The Universe -- Order without Design

Is the universe designed for life? Physicists have discovered that many seemingly unconnected phenomena, which took place millions of years apart, played a crucial role in the development of life on Earth. Does such evidence reveal a purpose behind the order of the universe?

NASA senior research scientist Carlos I. Calle explores this tantalizing question and many more in this wide-ranging introduction to the very latest and sundry theories about the origins and evolution of the enormous cosmos. From the big bang to the possibility of a "big crunch" he renders the complexities of theoretical physics beautifully lucid for the lay reader.

Calle begins by reviewing the milestones of 20th-century astrophysics: the confirmation of the big bang theory in the 1960s by the discovery of cosmic background radiation; the inflationary theory of universe expansion, which NASA observations have recently confirmed; the formulation of the essential laws of physics that govern the unfolding of all physical processes, from subatomic fluctuations to the formation of galaxies; and physicists' attempts to unify all the forces of nature.

The author then lays out the cosmological models based on M-theory, which suggests that our particular universe may be one of an unimaginable number of universes, each with its own set of physical laws. According to one of the most promising models, the big bang may not be the moment of creation but the bridge to a past filled with endless cycles of universe creation and destruction.

Did the universe require a prime mover -- the Grand Designer -- to create the planets, the stars, and the galaxies?  The Universe -- Order without Design will give you plenty of food for thought.

Stephen Jay Gould and the Politics of Evolution

"Genius, Marxist, sage, ideologue: the legacy of Stephen Jay Gould is nothing if not controversial," notes Seedmagazine.com in their May 2009 "Seed Pick" of Stephen Jay Gould and the Politics of Evolution. Seed says, "David F. Prindle...provides an absorbing account of the biologist's scientific work, viewed through the lens of his explicitly political writing. Aided by the intrinsic charm of Gould's public persona, Prindle brings an otherwise dry textual analysis to life. Besides providing a deeper understanding of the concepts that propelled Gould to the forefront of his field, he puts the Kuhnian question underpinning that work into stark relief: not whether science should be isolated from the politics of the time and place in which it is created, but whether such a thing is possible."

Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould was, until his death in 2002, America's best-known natural scientist. His monthly essays in Natural History magazine were widely read by both scientists and ordinary citizens with an interest in science. One of his books won the National Book Award, and another was a bestseller in three countries. Philosopher Daniel Dennett proclaimed him "America's evolutionist laureate."

While many people have written about Gould's science, pro and con, and a few have written about his politics, this is the first book to explore his science and politics as a consistent whole. Political scientist David F. Prindle argues that Gould's mind worked along two tracks simultaneously -- the scientific and the political. All of his concepts and arguments were bona fide contributions to science, but all of them also contained specifically political implications. 

As one example among many, Prindle cites Gould's controversial argument that if the "tape of evolution" could be rewound and then allowed to unspool again, nothing resembling human beings would likely evolve. This was part of his larger thesis that people are not the result of a natural tendency toward perfection in evolution, but the result of chance, or as Gould put it, "contingency." As Prindle notes, Gould's scientific ideas often sought to attack human hubris, and thus prepare the ground for the political argument that people should treat nature with more restraint.

"[This] is a terrific book, keenly analytical and engagingly composed. Quite hard to put down, actually," says Robert Hunt Sprinkle, MD, PhD, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland and author of Profession of Conscience: The Making and Meaning of Life-Sciences Liberalism. "A welcome contribution to the history of evolutionary thought."

Anyone with an interest in one of America's great scientists, or in paleontology, evolutionary theory, or intellectual history will find Stephen Jay Gould and the Politics of Evolution to be a fascinating exploration of the man and his ideas.