New Releases by Richard Dawkins

Que libro escribiria un capellan del diablo sobre el trabajo torpe, derrochador, primitivo y horriblemente cruel de la naturaleza?'', se preguntaba Darwin en 1856. Conocer los procesos naturales y las conductas de seres vivos puede ponernos la piel de gallina o dejarnos maravillados. Richard Dawkins nos invita a mirar con los ojos abiertos y sin hipocresia lo peor y mas perfecto que la naturaleza produce y recuerda que los limites entre aquello que podemos soportar y lo que rechazamos los ponemos nosotros. Comenta los aspectos mas controvertidos de los descubrimientos cientificos recientes: embriologia, clonacion o las manipulaciones geneticas de vegetales comestibles, para mostrar que muchas condenas se deben a la falta de conocimiento y valentia de aceptar la semejanza de nuevos hechos con fenomenos familiares. No se limita a explicar nuevos hallazgos, sino que conecta temas dispares en funcion de cierta ensenanza

A renowned biologist provides a sweeping chronicle of more than four billion years of life on Earth, shedding new light on evolutionary theory and history, sexual selection, speciation, extinction, and genetics.

La théorie du gène égoïste, c''est la théorie de Darwin exprimée autrement. Plutôt que de se focaliser sur l''organisme individuel, Dawkins adopte le point de vue du gène sur la nature pour démontrer que nous sommes des robots programmés à l''aveugle pour préserver les molécules égoïstes connues sous le nom de gènes. On dit du Gène égoïste qu''il est " le livre le plus important écrit sur la théorie de l''évolution depuis Darwin ". Le fait est que ce livre est devenu en quelques années un classique dont tous les manuels s''inspirent aujourd''hui. Et la biologie de devenir aussi excitante qu''un roman d''aventures.

The leading science encyclopedia explaining the achievements and progress of science, now fully revised and updated. Major updates include:- The advent of SARS- Extended coverage of cloning- Extended coverage of GM food- Extended coverage of digital camerasOther updates include: Jupiter''s moons reach 50; crash of space shuttle Columbia; disappearance of element 118- Wide-ranging coverage encompassing the physical, chemical and biological sciences- Science at the cutting edge - Human Genome Project, BSE, evolving robots, global warming, laser-guided missiles, nanotechnology...- Over 1300 illustrations: carefully selected full-colour photos and specially commisioned drawings and diagrams- Unrivalled authority ensured by expert team headed by Richard Dawkins, world-famous author of The Selfish GeneThe encyclopedia has a dedicated website (www.oup.com/science-encyclopedia), which includes hundreds of recommended links, downloadable artworks from the book and a challenging quiz

From the New York Times–bestselling author of Science in the Soul. “If any recent writing about science is poetic, it is this” (The Wall Street Journal). Did Sir Isaac Newton “unweave the rainbow” by reducing it to its prismatic colors, as John Keats contended? Did he, in other words, diminish beauty? Far from it, says acclaimed scientist Richard Dawkins; Newton’s unweaving is the key too much of modern astronomy and to the breathtaking poetry of modern cosmology. Mysteries don’t lose their poetry because they are solved: the solution often is more beautiful than the puzzle, uncovering deeper mysteries. With the wit, insight, and spellbinding prose that have made him a bestselling author, Dawkins takes up the most important and compelling topics in modern science, from astronomy and genetics to language and virtual reality, combining them in a landmark statement of the human appetite for wonder. This is the book Dawkins was meant to write: A brilliant assessment of what science is (and isn’t), a tribute to science not because it is useful but because it is uplifting. “A love letter to science, an attempt to counter the perception that science is cold and devoid of aesthetic sensibility . . . Rich with metaphor, passionate arguments, wry humor, colorful examples, and unexpected connections, Dawkins’ prose can be mesmerizing.” —San Francisco Chronicle “Brilliance and wit.” —The New Yorker

L''avancée des sciences conduit-elle à " désenchanter le monde " ? Chacun de ses progrès défait-il un peu plus la magie de l''univers ? Si nous sommes aujourd''hui convaincus de l''unité de la science, pensons-nous un instant qu''elle puisse nous faire rêver ? C''est cette intime conviction que Richard Dawkins défend ici en nous montrant comment la science exalte le mystère de la vie. Qu''il s''agisse d''astronomie, de physique, de génétique, de biologie ou de l''évolution des espèces, chaque découverte ouvre selon lui la voie à un nouvel imaginaire. Bien loin de " défaire l''arc-en-ciel ", Newton a libéré de nouvelles sources d''inspiration. " Même muet, l''univers ne nous offre-t-il pas un thème splendide ? Je soutiens que les poètes pourraient faire meilleur usage de l''inspiration que leur offre la science, et que, parallèlement, les scientifiques doivent tenter de convaincre ces électeurs que sont, faute d''un terme plus approprié, les poètes à mes yeux. " Un livre personnel, passionné et plein d''humour.

In this influential and controversial book that has become a classic in popular science writing, Dawkins furthers his fascinating look at the evolution of life and natural selection.

A brilliant book celebrating improbability as the engine that drives life, by the acclaimed author of The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker. The human eye is so complex and works so precisely that surely, one might believe, its current shape and function must be the product of design. How could such an intricate object have come about by chance? Tackling this subject—in writing that the New York Times called "a masterpiece"—Richard Dawkins builds a carefully reasoned and lovingly illustrated argument for evolutionary adaptation as the mechanism for life on earth. The metaphor of Mount Improbable represents the combination of perfection and improbability that is epitomized in the seemingly "designed" complexity of living things. Dawkins skillfully guides the reader on a breathtaking journey through the mountain''s passes and up its many peaks to demonstrate that following the improbable path to perfection takes time. Evocative illustrations accompany Dawkins''s eloquent descriptions of extraordinary adaptations such as the teeming populations of figs, the intricate silken world of spiders, and the evolution of wings on the bodies of flightless animals. And through it all runs the thread of DNA, the molecule of life, responsible for its own destiny on an unending pilgrimage through time. Climbing Mount Improbable is a book of great impact and skill, written by the most prominent Darwinian of our age.

From the author of The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins'' The Blind Watchmaker has been acclaimed as the most influential work on evolution in the last hundred years. In 1802 the Rev. William Paley''s argued in Natural Theology that just as finding a watch would lead you to conclude that a watchmaker must exist, the complexity of living organisms proves that a Creator exists. Not so, says Richard Dawkins, and in this brilliant and controversial book, the acclaimed evolutionary biologist sets out to demonstrate that the theory of evolution by natural selection - the unconscious, automatic, blind yet essentially non-random process discovered by Charles Darwin - is the only answer to the biggest question of all: why do we exist? ''I want to persuade the reader, not just that the Darwinian world-view happens to be true, but that it is the only known theory that could, in principle, solve the mystery of our existence'' To Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker is nature itself, gradually forming order from the very building-blocks of life: DNA. ''This might just be the most important evolution book since Darwin'' John Gribbin ''Richard Dawkins has updated evolution ... his subject is nothing less than the meaning of life'' The Times ''Enchantingly witty and persusive ... pleasurably intelligible to the scientifically illiterate'' Observer Richard Dawkins is a Fellow of both the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Literature, and Vice President of the British Humanist Association. He was first catapulted to fame with The Selfish Gene, which he followed with a string of bestselling books: The Extended Phenotype, The Blind Watchmaker, River Out of Eden, Unweaving the Rainbow, and an impassioned defence of atheism, The God Delusion.

La parution en 1859 de L''origine des espèces de Charles Darwin représente une révolution aussi importante que l''héliocentrisme de Galilée, la découverte de l''inconscient par Freud, la relativité d''Einstein ou la physique quantique. Jadis objet de scandale, la théorie de la sélection naturelle continue d''être mal acceptée parce qu''elle reste mal connue et mai comprise. Elle demeure pourtant la seule à expliquer le fait - indiscuté - de l''évolution. Certes, l''apparition d''un organe aussi perfectionné que l''oeil ou que le cerveau appelle l''hypothèse d''un architecte d''un Grand Horloger. L''esprit humain a invinciblement tendance à les supposer apparus d''un seul coup, à raisonner dans le temps bref de nos vies ou de l''histoire humaine. Il a énormément de mal à se représenter les milliards d''années des ères géologiques et la succession presque infinie des formes de via . Mais il n''y a pas de Grand Horloger, il y a seulement l''horloger aveugle de la sélection naturelle qui agit sans aucun plan. Richard Dawkins donne ici l''exposé le plus clair, le plus complet, et le plus rigoureux proposé depuis longtemps de la théorie darwinienne et de ses développements récents. A l''aide de nombreux exemples et d''une pittoresque simulation sur ordinateur, il souligne comment de petites modifications très probables ont fini par introduire, sur une échelle de temps qui déborde notre perception, des changements considérables avec pour seul but la survie des gènes.

Cartea debutează cu savuroasa conversație dintre Dawkins și astrofizicianul Neil deGrasse Tyson despre cum le putem schimba oamenilor modul de gândire, o binevenită introducere la temele majore abordate în continuare: evoluția omului, religia, ateismul, expansiunea universului, importanța studierii biologiei, intoleranța intelectuală și altele. Implicit, autorul ne îndeamnă să punem la îndoială totul, să ne eliberăm de prejudecăți, să ne formăm o gândire critică și creativă. Sarcasmul său bine-cunoscut se îndreaptă spre cei care se încăpățânează să dovedească faptul că evoluționismul greșește. Demonstrează, totodată, cât de periculoase sunt anumite teorii pentru societate. Entuziasmul său este neobosit și contagios, iar opiniile lui ne rămân întipărite în minte multă vreme după ce am închis cartea.

Muhteşem yazım tarzı ile Shakespeare Edebiyat Ödülü kazanmış bir bilim insanı olan Profesör Richard Dawkins, karmaşık bilimsel gerçekleri insanlara basit bir dille anlatmayı kendisine görev edinerek, yaşamın doğa üstü bir yaratıcı olmadan nasıl ortaya çıktığını ateşli bir şekilde anlatıyor. Çağımızın en çok okunan bilim insanları listesinde muhtemelen ilk sırayı alan Dawkins, Gen Bencildir ile sarstığı dünyayı bu kitapla bir kez daha canlandırıyor. Bilimi yanlış anlayan veya anlamak isteyen çeşitli kesimlere çekinmeden dağıttığı eleştirileriyle, uzun yıllar sonra yazacağı Tanrı Yanılgısı kitabının ilk sinyallerini veriyor. Richard Dawkins, bu kitabı ile hem Kraliyet Akademisi Edebiyat Ödülü’nü hem de Los Angeles Times Edebiyat Ödülü’nü kazandı. “Güzel ve mükemmel yazılmış. … Tamamen anlaşılır fakat derin duygularla dolu konuşmanın ritmine sahip. Her sayfa gerçeği çınlatıyor. Bu, şu ana kadar okuduğum en iyi bilim kitaplarından biri (en iyi kitaplardan biri).” —Lee Dembart, Los Angeles Times “Nefis bir kitap, orijinal ve hayat dolu, evrimin ayrıntılarını coşkun bir berraklıkla açıklıyor, her yerinde yaradılışçı mağara adamlarını cevaplıyor.” —Isaac Asimov “İyi bilim edebiyatının sırrı, kişinin fikirleri önce kendisinin anlamasının gerektiği: iyi yazmak net düşünmekle mümkün olur. … Kör Saatçi’yi okurken Dawkins’in problemlere bakışındaki berraklıkla tekrar tekrar hayrete düştüm. … Dawkins’in doğal dünya hakkında bilgisini arttırmışken ona karşı hayranlık duygusunu kaybetmemiş olduğu fazlasıyla açık. … Keşke ben de böyle yazabiliyor olsaydım.” —John Maynard Smith, New Scientist