If you want to contemplate your place in the great scheme of things then The Individual in Darwin’s World by Stephen Jay Gould, (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £3.99, ISBN 0 297 81665 9) is an insight into current evolutionary thinking. The book explores “Geology’s frightening fact” – its vast timescale – and contains inspiring analogies which show that we are just part of the world’s haphazard journey through time. There is no room for destiny. Gould takes us through what it means to be an individual, firstly for us humans and, secondly, for the process that control us, evolution.
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