NCW Libraries

"From acclaimed writer and biologist Sean B. Carroll, a rollicking, awe-inspiring story of the surprising power of chance in our lives and the world. Why is the world the way it is? How did we get here? Does everything happen for a reason or are some things left to chance? Philosophers and theologians have pondered these questions for millennia, but startling scientific discoveries over the past half century are revealing that we live in a world driven...

Let real-life scientists Sarah Darwin and Eva Maria Sadowski enlighten you about the fascinating facts of evolution: what it is and how it works. Dive into the history of life on Earth and learn about the theory of natural selection that Sarah's great-great-grandfather, Charles Darwin, and naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace came up with together. In this beautifully illustrated book, feature spreads explain the important things that you need to know...

"The Physics of Life illuminates the meaning of evolution in its broadest scientific sense and empowers the reader with a new view of the intertwined movement of all life -- evolution is more than biological. The same physical effect is present in all patterns and flows -- from population growth, to air traffic, to government expansion, to the urge for better ideas. Evolution is everywhere, and the same elegant principles of physics apply to all things....

"A thrilling ride through the history of life itself. See how the extraordinary explosion of living things came about and discover how plants and animals adapted to new environments, even as they were shaping the Earth."--

"Dip below the ocean's surface and you are soon confronted by forms of life that could not seem more foreign to our own: sea sponges, soft corals, and serpulid worms, whose rooted bodies, intricate geometry, and flower-like appendages are more reminiscent of plant life or even architecture than anything recognizably animal. Yet these creatures are our cousins. As fellow members of the animal kingdom--the Metazoa--they can teach us much about the evolutionary...

How did human beings acquire imaginations that can conjure up untrue possibilities? How did the Universe become self-aware? In The Runes of Evolution, Simon Conway Morris revitalizes the study of evolution from the perspective of convergence, providing us with compelling new evidence to support the mounting scientific view that the history of life is far more predictable than once thought. A leading evolutionary biologist at the University of Cambridge,...

The scientist who has been dubbed the "Father of Intelligent Design" and author of the groundbreaking book Darwin's Black Box contends that recent scientific discoveries further disprove Darwinism and strengthen the case for an intelligent creator. In his controversial bestseller Darwin's Black Box, biochemist Michael Behe challenged Darwin's theory of evolution, arguing that science itself has proven that intelligent design is a better explanation...

Reveals how recurring patterns in nature are accounted for by a single governing principle of physics, explaining how all designs in the world from biological life to inanimate systems evolve in a sequence of ever-improving designs that facilitate flow.