I know the basics of evolution because i learned it in high school biology but unfortunately I still have questions. I'm looking on amazon right now and they have a few different versions edited over the years. is there any particular version you would reccomend or are they all pretty much the same?

(December 23, 2010 at 12:54 am)mamamia88 Wrote: I know the basics of evolution because i learned it in high school biology but unfortunately I still have questions. I'm looking on amazon right now and they have a few different versions edited over the years. is there any particular version you would reccomend or are they all pretty much the same?

You can download the 6th edition for free on project Gutenberg, since The Origin of the Species is the public domain now.
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2009

or the 1872 edition here http://www.infidels.org/library/historic...f_species/

would rather read it in a book instead of on my computer screen.

Are you attempting to answer questions regarding how evolution is understood now, or how evolution was understood when Darwin first formulated it?

I only have a few questions like why cingle celled organisms evolved. They seem to have no problem reproducing and outnumber pretty much every other species. And how they switched from asexual reproduction to sexual reproduction. Those are my only qualms with evolution.

"I only have a few questions like why cingle celled organisms evolved."


First of all, Darwin was studying the origin of "species" not the origin of life. When commenting on his finches he did not find it necessary to trace them back to a single celled organism.

It sounds more like you are asking about abiogenesis which is still a matter of scientific investigation.

It is fairly safe to say that there was no invisible man in the sky making single-celled organisms. That is purely human invention.

Darwin had no molecular biological tools to frame any exploration on the origin of single cells and the mechanism behind sexual reproduction. So the Origin can't offer anything more than conjecture. However modern molecular biology have the tools. A accessible description of the mechanisms behind just these two major steps in evolution issues amongst others can be found in "Life Ascending" by Nicolas Lane

i know evolution isn't an origin story i'm just trying to trace it back to the beginning. i mean if all life on earth at one point or another was single celled it had to somehow become multi celled. but, if single celled organisms where already super efficient at reproducing where is the motivation to evolve further? @chuck will check that out still want to read the original version though even though it seems so simple in it's basic concept

Quote:i know evolution isn't an origin story i'm just trying to trace it back to the beginning.

That's fine but don't blame Darwin for it.

(December 23, 2010 at 1:54 am)Minimalist Wrote:

Quote:i know evolution isn't an origin story i'm just trying to trace it back to the beginning.

That's fine but don't blame Darwin for it.

I don't blame darwin. I just want to inform myself to the best of my ability. I am definitely going to read his version since he was the founder of evolution. just stating some of my questions i know all won't be answered in the book.