My species book receives a Choice award 11 Feb 202011 Feb 2020 I am delighted to tell you that my book Species: The Evolution of the Idea has received a 2019 Choice Reviews Outstanding Academic Title Award! The book met the meticulous Choice criteria from originality, uniqueness, and importance in building undergraduate library collections, to overall excellence in presentation and value to undergraduate students. Eleven of my publisher Taylor & Francis’ [CRC Press] books received the 2019 Outstanding Academic Title Award and, of these, two were from the Species and Systematics book series: Species: The Evolution of the Idea – John S. WilkinsWhat Species Mean – A User’s Guide to the Units of Biodiversity – Julia D. Sigwart Julia will be a contributor to the edited book I am presently working on with Frank Zachos and Igor Pavlinov – Species and Beyond also with CRC Press. Congratulations to her. Philosophy Science Species and systematics Species concept
Ecology and Biodiversity Good news, and bad news… 17 Apr 2008 First, the good news. The inestimable John van Whye has added, with the help of his team of course, 90,000 scanned images of Darwin’s journals, manuscripts and letters. Now the bad news. The Utrecht Herbarium is closing, and no plans have been made to store and make available its collection… Read More
Species and systematics Barcoding and classification, again 3 May 2008 Duck and cover, folks. I’m about to upset somebody. I have previously been fairly critical of DNA barcoding, the proposal to use a small fragment of the COI gene – a mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase, subunit I – as a surrogate marker for species. That is, in simple terms,… Read More
Epistemology Was Darwin a philosopher? 12 May 2010 It is only fair that I apply the same standards to my saviour-figure that I apply to others (Paul Griffiths wants a t-shirt with the slogan “Darwin is my personal saviour”). In fact I published an essay asking whether Darwin was a historiographer, if not a historian (answer: yes). So… Read More
Looks like a useful award to win – I presume it means the university libraries will all get a copy now.