A review of my species book 22 Dec 2010 David Morrison, editor at Systematic Biology, has given me a very nice and well informed and researched review for my book Species: A history of the idea. He even likes the cover. I have had some good and mixed reviews, but this one took time and effort, and he gets it right. I particular liked being called “the most readable philosopher that I have ever come across, as I hardly ever needed to use a dictionary to understand his words.” This might go against me in the next Philosopher’s Guild meeting, though… Book Species concept
Book Book review: Freaks of Nature 3 Feb 2009 “Freaks of Nature: What Anomalies Tell Us About Development and Evolution” (Mark S. Blumberg) This book came to me well recommended, and as far as the content goes, I am very impressed. The writing style, however, and the intended audience, are at odds with each other. Read More
Biology mtDNA varies in a single individual 4 Mar 2010 It turns out, according to a recent study, that mitochondrial genomes vary within a single normal individual (human, but we should be able to generalise). What, I wonder, does this mean for the use of DNA barcoding? Read More
Biology The difference between population concepts and “population thinking” 8 Jan 201224 Nov 2022 The late Ernst Mayr is remembered for many things, but a number of his historical and philosophical claims are unravelling. The very clever and perspicacious Rutgers geneticist, Jody Hey, has published a paper in the Quarterly Review of Biology on one of these. Jody is a very good reader of… Read More
Hey!, cheapskate, buy it! It’s got interesting & attractive cover art by Ernst Haeckel ; as such it impresses friends who see it on your coffee table, especially when you tell them you know the guy (not Haeckel).
From Sweden? Morrison works there. I would love a Swedish knighthood. If it was good enough for Linne, it’s good enough for me…
Well, I suppose that the Philosopher’s Guild seeks a coherent unreadableness, which I’m fully confident that you’ll one day achieve because I’ve seen you do it in the past.:) Anyway, John, Merry Christmas.:)
Could be ESL, I don’t know what that is, but neither of the other two. People visit, see it, pick it up from the coffee table and then actually start reading it.
…which is completely the reverse of what I would consider a coffee table book – hence the snark – kind of like “inflammable”