Contents
Introduction: Pieces of Eight: Confession of a Humanistic Naturalist
I. Art and Science
1. The Upwardly Mobile Fossils of Leonardo’sLiving Earth
2. The Great Western and the Fighting Temeraire
3. Seeing Eye to Eye, Through a Glass Clearly
II. Biographies in Evolution
4. The Clam Stripped Bare by Her Naturalists, Even
5. Darwin’s American Soulmate: A Bird’s-Eye View
6. A Seahorse for All Races
7. Mr. Sophia’s Pony
III. Human Prehistory
8. Up Against a Wall
9. A Lesson from the Old Masters
10. Our Unusual Unity
IV. Of History and Toleration
11. A Cerion for Christopher
12. The Dodo in the Caucus Race
13. The Diet of Worms and the Defenestration of Prague
V. Evolution Facts and Theories
14. Non-Overlapping Magisteria
15. Boyle’s Law and Darwin’s Details
16. The Tallest Tale
17. Brotherhood by Inversion (or, As the Worm Turns)
VI. Different Perception of Common Truths
18. War of the World views
19. Triumph of the Root-Heads
20. Can We Truly Know Sloth and Rapacity?
21. Reversing Established Orders
Bibliography
Illustration Credits
Index