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Did Darwin Get It Right - Essays on Games, Sex and Evolution

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Did Darwin Get It Right discusses some of the hottest issues in biology today. Its author, the eminently quotable John Maynard Smith, discusses such fascinating conundrums as how life began, whether the brain works like a computer, why most animals and plants reproduce sexually, and how social behavior evolved out of the context of natural selection--a process which would seem to favor selfishness. A humorous and insightful writer, John Maynard Smith has the special ability to convey the excitement of science, its complexity and fascination, without baffling or boring his readers. In these 28 brief and accessible essays, Maynard ranges widely over such issues as science and the media, the birth of sociobiology, the evolution of animal intelligence and the limitations of evolutionary theory. For his work on the evolution of sex, Smith won the Darwin medal from the Royal Society, and he has pioneered the application of game theory to animal behavior.

Author(s): Maynard Smith, John
Publisher: Chapman and Hall
Year: 1988

Language: English
Pages: 266
City: New York

Part 1 Science, Ideology and Myth

1. How to win the Nobel Prize 3
2. Storming the Fortress 8
3. Symbolism and Chance 15
4. Science and the Media 22
5. Molecules are not Enough 30
6. Science, Ideology and Myth 39

Part 2 On Human Nature

7. The Birth of Sociobiology 53
8. Models of Cultural and Genetic Change (written with N. Warren) 61
9. Constraints o n Human Behaviour 81
10. Biology and the Behaviour of Man 86
11. Tinkering 93
12. Boy or Girl 98
13. Genes and Memes 105
14. Natural Selection of Culture ? 114

Part 3 Did Darwin get it Right?

15. Palaeontology at the High Table 125
16. Current Controversies in Evolutionary Biology 131
17. Did Darwin get it Right? 148
18. Do we need a new Evolutionary Paradigm ? 157

Part 4 Games, Sex and Evolution

19. Why Sex ? 165
20. The Limitations of Evolution Theory 180
21. The Evolution of Animal Intelligence 192
22. Evolution and the Theory of Games 202

Part 5 The Laws of the Game

23. The Counting Problem 219
24. Understanding Science 225
25. Matchsticks, Brains and Curtain Rings 231
26. Hypercycles and the Origin of Life 237
27. Popper's World 244
28. Rottenness is All 250

Acknowledgements
Index