientific, or otherwise. Read more
Published 23 months ago by EtsySweaterTherapy
3.0 out of 5 stars
Oh for heaven's sake
Bonner's abridgment is a fine introduction to an interesting book and is perhaps getting too bad a rap here; anyone who wants to compare it to the original 1917 edition (or the... Read more
Published on February 22, 2011 by Brian Jayne
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding work, full of inspiration (Dover has the right version!)
If you are a biologist, or just interested in life or earth sciences, this book will certainly provide many hours of inspiration and awe for you. Read more
Published on July 6, 2010 by cincosauces
1.0 out of 5 stars
Another excellent book whose Kindle version is terrible!
I have had a copy of this book since I was 16. I have given it as gifts, and believe it to be one of the fundamental books that has changed science and the way we think of the... Read more
Published on September 12, 2009 by Andrew Jones
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