The Tinkerer's Accomplice: How Design Emerges from Life Itself

Front Cover
Harvard University Press, 2007 - Science - 282 pages

Most people, when they contemplate the living world, conclude that it is a designed place. So it is jarring when biologists come along and say this is all wrong. What most people see as design, they say--purposeful, directed, even intelligent--is only an illusion, something cooked up in a mind that is eager to see purpose where none exists. In these days of increasingly assertive challenges to Darwinism, the question becomes acute: is our perception of design simply a mental figment, or is there something deeper at work?

Physiologist Scott Turner argues eloquently and convincingly that the apparent design we see in the living world only makes sense when we add to Darwin's towering achievement the dimension that much modern molecular biology has left on the gene-splicing floor: the dynamic interaction between living organisms and their environment. Only when we add environmental physiology to natural selection can we begin to understand the beautiful fit between the form life takes and how life works.

In The Tinkerer's Accomplice, Scott Turner takes up the question of design as a very real problem in biology; his solution poses challenges to all sides in this critical debate.

 

Selected pages

Contents

Prologue
Bernard Machines
11
The Joy of Socks
26
Blood River
46
Knowledgeable Bones
66
Embryonic Origami
84
A Gut Feeling
109
An Intentional Aside
131
Points of Light
146
Pygmalions Gift
177
Biologys Bright Lines
202
Notes
225
References
235
Acknowledgments
265
Index
269
Copyright

Other editions - View all

The Tinkerer's Accomplice: How Design Emerges from Life Itself
J. Scott Turner
Limited preview - 2010
The Tinkerer's Accomplice: How Design Emerges from Life Itself
J. Scott Turner
Limited preview - 2009
The Tinkerer's Accomplice: How Design Emerges from Life Itself
J. Scott Turner
Limited preview - 2010
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Common terms and phrases

ADHD angioblasts animals antler architecture array arterial bacteria Bernard machines biology blood vessel body bones brain buoyancy called coelom cognitive collagen collagen fibers cortex creatures cuttlebone Darwin Dickinsonia digestive disparate dopamine edge Ediacaran embryo emerges environment epithelia epithelium evolution evolutionary example excitotoxic fiber angle fibroblasts Figure flow folding function ganglion cells gastrulation genes genetic geniculate grow Haversian cylinder heat heuweltjie homeostasis intentionality intestine juice package layer lineages lungs membrane mental metabolic demand microbial modulatory system mound Murray's Law muscle myotome natural selection nautilus nerve neural nucleus accumbens occipital retina ocular retina optic organisms orientation osteoclasts osteocytes patterns persistors physiological capacity physiology pixels prion problem produce proteins question remodeling replicators retina Science self-organized sensory shear simple cell skin soil squids starfish stereogram strain structure surface synapses tension termites things tion tissue Trichoplax Vendobiota ventral tegmentum villus visual

About the author (2007)

J. Scott Turner is Associate Professor at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse.

Bibliographic information

TitleThe Tinkerer's Accomplice: How Design Emerges from Life Itself
AuthorJ. Scott Turner
Editionillustrated
PublisherHarvard University Press, 2007
ISBN0674023536, 9780674023536
Length282 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Science / Life Sciences / Anatomy & Physiology
Science / Life Sciences / Biology
Science / Life Sciences / Evolution
Science / Life Sciences / General
  
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