Carroll: Remarkable Creatures

From Scienticity

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Sean B. Carroll, Remarkable Creatures : Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species. Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. xix + 331 pages; illustrated; maps; includes bibliographical references and index.

A book to fill my head with thoughts of fieldwork! Great stories from the history of geology, zoology, anthropology, and genetics.

Carroll, a professor of molecular biology and genetics, follows scientific explorers from naturalist Alexander Von Humbolt to geneticists Vincent Sarich and Allan Wilson as they pursue the geological history of earth and the evolution of life over time. Covering the past 150 years he charts the development of, and changes in, the understanding of human evolution. Carroll is a wonderful writer and frames this book like a detective story, following the adventures of people who are familiar, like Charles Darwin, and those who are unfamiliar, like John Ostrom.

This is a wonderful book for those familiar with the sciences and those who just like a good adventure story. My only problem with it is now I have a list of about a dozen books to add to my to-be-read pile!

-- Notes by GG