The Joy of Science : An Examination of How Scientists Ask and Answer Questions Using the Story of Evolution as a Paradigm / edited by Richard A. Lockshin.

Springer eBooks

How Science Works -- Science is an Elf -- Origin of the Theory of Evolution: Time and Change -- The Origin of the Earth and of Species of Animals and Plants as Seen Before the Enlightenment -- The Seashells on the Mountaintop -- Were Kangaroos on Noah’s Ark? -- Aristotle’s and Linnaeus’ Classifications of Living Creatures -- Darwin’s World—Species, Varieties, And the Age of the Earth. Evidences of Glaciation -- The Voyage of The Beagle -- Is the Earth Old Enough for Evolution? -- Origin of the Theory of Evolution: Social Aspects -- Evaluating Data -- The Industrial Revolution, Population Potential, Malthus, Social Pressure, and Competition -- Natural Selection: the Second Half of Darwin’s Hypothesis -- Darwin’s Hypothesis -- The Crisis in Evolution -- The Molecular Basis of Evolutionary Theory -- The chemical Basis of Evolution -- The stuff of Inheritance: DNA, RNA, and Mutations -- The Genetic Code -- The History of the Earth and the Origin of Life -- The Story of Our Planet -- The Appearance of Oxygen -- The Conquest of Land—Every Criterion for the Classification of the Major Groups of Animals and Plants Refers to Adaptations for Life on Land -- The Great Ages of Our Planet -- Return to Water and to Land -- Evidence for Extinctions—why do we get them? -- The Violence of the Earth: Rainshadows and Volcanoes -- The Origin of Species -- Competition Among Species -- Sexual Selection -- Coevolution -- The Importance of Disease -- The Aids Murder Mystery—What Constitutes Proof? -- The Evolution of Humans -- The Evolution of Humans -- When did Humans Acquire a Soul? -- The Impact of Evolutionary Theory: The Eugenics Society and the I.Q.Test -- Evaluating Population Measurements: Bell Curves, Statistics, and Probability -- Conclusions—where do we go from here?.

This book, by a practicing and successful scientist, explores why questions arise in science and looks at how questions are tackled, what constitutes a valid answer, and why. The author does not bog down the reader in technical details or lists of facts to memorize. Instead, he places the questions in their historical and cultural context, ranging from the earliest intimations that the earth had a long history to current controversies, even describing the origins, challenges, and promises of modern molecular biology. Addressing issues as complex as radiocarbon dating and how we know that DNA is a double helix, he uses examples, illustrations, and descriptions that all students should be able to grasp ("Were there kangaroos in Noah’s Ark?"; "Molecular Biology Ain’t Rocket Science"). He gives the reader a sense of why a scientist feels always "like the child called to the stage to watch the magician do his trick". The author’s thesis is that scientific logic is an extension of the common human logic used by everyone on a daily basis, and that it can and should be understood by everyone.

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