Weston’s Reviews > The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time > Status Update

“antibiotic resistance is increasing so rapidly that many physicians are calling it a global epidemic.”

“But genes are not fixed.”

“The birds pass invisible messages back and forth, swapping genes as casually as good neighbors exchange recipes, tools, or limericks.”

“The girls built driftwood rafts and did their homework in the middle of the lagoon.”

“Singing the right song is important; a finch that learns the wrong song is in trouble.”

“If they choose a mate within the line , they stand to perpetuate the new adaptation. If they do not, they stand to lose the adaptation."

“In the struggle for existence one variety or species must often squeeze another. Nearest neighbors, closest cousins, will pinch each other very hard, generation after generation.”

“The closer you look at life , the more rapid and intense the rate of evolutionary change. The farther back in time you stand, the less you see.”

“Not only can evolution push a species fast in one direction. Evolution can reverse direction and push it back just as swiftly.”

“The great the pressure from their predators, the more camouflage they wear: the less the pressure, the slighter the camouflage.”