Did Darwin Get It Right?: Essays on Games, Sex and Evolution

by John Maynard Smith

Now in paperback, Did Darwin Get It Right discusses some of the hottest issues in biology today. Its author, the eminently quotable John Maynard Smith, discusses such fascinating conundrums as how life began, whether the brain works like a computer, why most animals and plants reproduce sexually, and how social behavior evolved out of the context of natural selection--a process which would seem to favor selfishness. A humorous and insightful writer, John Maynard Smith has the special ability to convey the excitement of science, its complexity and fascination, without baffling or boring his readers. In these 28 brief and accessible essays, Maynard ranges widely over such issues as science and the media, the birth of sociobiology, the evolution of animal intelligence and the limitations of evolutionary theory. For his work on the evolution of sex, Smith won the Darwin medal from the Royal Society, and he has pioneered the application of game theory to animal behavior.

Genres: Evolution, Science, Biology

147 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

John Maynard Smith FRS was a British theoretical and mathematical evolutionary biologist and geneticist. Originally an aeronautical engineer during the Second World War, he took a second degree in genetics under the well-known biologist J. B. S. Haldane

Reviews

[Bastian Greshake Tzovaras · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of essays of varying quality I'd say. Reading about how JMS feels about Marxism, the philosophy of science and (of course) kin selection/evolutionary game theory was fun, but many of the articles stylistically not really the best.

To be honest: if someone else would have written it I would probably have given only 3/5 instead. But then, it's JMS and deserves a small bonus ;)

[Willson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real pleasure to read. Wonderfully clear and entertaining (often amusing) writing that gets right to the heart of evolutionary ideas in a way that is easy to understand.