num_pages: 332
description: PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • A dramatic story of groundbreaking scientific research of Darwin's discovery of evolution that "spark[s] not just the intellect, but the imagination" ( Washington Post Book World). “Admirable and much-needed.... Weiner’s triumph is to reveal how evolution and science work, and to let them speak clearly for themselves.”— The New York Times Book ReviewOn a desert island in the heart of the Galapagos archipelago, where Darwin received his first inklings of the theory of evolution, two scientists, Peter and Rosemary Grant, have spent twenty years proving that Darwin did not know the strength of his own theory. For among the finches of Daphne Major, natural selection is neither rare nor slow: it is taking place by the hour, and we can watch.In this remarkable story, Jonathan Weiner follows these scientists as they watch Darwin's finches and come up with a new understanding of life itself. The Beak of the Finch is an elegantly written and compelling masterpiece of theory and explication in the tradition of Stephen Jay Gould.
language: English
title: The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time
titlecomplete: The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time
genres: Nature, Birds, History, Popular Science, Biology, Science, Natural History, Animals, Nonfiction, Evolution
ratings_count: 9189
awards: awardedAt: 788947200000
name: Pulitzer Prize
category: General Nonfiction, awardedAt: 757411200000
name: Los Angeles Times Book Prize
category: Science and Technology
publisher: Vintage