Unweaving The Rainbow - Richard Dawkins

Review by Kendrick Frazier

The central challenge addressed in Richard Dawkins's Unweaving the Rainbow is the perception among many that science somehow diminishes our appreciation of the world. It is a problem all who attempt to explain science to the wider public must sometime face, and noted thinkers like Richard Feynman, Carl Sagan, and Martin Gardner all have written about it. In 1995, Dawkins, the noted Oxford zoologist and evolutionist (and CSICOP Fellow), became the first Charles Simonyi professor of the public understanding of science at Oxford. In this book he faces these wider issues, which go far beyond evolutionary biology but are still enriched and informed by Dawkins's intimate familiarity with that subject. His title is from Keats, who believed that Newton had destroyed all the poetry of the rainbow by reducing it to its prismatic colors.

Dawkins quickly lays that particular complaint to rest by showing how Newton's optics led to spectroscopy which led to measurement of emission and absorption line spectra and thereby to direct understanding of the nature and characteristics of stars-their size, luminosity, history, and future ("Barcodes of the Stars")-and then to our wider understanding of the cosmos.

"Newton's dissection of the rainbow into light of different wavelengths led onto Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism and thence to Einstein's theory of special relativity," notes Dawkins, adding: "If you think the rainbow has poetic mystery, you should try relativity." All from a little "unweaving of the rainbow." And nothing about it need diminish our astonishment and appreciation of the beauty of a rainbow arcing across the rain-darkened sky. (click for full review)

http://rapidshare.com/files/118957346/kitap5.rar (539 KB, şifre: 5kitap3)

The Selfish Gene (30th Anniversary Ed) - Richard Dawkins

Review by Christine Tong
The Selfish Gene presents a brilliant collage of ideas pertaining to biological evolution. Dawkins argues that evolution occurs for the good of the gene (and indirectly the carrier) and not for the good of the species--an idea still contradictory to many social biologists. Specifically, he argues that "the predominant quality to be expected in a successful gene is ruthless selfishness". Much discussion is devoted to unraveling apparent acts of social altruism as fundamental genetic selfishness.

The beauty of this book lies in its simplicity and clarity. Dawkins writes in a non-technical, jargon-free language anyone can understand. The emergence of DNA and genes is explained clearly in terms of probability in molecular survival. His writing style is comprehensible yet gripping. He portrays nature as a savage battleground where genes stop at nothing to survive. Animals, plants, and even ourselves, are merely their disposable "survival machines". Vivid examples of exploitation and violence make natural selection come alive. Think of this book as a hybrid between science fiction and thriller. It is suitable for any student from grade nine and up. Used as a supplementary text or for leisure reading, The Selfish Gene raises some controversial ideas about humanity and our place in the universe. (click for full review)

http://rapidshare.com/files/118956993/kitap4.rar (1944 KB, şifre: 4kitap2)

The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins

Review by PZ Myers

Science writers like Gould, Goodenough, Sagan, or Dawkins often aspire to communicate the wonder they feel at the beauty, complexity, and diversity of nature. It's a natural consequence of a career in science—perhaps even a prerequisite for one—to marvel at stars in the sky or strange creatures of the deep, or even the miracle of our own flesh. Great science writing tries to transmit that same sense of amazement to the reader. In return, all too often these writers are paid the backhanded compliment that they, who do not believe in spirits, are "spiritual;" that the joy they take in the universe is their "religion."

"But is religion the right word?" asks eminent Oxford scholar Richard Dawkins in his newest book, The God Delusion. Though the appropriation of the term may seem innocuous, in Dawkins's view it's part of a larger and more dangerous trend. His reply—"I don't think so"—sets the tone for the book. (click for full review)

http://rapidshare.com/files/118956439/kitap3.rar (1794 KB, şifre: 3kitap1)

The Extended Phenotype - Richard Dawkins

Review by Deron Stewart

Richard Dawkins has a keen mind and an engaging writing style as is well known. Science has become so large that no one can understand in detail more than a small fraction of any one field. This means that there is a virtue in being able to sift through the barrage of detail for the essential unifying truths about how things are and how they have to be. In a world of splintered specialization the expository talents of Richard Dawkins are deservedly respected. Biological evolution is an intellectual mine field where lack of rigor in making arguments can easily lead to misleading conclusions and Dawkins is not shy about pointing out his colleagues' logical blunders. His own ideas are well thought out and well presented including the Extended Phenotype concept itself.

A more comprehensive Glossary would be useful for non-biologists but for the most part even the difficult passages are comprehensible if an effort is made, and it's well worth the effort. He fears that if it is too easily understood it will not be taken seriously by professional biologists -- he is apologetic about including a Glossary at all. Perhaps if clarity were more revered within academic circles his fear would be unjustified. (Bertrand Russell's reluctant advice to academics was to write in obscure and difficult language in order to get credibility, explaining that the only reason he could get away with writing simple English was that everyone knew he could write things in the arcane language of mathematical logic if he chose.)

http://rapidshare.com/files/118956303/kitap2.rar ( 15415 KB, şifre: 2kitap1)

The Blind Watchmaker - Richard Dawkins

Review by John Catalano

One of the most famous arguments of the creationist theory of the universe is the eighteenth-century theologian William Paley's: Just as a watch is too complicated and too functional to have sprung into existence by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. But as Richard Dawkins, professor of zoology at Oxford University, demonstrates in this brilliant and eloquent riposte to the Argument from Design, the analogy is false. Natural selection, the unconscious, automatic, blind yet essentially non-random process that Darwin discovered, has no purpose in mind. If it can be said to play the role of watchmaker in nature, it is the blind watchmaker.

Patiently and lucidly, Dr. Dawkins - in this book which has been acclaimed as perhaps the most influential work on evolution written in this century - identifies those aspects of the theory which people find hard to believe and removes the barrier to credibility one by one.

http://rapidshare.com/files/118956183/kitap1.rar (4525 KB, şifre: 1kitap0)

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