Overview

This book is about evolution, but not its greatest hits. Consider that an elephant will not grow a seventh set of teeth, even though wearing down the sixth will condemn it to starvation; that male mandarin ducks sport bright-orange feathers that attract not just females but also predators; and as for whales Whales are fully aquatic mammals who, millions of years after first abandoning the land, still cannot breathe underwater. Packed with anecdotes and curious facts, Why Cant Whales Breathe Underwater? explores everything in the animal kingdom that is self-defeating, ill-made, uneconomical or downright weird and explains how natural selection has favoured it. In the grand struggle for survival, some surprising patterns emerge: animals are always slightly out-of-date; inefficiency tends to increase over time; predators usually lose and parasites usually win. With equal parts humour and scientific insight, Andy Dobson is here to explain the how and why of evolutions greatest mistakes. AUTHOR: After a first-class degree in Ecology from Durham, Andy Dobson completed a PhD at Nottingham, before joining the University of Oxford's Zoology Department. Most recently, he took up a research post at Edinburgh University to apply data-science techniques to anti-poaching efforts. He is currently a freelance scientific copy-editor, and remains a Visiting Academic at Edinburgh. 12 b/w illustrations

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9781803990170

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Reviews

‘A delightful exploration of the diversity of life and the shortcomings of evolution.’ Dave Goulson, author of A Sting in the Tale and Silent Earth ‘A lively, entertaining and highly readable account of natural selection in all its quirky glory.’ Nessa Carey, author of The Epigenetics Revolution and Junk DNA ‘A wonderful read – witty and profound, this book upends the usual way of thinking about evolution, instead highlighting the flaws, dead ends and downright nastiness that natural selection produces as it goes on its aimless and morally neutral way.’ E.J. Milner-Gulland, Tasso Leventis Professor of Biodiversity, University of Oxford

'A delightful exploration of the diversity of life and the shortcomings of evolution.' Dave Goulson, author of A Sting in the Tale and Silent Earth 'A lively, entertaining and highly readable account of natural selection in all its quirky glory.' Nessa Carey, author of The Epigenetics Revolution and Junk DNA 'A wonderful read - witty and profound, this book upends the usual way of thinking about evolution, instead highlighting the flaws, dead ends and downright nastiness that natural selection produces as it goes on its aimless and morally neutral way.' E.J. Milner-Gulland, Tasso Leventis Professor of Biodiversity, University of Oxford

Author Information

Dr Andy Dobson is a biologist whose work has encompassed field ecology, vector-borne disease, and conservation. Having studied at Durham University and the University of Nottingham, he took up his first research post in the University of Oxford’s Zoology Department in 2008. Most recently, he worked in the Conservation Science Group at the University of Edinburgh, applying mathematical models to anti-poaching efforts in protected areas. He left academia in 2019 to become a freelance science writer but remains a Visiting Academic at Edinburgh.

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