Cover image for Darwin's backyard : how small experiments led to a big theory
Darwin's backyard : how small experiments led to a big theory
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Darwin's backyard : how small experiments led to a big theory
Personal Author:
Edition:
First edition.
Physical Description:
xv, 441 pages : ill. ; 25 cm.
Summary:
"James T. Costa takes readers on a journey from Darwin's childhood through his voyage on the HMS Beagle where his ideas on evolution began. We then follow Darwin to Down House, his bustling home of forty years, where he kept porcupine quills at his desk to dissect barnacles, maintained a flock of sixteen pigeon breeds in the dovecote, and cultivated climbing plants in the study, and to Bournemouth, where on one memorable family vacation he fed carnivorous plants in the soup dishes. Using his garden and greenhouse, the surrounding meadows and woodlands, and even taking over the cellar, study, and hallways of his home-turned-field-station, Darwin tested ideas of his landmark theory of evolution with an astonishing array of hands-on experiments that could be done on the fly, without specialized equipment. He engaged naturalists, friends, neighbors, family servants, and even his children, nieces, nephews, and cousins as assistants in these experiments, which involved everything from chasing bees and tempting fish to eat seeds to serenading earthworms. From the experiments' results, he plumbed the laws of nature and evidence for the revolutionary arguments of On the Origin of Species and his other watershed works. Beyond Darwin at work, we accompany him against the backdrop of his enduring marriage, chronic illness, grief at the loss of three children, and joy in scientific revelation. This unique glimpse of Darwin's life introduces us to an enthusiastic correspondent, crowd-sourcer, family man, and, most of all, an incorrigible observer and experimenter."--Jacket flap.
Contents:
Origins of an experimentiser -- Experimentising: going to seed -- Barnacles to barbs -- Experimentising: doing your barnacles -- Untangling the bank -- Experimentising: a taste for botany -- Buzzing places -- Experimentising: bees' cells and bubbles -- A grand game of chess -- Experimentising: getting around -- The sex lives of plants -- Experimentising: Darwinian encounters of the floral kind -- It bears on design -- Experimentising: orchidelirium -- Plants with volition -- Experimentising: Feed me, Seymour! -- Crafty and sagacious climbers -- Experimentising: Seek and ye shall find -- Earthworm serenade -- Experimentising: Get thee to a wormery.
Publication Info:
New York : W.W. Norton, 2017.
Subject:
Evolution (Biology) -- History.
Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882
Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882 -- Knowledge and learning.
Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882 -- Childhood and youth.
Daerwen, 1809-1882
Darvin, Čarls, 1809-1882
Darvin, Charlʼz, 1809-1882
Darvin, Tsharlz, 1809-1882
Darwin, Carlos R., 1809-1882
Darwin, Charles Robert, 1809-1882
Darwin, Karol, 1809-1882
Dāwin, 1809-1882
Sdar-win, 1809-1882
Sdar-win, Char-le-si Ro-sbe-thi, 1809-1882
Ṭārvin̲, 1809-1882
Ṭārvin̲, Cārlas, 1809-1882
דארווין, צארלס, 1809-1882
דארווין, טשארלז, 1809-1882
דרוין, טשרלס, 1809-1882
داروين، چارلز، 1809-1882
達爾文, 1809-1882
Animal evolution
Animals -- Evolution
Biological evolution
Darwinism
Evolutionary biology
Evolutionary science
Origin of species
SAILS ISBN:
9780393239898