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Nice to see there are people out there who review books of the natural world😊 A question for all the learned folk reading here There has been much debate whether the ‘selfish gene’ framework of selection is dated. Where does the reviewer and others stand on that fierce debate I quite enjoyed Agren’s The Gene’s Eye View of Evolution, who mounts a vigorous defense of Dawkins framework

I really need to get to Dawkins at some point here haha. Great vid

@4:40 - I like how Dawkins put himself in the genetic tree diagram 😆

Which one is best for evolution

Good review.🙏

anyone that believes in evolution, must be wrong

Oh wow, I hadn't heard about this. But having read much of his other stuff (I still think Selfish Gene, Extended Phenotype, and Blind Watchmaker are his best 😁), it doesn't sound like there's much here pressuring me to check it out immediately, other than perhaps the illustrations and photos. I know what you mean about the "themes," particularly in some of his later books, becoming a bit strained. For example, I thought The Ancestor's Tale worked as an excellent survey of life's (especially zoological life's) diversity. I even rank it as pretty close to the Dawkins "Big Three." I'm just not sure why he structured the thing around the whole pilgrimage to Canterbury metaphor. That aspect of the book just felt awkward and unnecessary to me. And I'm saying that as someone who LIKES The Canterbury Tales. Still, the man does popular science well, all in all.

How did I miss this new book?? Thank you!

Thank you you explained this very well so far. I just want to say your a great explainer! You earned a sub. but your explaining it so well. So thank you.

Glad you enjoyed it and found it useful! And thanks for the kind words

Can barely hear you now . 😮

Ok I want those list videos on general science, sleep, plants, space, philosophy, starting the channel. But all of them sound great haha. Id eatch most any of them!

Reading it now and loving it. Iron! Used to be dissolved in sea water until the sea became oxygenated and the iron “rusted” solid. And when the iron was all solid, the oxygen had to go someplace. It went into the atmosphere-making life as we know it possible! 🤯💯

Here's one you have not mentioned that I would like to hear. Your thoughts on why Carl Sagan is still King.

First, we need a better microphone..

You have the best chanel bro Love. I would like to see these Why u quite fiction The best books 10 best dawkins 10 religious books 10 religious crit

I think you’re 10 best books from starting your channel and why you quit reading fiction would be interesting videos. I also thought most of your video ideas would be fun, those 2 stood out most but the typos one also seems fun.

Thanks bro the best science recommindation books

Really makes you think!

5:05 I meant to say "slightly longer ago." Haha oops.

Dude this is super sick! You weren’t kidding, we do play the same! Check out Elizabeth Cotten. One of my favorite ragtime/blues guitarists. She plays like us! Or rather, we play like her!I’m working on my gallop picking(: what song is this bro ?? Totally bitchin’!

How do you know when to try and sit up? What's the sweet spot that won't wake you up?

Corn agriculture is so ridiculous in the US. Only about 10 percent is even used as edible food. Half of the economy runs on corn syrup though both as a food ingredient and a lot being used in manufacturing. Great review, I need to read Pollan at some point

Best wishes with what you are reading.

I'm always amazed when I hear you perform, Nick. Never stop man. It's a gift Fer sur..

I find the Very Short Introduction series especially amenable to night-time reading. Being bite-sized, softly dense, expertly-focused overviews, they are great for introducing oneself to a subject prior to diving deeper into heftier material. As always, you have excellent taste in what you read. Thanks for showcasing this one.

I just finished The Grand Biocentric Design, which concludes this trilogy of books. It does a great job of tying up loose ends from the first two books and gives a complete view of the whole theory.

Excellent review, as always! There's a book you may love that relates to a similar topic: The Stammering Century by Gilbert Seldes. It focuses on the countless cults and movements throughout American history, especially the now-gone or lesser known sects that have emerged over time. Should be a fun read for you! It's also written in a beautiful, personal, literary way that feels unusual for nonfiction.

Crazy lol. Is this a whole series?

My most recent bookstore visit the worker tried to upsell me with this book haha because I got some books on philosophy/psychology. I think a lot of these types of books could probably just be condensed down a ton. This one definitely feels like it has hustle culture vibes going on. Thanks for the review

You did’t have a lucid dream but had an OBE

I've heard of him but didn't realize quite how important he was. Great review

Love the first two, part of the last book, but an extremely weak, sell-out ending that missed a huge opportunity for a great twist.

Interesting book, kind of reminds me of Gould's essay on right and left handed shells. Did the book go into the hsiteoy of how we know some of the ancient figures were left handed. I don't ever remember Caesar or Alexander being mentioned as left handed

Just been recommended by the algorithm. Seems like you've got good taste of books.

I heard the guy that solved the theory to the universe was also A leftie :P

What a lovely review very well said and I'm now inspired to read this with my fascination for natural history and evolution!

I truly love your taste in books. There is no other channel like yours.

I've written down the Bates book when I had read about mimicry in other works. Havent picked up a cooy yet though. I've read Pavlis Soil Science, I thought that one was pretty science heavy for the average gardener haha. Which is fine with me. Great vid

Congrats on a great review❤

great review bro, i stumbled upon this book too and your review made me like the book and made me realize i have to buy the book.

Another book for my already MASSIVE list of books to get. Thanks for enforcing my metaphorical addiction lol

Does the book provide much illustration/images?

You're masterful at succinctly summing up what you read. I love the lineup of essay premises you offer up here-really makes this book sound packed with riveting scientific writing.

Sounds great! The title immediately made me think of surface area to volume ratios and the associated physicochemistry that dictates optimal cell size. Sounds like the essay discusses similar matters on the organism level. 😁 Interesting about the political intrusions. I've encountered several examples of 20th century scientists using the flimsiest of pretexts to work political sentiments (usually of a Marxist flavor for whatever reason) into scientific writings. It almost always comes off as forced, awkward, and to the overall detriment of the piece. I don't know, maybe it was just a trendy thing to do. 🤷‍♂️ Thanks for the commentary, and have a good one.

I've heard of him and a lot of the stuff I've read referenced him, but never read his own stuff. Looks cool for the most part. Is it someone comparable to how Gould has essay collections that can be eclectic? Great vid. Also Pavlis is pretty good. Probably a bit on the sciencey side for most gardeners haha

Can u make the sound little better?

🖤

Will u do a review on the material world by ed conway

I read this almost a decade ago as an undergrad interested in evo bio, now I’m a postdoc in evo bio. I read it after having already read more popular stuff like Coyne and Dawkins. At the time I did learn quite a bit but I also thought Mayr’s style was overly repetitive and dry, I think in retrospect that’s partly because of his age. But in retrospect I appreciate it more as you do because I do think he explains fundamental concepts here better than most popular stuff. I think it was with this book that I first thought of evolution as a two step process (e.g. generation of variation by mutation and then selection) where one step may be random and the other not (though the second step can be e.g. genetic drift so both would random). And I think here we referred to Darwin’s theory of evolution as really multiple different theories (e.g. universal common descent and natural selection are distinct ideas) and I still think back on that. Definitely this was the first book where I ever learned about the importance of gene duplication in evolution (though I needed more resources later to really get it) and about speciation as it’s own field of study, and the importance of allopathy and reproductive isolation. Again, at the time I thought it was sort of interesting but only in retrospect realize it’s affected my life a lot as I studied speciation in my PhD. I don’t study it now but I suppose (like evolution) where you are now always depends on where you were before so it’s led me to my current research. I’ve tried to read more classics in the last few years. If you haven’t already, Origin of Species is still absolutely worth reading even if wrong on certain points. You get more out of it the more you know of current evo bio and you see how much Darwin almost got to. Mayr’s Systematics and the Origin of Species and Dobzhansky’s Genetics and the Origin of Species are both good too but could be harder to understand without better knowing both the ideas floating in their time and how we understand that stuff now. I’m of the opinion that the Dobzhansky book is about on the same level as Darwin’s work, but that’s hard to explain and I’ve already written a lot. I’d like to read more Fisher, Haldane and Wright at some point.