Yesterday I was just thinking about important things I don’t know, but I ought to know about. One of these things is evolution. I don’t really have any sort of in-depth understanding of the topic past a very simplistic point. I vaguely remember reading some stuff in school, but I can’t remember much past the fact that cells randomly mutate and these mutations get passed on, and that the cells which survive in organisms live and spread.
I’m not a very scientific person in the fact that I just don’t really know that much about science, but I want to learn more. Are there any books you guys recommend where I could get a pretty good understanding of evolution starting from very low knowledge of the subject? Something that will give me the knowledge to explain how it works, and why we believe it? Or perhaps any videos as supplements you guys recommend as well? Thank you all so much ahead of time. I’ve just been trying to learn more and be less ignorant recently.
Comments
The go to recommendation is Futuyma’s textbook on the topic
Crash Course on YouTube.
If you go to /r/evolution they have book recommendations. I think they’re in the sidebar.
The Carl Sagan cosmos episode that includes parts in evolution and DNA is fantastic. it changed the way I thought about evolution even as an undergrad studying biology with a decent bit of background knowledge.
Though he’s a jerk, Richard Dawkin’s The Selfish Gene is also good for an overview of what it looks like on a more macro scale. (The main premise of “selection acts in individual genes” is debunked, but the way he explains evolution within populations and geographically is beautiful)
Ok hear me out on this one, but On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin should be the starting point. It’s is remarkably approachable for one of the most revolutionary works in all of science. Now we obviously understand so much more about biology now than what Darwin had to work with, but honestly I think that’s what makes the OG work on the subject a lot easier for a non scientist to digest. Having an understanding of natural selection really helps if you want to dig deeper into evolutionary theory, especially the stuff that came out of the modern synthesis once we understood how genes work. Darwin did just such an elegant job laying out an incredibly logical explanation which is really easy to follow, and even though he didn’t get everything exactly right, I find it’s critical to understand the basics before digging into some of the more complex concepts that came later.
I really liked ‘Your Inner Fish’ by Jerry Coyne