In this wonderful book, palaeontologist and evolutionary biologist Neil Shubin takes us on a grand history of evolution, demonstrating how the power of progress lies not in the caricature of millions of random changes, but on the way existing structures are constantly repurposed from one use to another - from bones and body segments, to “jumping genes” that move around the genome and are co-opted into new roles, to viruses and bacteria that become absorbed into whole new organisms and allow for wholesale reinvention.


He skillfully weaves the story of evolutionary development into the intellectual discovery of these processes - from before Darwin and Mendel right up to the present day with the Crispr CAS-9 technology, drawing parallels both in the fortunate accidents that lead to progress in both, as well as the fact that of right-time-right-place, that some advancements cannot bear fruit unless conditions are right but, when they are, they are all-but inevitable.


This does exactly what a popular science book should, giving the reader a deeper understanding of the subject while being thoroughly entertaining. ( )