[Home Page][Index of Reviews][Aesthetics of Computing][A Beautiful Mind]

The Beak of the Finch
by Jonathan Weiner

Evolution by Natural Selection has been characterised as a 'slow, drawn out process' that takes ages to show any effects, or that was how Darwin saw it. Needless to say, this has always been a contentious point in Darwin's Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection. Critics have pointed to this as a weakness in the Theory. Another weakness is that, despite being accepted by biologists, Natural Selection is sometimes seen as a dogma since very few studies of any length of time have ever been conducted in the past to show that Natural Selection was happening.

In this book, Jonathan Weiner shows that evolution by natural selection need not be a slow process: it continually acts to modify and select among the numerous variations that nature throws up. In fact, its actions can be seen within mere generations.

Weiner covers the studies made by Peter and Roemary Grant on the finches (known as Darwin's Finches) on the islands that make up the Galapagos. For twenty years, the Grants (and their various research students) have came to some of the islands and have labeled and measured virtually every finch on them. After many years, they have listed down tens of thousand of finches and even have favourite birds ("Ah, yes, 720. God bless his soul; rest in peace! The most successful of all time.").

By measuring the finches, especially their beaks, as well as taking down other statistics like the number and types of seeds produced on the island each year, the Grants have catalogued an enormous amount of data. By using statistical and other mathematical tools, they have gone through the data and have noticed a remarkable fact: evolution by natural selection, as well as sexual selection, is always acting on the finches' beaks and bodies such that in any given year, depending on whether it is a dry or wet year, the length of the beak for different species of finches either grows longer or shorter.

True, this could have been due to natural variation. But the Grants show that the length of the beaks are inherited and that only birds that have beaks of certain lengths are more likely to survive. This is a remarkable fact when you consider that the length of the beaks determine what kind of food the finches eat. Even a difference of one millimeter is enough to determine life-and-death for a finch (ome millimeter too short, and the finch is unable to crack open the hardest nuts in dry years, ensuring its death).

In this, and other studies covered in the book, Weiner shows that Natural Selection is not a slow, long drawn out process. It is possible to see its effects now and in just a few generations. These experiments, both in the field and in artificial settings, have shown that evolution by natural selection has happened and is a dynamic process, not something that has happened in the past and has just stopped.

An amazing book that breathes new life into the study of evolution by natural selection. Darwin would have been delighted to see his work extended and continued to this day.

[Home Page][Index of Reviews][Aesthetics of Computing][A Beautiful Mind]

The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner

The Beak of the Finch
by Jonathan Weiner