The main strength of this book is its breadth, particularly its universal pers- pective on evolution, which includes everything from the big bang and stell-ar nucleosynthesis, to the origin of the solar system and prebiotic evolution..
"Evolution unfolds through topics that include the philosophical and historical background of evolutionary thought; cosmological and geological evotion and its impact on life; the origins of life on Earth; the development of molecular pathways, from genetic systems to organismic morphology and function; the evolutionary history of organisms, from microbes to animals; the numerous molecular and populational comcepts which explain the living Earth's dynamic evolution."