The book illustrates how Darwin's theory has evolved, about the development of the biological world before Darwin, and great changes that took place with the incorporation of statistics, and after Darwin's death of genetics and mathematics. The formation of ‘Modern Synthesis’, protein electrophoresis, Discovery of DNA opened new avenues for the study of evolution.
Introduction. The starting point: Evolution versus Creation? The Origin of Life. THE FIRST CIRCLE. Early theories: Creation, Pre-formation and Order in the Biological World. More Theories. THE SECOND CIRCLE. Georges Cuvier and the Theory of Catastrophes. Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire: The Theory of Comparative Anatomy. Jean Baptiste Lamarck: The Theory of Descent. Charles Lyell: "The Father of Geology". THE THIRD CIRCLE: CHARLES DARWIN, HIS THEORY, HIS SUPPORTERS AND ADVERSARIES. Charles Darwin: The Formative Years. Evolution of the Theory of Natural Selection. On the Same Track: Ideas about the History of Life before 1859. Alfred Russell Wallace. Thomas Henry Huxley. Louis Agassiz: Classification and the Plan of Nature. The Struggle for Existence of the Theory of Evolution. Charles Darwin: "The Descent of Man" (1871). Charles Darwin, "Sexual Selection". Charles Darwin in the Vegetable Kingdom. Heredity in the 19th Century: What did Darwin know? Ernst Haeckel: Embryology and Phylogeny in Evolution. August Weismann: The Theory of the Germ Plasm and the (Non)-Inheritance of Acquired Characters. Francis Galton: Quantitative Measurements of Heredity. The Biometricians: Karl Pearson. THE FOURTH CIRCLE: THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION IN THE 20th CENTURY. Gregor Mendel and the Origin of Genetics. Hugo de Vries and the Theory of Mutations. T. H. Morgan: Drosophila, Genetics and Evolution. The Resurrection of the Inheritance of Acquired Characters: from Weismann to Lysenko. Genetics in Populations: An Introductory Overview. R.A. Fisher: The Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection. J.B.S. Haldane: Science in Everyday Life and Genetics in Populations. Sewall Wright: Chance and Evolution in Small Populations. Theodosius Dobzhansky. Ernst Mayr: The Biological Species and Speciation. Julian Sorrel Huxley. Richard Goldschmidt (1878 –1958): Genetics, Evolution, and Hopeful Monsters. E.B. Ford and H.B.D. Kettlewell: Ecological Genetics. Motoo Kimura and the Neutrality Hypothesis. Closing comments.
Biography
Dr Wool is a retired professor (emeritus). M.Sc in Tel Aviv (1965), PhD in the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 1969 – Supervisor prof. Robert Sokal. Thesis in population Genetics (Published 1970 in the journal Genetics). Since 1970, professor of zoology at Tel Aviv University – taught mainly Biometry and Population Genetics, the former a required course for graduate students and retired in 2001.
