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Book Synopsis
In praise of imperfection: how life on our planet is a catalog of imperfections, errors, alternatives, and anomalies.

In the beginning, there was imperfection, which became the source of all things. Anomalies and asymmetries caused planets to take shape from the bubbling void and sent light into darkness. Life on earth is a catalog of accidents, alternatives, and errors that turned out to work quite well. In this book, Telmo Pievani shows that life on our planet has flourished and survived not because of its perfection but despite (and perhaps because of) its imperfection. He begins his story with the disruption-filled birth of the universe and proceeds through the random DNA copying errors that fuel evolution, the transformations of advantages into handicaps by natural selection, the anatomical and functional jumble that is the human brain, and our many bodily mismatches.

Along the way, Pievani tells readers about the Irish elk (incidentally, neither Irish nor elk

Imperfection

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    A Paperback by Telmo Pievani, Michael Gerard Kenyon

    10 in stock

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      Publisher: MIT Press
      Publication Date: 2/6/2024 12:00:00 AM
      ISBN13: 9780262548359, 978-0262548359
      ISBN10: 0262548356
      Also in:
      Biology, life sciences

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      In praise of imperfection: how life on our planet is a catalog of imperfections, errors, alternatives, and anomalies.

      In the beginning, there was imperfection, which became the source of all things. Anomalies and asymmetries caused planets to take shape from the bubbling void and sent light into darkness. Life on earth is a catalog of accidents, alternatives, and errors that turned out to work quite well. In this book, Telmo Pievani shows that life on our planet has flourished and survived not because of its perfection but despite (and perhaps because of) its imperfection. He begins his story with the disruption-filled birth of the universe and proceeds through the random DNA copying errors that fuel evolution, the transformations of advantages into handicaps by natural selection, the anatomical and functional jumble that is the human brain, and our many bodily mismatches.

      Along the way, Pievani tells readers about the Irish elk (incidentally, neither Irish nor elk

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