Word: darwin
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...islands of the Maldives--little circles and half-moons of platinum sand--seem as fragile as they are exquisite. To see them is to marvel--as Charles Darwin did--that they did not long ago succumb to "the all-powerful and never-tiring waves." But as Darwin went on to explain, these islands are more substantial than they seem. They are in fact the visible crests of massive limestone reefs that extend from the sea floor to the surface. The limestone is made of the consolidated skeletons of tiny marine organisms, including untold generations of coral polyps that millions...
...presence has abetted, if not exclusively accounted for, much of what is nerve-racking and unsatisfactory in the world: a feeling of dislocation; aimlessness; loneliness; dim perceptions of unidentified dangers. Once the Bomb was used and the enormity of its effects realized, it had the impact of Copernicus, Darwin, Freud--of any monumental historical theory that proved, fundamentally, how small people are, how accidental their prominence, how subject to external manipulation. When the Bomb dropped, people not only saw a weapon that could boil the planet and create a death-in-life; they saw yet one more proof of their...
Evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr, often called the “Darwin of the 20th century,” died on Feb. 3 at his retirement community in Bedford, Mass...
After receiving his doctorate, he embarked on research expeditions through New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, where he was able to prove what Darwin did not—that new species arise from the geographical isolation of populations. This led to his definition of species as “an interbreeding population that cannot breed with other groups,” the press release said...
...down in long passages that describe in loving (and graphic) detail the procedures of brain surgery. Work itself is a form of heroism in this book. So is love. So is a dry-eyed realism about our fates. McEwan and Perowne are both fond of quoting Charles Darwin: "There is a grandeur in this view of life." There's a grandeur in Saturday...