Evolution

The View from the Cottage

With all the attention to creationism in the news these days, Jean-Pierre Rogel decided it was time to show how Darwin's concept of natural selection can be seen in everyday situations — from a summer cottage near a lake — with examples taken from familiar species such as loons, salmon and bears. Moving through modern science, he shows how new discoveries have enabled us to understand life more deeply than in Darwin's time. He focuses in particular on the emerging field of evolutionary developmental biology, called “evo-devo” for short. By showing embryo genes in action, evo-devo explains how animals are constructed. It also explains the extraordinary diversity of the plant and animal kingdoms. Written in a lively style, based on the latest science but without the jargon too often attached to it, Evolution: The View from the Cottage celebrates evolution and finds its traces everywhere around us. You may never see loons, salmon, bears, belugas or even the humble cornstalk the same way again.