Tag Archives: evolution

Ice Ages and Climate Change.

Posted on December 11, 2014 by readingmater

I sit here in a cozy house finishing a book, The Last Lost World, about the Pleistocene- when ice sheets ebbed and flowed from the North over Europe (and North America and elsewhere.) I remember finding rocks, flints, in the … Continue reading →

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The Invisible Sex

Posted on November 13, 2013 by readingmater

“Homo Ergaster‘s diminished sexual dimorphism” does not  sound like a phrase from a book called The Invisible Sex– but it is. As in Adovasio’s and Page’s earlier book, a chatty style (in spite of the quote above) conveys a whole … Continue reading →

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Good or Bad: Fun or Boring

Posted on September 7, 2013 by readingmater

I like Sci Fi. I’m not big on chick-lit. So I expected to like Robert Silverberg’s Son of Man, and was iffy about Patrice Sarath’s The Unexpected Miss Bennett. Wrong. Silverberg should have been mythic and apocalyptic: the main character … Continue reading →

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7 million years and change.

Posted on August 20, 2013 by readingmater

In my twenties, I discovered the books of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and I felt that my world was suddenly expanded beyond what I had ever imagined. I had studied the ancient history of Greece and Rome-all the way back … Continue reading →

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Evolution- Life ascending.

Posted on July 8, 2013 by readingmater

Life Ascending is an examination by Nick Lane, a research Fellow at University College, London, of the ten “inventions ” he regards as the greatest steps in evolution: the origins of life, DNA, photosynthesis, the compound cell, sex, movement, sight, … Continue reading →

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Darwinia

Posted on April 23, 2012 by readingmater

“Darwinia”- such an intriguing word. I just read “Darwin’s Pious idea” which was quite a piece of philosophic work, so this book by Robert Charles Wilson caught my eye on the Sci-Fi shelves of the library. Fun read – but … Continue reading →

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