The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time

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Overview

The Beak of the Finch tells the story of two Princeton University scientists - evolutionary biologists - engaged in an extraordinary investigation. They are watching, and recording, evolution as it is occurring - now - among the very species of Galapagos finches that inspired Darwin's early musings on the origin of species. They are studying the evolutionary process not through the cryptic medium of fossils but in real time, in the wild, in the flesh. The finches that Darwin took from Galapagos at the time of his voyage on the Beagle led to his first veiled hints about his revolutionary theory. But Darwin himself never saw evolution as Peter and Rosemary Grant have been seeing it - in the act of happening. For more than
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Overview

The Beak of the Finch tells the story of two Princeton University scientists - evolutionary biologists - engaged in an extraordinary investigation. They are watching, and recording, evolution as it is occurring - now - among the very species of Galapagos finches that inspired Darwin's early musings on the origin of species. They are studying the evolutionary process not through the cryptic medium of fossils but in real time, in the wild, in the flesh. The finches that Darwin took from Galapagos at the time of his voyage on the Beagle led to his first veiled hints about his revolutionary theory. But Darwin himself never saw evolution as Peter and Rosemary Grant have been seeing it - in the act of happening. For more than twenty years they have been monitoring generation after generation of finches on the island of Daphne Major - measuring, weighing, observing, tracking, analyzing on computers their struggle for existence. We see the Grants at work on the island among the thousands of living, nesting, hatching, growing birds whose world and lives are the Grants' primary laboratory. We explore the special circumstances that make the Galapagos archipelago a paradise for evolutionary research: an isolated population of birds that cannot easily fly away and mate with other populations, islands that are the tips of young volcanoes and thus still rapidly evolving as does the life that they support, a food supply changing radically in response to radical variations of climate - so that in a brief span of time the Grants can see the beak of the finch adapt. And we watch the Grants' team observe evolution at a level that was totally inaccessible to Darwin: the molecular level, as the DNA in the blood samples taken from the birds reveals evolutionary change. Here, brilliantly and lucidly recounted - with important implications for our own day, when man's alterations of the environment are speeding the rate of evolutionary changes - is a scientific enterprise in the grand m

On a remote outpost of the Galapagos, where Darwin received his first inklings of the theory of evolution, two scientists, Peter and Rosemary Grant, have spent 20 years measuring the beaks of generations of finches--to prove that Darwin did not know the strength of this own theory. "Spark(s) not just the intellect, but the imagination."--Washington Post Book World. 50 illustrations. Map.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
Weiner follows scientists Peter and Rosemary Grant who, for the past 20 years, have studied the continuing evolution of the beaks of finches in the Galapagos Islands. (June)
Library Journal
This is an account of Peter and Rosemary Grant's research on the microevolutionary modifications that occur in finch beaks as they adapt to environmental changes. Analysis of data collected from 18,000 birds on a Galpagos island over 21 years conclusively demonstrates that the pressures of natural selection are currently altering wild populations. Also, by incorporating others' work on present-day evolutionary variations in fish, insects, and microbes, Weiner (The Next One Hundred Years, LJ 2/1/90) challenges the concept of evolution as a time-frozen process. Harmonized with the writings of Charles Darwin, this book provides the facts to bring alive evolution as an ongoing process. Highly recommended for general collections, but informed readers would do better with Peter Grant's own Ecology and Evolution of Darwin's Finches (Princeton Univ. Pr., 1986).-Frank Reiser, Nassau Community Coll., Garden City, N.Y.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780679733379
  • Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
  • Publication date: 5/28/1995
  • Edition description: Reprint
  • Pages: 352
  • Sales rank: 85,508
  • Series: Vintage Series
  • Product dimensions: 7.96 (w) x 5.14 (h) x 0.74 (d)

Meet the Author

Jonathan Weiner, formerly a writer and editor for The Sciences, is the author of Planet Earth and The Next One Hundred Years.  He lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with his wife and their two sons.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 3.5
( 13 )

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Sort by: Showing all of 13 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted April 5, 2007

    A reviewer

    I have been assigned this book over my SPRING BREAK for my AP Bio class.... I read the first couple of chapters and its interesting in some way, but i wouldn't recommend it to people who are not interested in science...

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  • Anonymous

    Posted August 13, 2006

    On the Contrary, It's a Little Fuzzy for Scientists

    I beg to differ with the folks who said this book was 'filled with statistics' or too scientifically-written. This is a good narrative about a scientific undertaking, and reading it as a scientist, I think it borderlines as a little too flaky in parts. Overall, I really enjoyed the read--it gave you all the gory details about how it must have felt to be Peter Grant working in the Galapagos Islands.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted June 17, 2006

    boring

    it was sooo dull it felt like a book full of statistics. so uninteresting

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 4, 2004

    A Fabulous Book

    This is one of the best popular science books ever written. It is also a beautiful piece of literature and deserved The Pulitzer Prize it received. Bravo to Jonathan Weiner!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 11, 2003

    evil

    i had to read this book for my apes course, and i fell asleep reading it. it may be filled with lots of factual, interesting points, but it presents them in a highly scientific, and overall boring manner. if it was less scientific without the extreme details, it would be a much better book.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 14, 2001

    Opening your view on the world

    As a freshman in high school, my youth group at church began a discussion on evolution and creationism. Suddenly, I was worried. It seemed I could not be a Christian and believe in evolution. I spoke to my biology teacher and he offered his copy of 'The Beak of the Finch'. At first, I wondered if I was getting over my head, but I decided to read it and I sure am glad I did. It opened my mind up, learning of Darwin's predicament, and even his own reactions to his own findings, in a still heavily creationistic world. I recomend this to any one, who wants to learn more of evolution or just for a good read- however, it may not be for those who are uninterested in science.

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