The Tinkerer's Accomplice

A physiologist presents a provocative and scientifically rigorous new perspective on Darwinism, design, and why the living world works so well. When they contemplate nature, they see evidence of design at work. So it is jarring when biologists insist that this perception is all wrong. What most people see as design, they say--purposeful, directed, even intelligent--is only an illusion. But in these days of increasingly assertive challenges to Darwinism, the...
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A physiologist presents a provocative and scientifically rigorous new perspective on Darwinism, design, and why the living world works so well.

When they contemplate nature, they see evidence of design at work. So it is jarring when biologists insist that this perception is all wrong. What most people see as design, they say--purposeful, directed, even intelligent--is only an illusion. But in these days of increasingly assertive challenges to Darwinism, the question becomes acute: is our perception of design simply a mental figment, or is there something deeper at work?

Physiologist Scott Turner argues that the apparent design of the living world can be accounted for scientifically. But to do it, we must consider a dimension that modern molecular biology often ignores: the dynamic interaction between living organisms and their environment. By combining environmental physiology and natural selection, we begin to understand the beautiful fit between the form life takes and how life works.

In The Tinkerer's Accomplice, Scott Turner takes up the question of design as a very real problem in biology; his solution poses challenges to all sides in this critical debate.<