Rating: 
Summary: An insight on evolution
Review: "The Beak of the Finch" analyzed many of Darwin's theories on evolution. Most of the book follows the Grant's as they study thirteen species of finches on the Galapagos Islands, especially the island of Daphne Major. The Grant's studies focused mainly on how the finches reacted to environmental changes and how natural selection influenced their evolutionary change. Jonathan Weiner also provides insight into other experiments done by other scientists on finches and other species.The book was an interesting read and the author did a good job of keeping complex science concepts simple for the purpose of suiting every type of reader. He included the stories of the Grant's and numerous other scientists to keep the novel interesting and not strictly scientific. The novel was presented in a story-like fashion on how evolutionary concepts were supported.The idea that evolutionary changes are always occurring and that the results of evolution can be seen in both short and long time periods is presented in the novel. Overall, the book was enjoyable and gave the reader valuable insight on evolution and Darwinism.
Rating: 
Summary: A perfect sequel to "Origin of Species"
Review: "The Beak of the Finch", subtitled, "A Story of Evolution in Our Time", is a truly amazing book. Its principle topic is the work of Peter and Rosemary Grant, who have been studying the finches of the Galapagos Islands ("Darwin's Finches") in great detail since 1973. They have collected and analyzed data on 24 generations and close to 19,000 individual birds. The result of their work is empirical proof of Darwin's theory of evolution, along with a tremendous amount of new data concerning the mechanisms of evolution and life. The author (Jonathan Weiner) quotes liberally from Darwin. Of course Darwin was not right in every detail, but modern work is validating much of the speculation of "Origin" and other works. Some points I gleaned:(1)Natural selection works much more quickly than Darwin or anyone else had, until recently, realized. Under extreme selection pressure the finches were recorded evolving in one direction, then another. The reason the pace has been misjudged by several orders of magnitude is that the effects follow environment, and tend to net out over long periods of time, leaving the impression of a much slower pace.(2)The theory of evolution has been rigorously proven through the traditional scientific method of exact hypothetical predictions confirmed with experiment and observation.(3)Stephen J. Gould mentions frequently that the observation of evolution is neither unknown or even rare. I learned from Weiner that observed incidents are not necessarily subtle or obscure, and learned about many fascinating specific cases.(4)American farmers have never realized a net gain against insects by use of insecticides. When the cotton fields were cleared of "pests" in the forties, adjacent species began invading their crops almost immediately. Pesticides, of course, select for pesticide resistant insects. Before pesticides were introduced farmers lost 7% of their crop to insects. In 1993 the number was 13% and has risen steadily since the first pesticide was introduced. The irony is that the farmers being destroyed by the inevitable forces of evolution are deep in the cotton/bible belt, where they are simultaneously (not all of them of course) trying to keep their schools from teaching evolution, thus crippling the chances of saving their crops.(5)Antibiotic resistance is, of course, taking the same course as pesticide resistance, threatening everyone's health. I had missed the point that the same fundie saying s/he doesn't "believe" in evolution is likely aware of one of it's most immediate effects, bacteria surging ahead in our ongoing war.(6)I gleaned a pretty good grasp of how divergence and speciation occur in the absence of geographical barriers. This has been a stumbling block to understanding for me, because the geographical separation requirement seemed too rare for the effects attributed to it. Very briefly, when a species is severely stressed by changing environment, there are commonly two or more survival niches best addressed by different evolved configurations (beak shape and overall size, in the case of the finches). Offspring suited to a niche survives, and by staying out of each others' niches, the separating groups survive and prosper. Speciation can occur if the conditions favoring the separation persist long enough.(7)"Preserving a species" is an almost meaningless statement. Species are constantly in evolutionary flux, and the descendents of animals we preserve will likely not be the same species, especially if we introduce or reintroduce them to the wild.
Rating:
Summary: Right under your beak
Review: "Evolution in action" takes place day in and day out and has been measured and documented as part of a long running study of the 13 species of Darwin finches that are to be found on the Galapagos Islands. It's ironic that the behaviour of these eponymous finches would in fact contradict the great scientist himself. Darwin believed that evolution was a slow, linear, process that took place over extremely long periods of time. Weiner disagrees, and by looking at the study Rosemary and Peter Grant have been conducting with Darwin's finches since 1973, he is able to say that natural selections' "action is neither rare nor slow. It leads to evolution daily and hourly, all around us, and we can watch." He goes on to say "the closer you look at life, the more rapid and intense the rate of evolutionary change." You can't get a closer look than the fractional adaptations in THE BEAK OF THE FINCH which are due to environmentally induced changes. Weiner says the Grant's study shows differentiation in beak size in accordance with environmental dictates. Fluctuations such as drought and rainy seasons caused a concomitant change in food source - hard seeds were more plentiful in dry times and tiny, thinner, seeds emerged in wet periods. A direct correlation with adaptations of the birds beaks was shown to exist. There was a measurable increase in the average beak size in the generation following a drought and a selection bias towards those with slimmer beaks when the tiny seeds were in abundance. The book's title notwithstanding, the Darwin finch study is not the only subject looked at. There are examples of many other everyday-evolution experiments. The most common being those using Drosophilia or Fruit Flies. Also those with other bird species such as sparrows, and speaking of beaks, why go any further that the appropriately named crossbills. Darwin and his own 20 year study in the Galapagos, naturally comes in for frequent mention throughout. In summary this is a well written book, easily managed by non-specialists but also enjoyable for biologists.
Rating:
Summary: An insight on evolution
Review: "The Beak of the Finch" analyzed many of Darwin's theories on evolution. Most of the book follows the Grant's as they study thirteen species of finches on the Galapagos Islands, especially the island of Daphne Major. The Grant's studies focused mainly on how the finches reacted to environmental changes and how natural selection influenced their evolutionary change. Jonathan Weiner also provides insight into other experiments done by other scientists on finches and other species. The book was an interesting read and the author did a good job of keeping complex science concepts simple for the purpose of suiting every type of reader. He included the stories of the Grant's and numerous other scientists to keep the novel interesting and not strictly scientific. The novel was presented in a story-like fashion on how evolutionary concepts were supported.The idea that evolutionary changes are always occurring and that the results of evolution can be seen in both short and long time periods is presented in the novel. Overall, the book was enjoyable and gave the reader valuable insight on evolution and Darwinism.
Rating:
Summary: An insight on evolution
Review: "The Beak of the Finch" analyzed many of Darwin's theories on evolution. Most of the book follows the Grant's as they study thirteen species of finches on the Galapagos Islands, especially the island of Daphne Major. The Grant's studies focused mainly on how the finches reacted to environmental changes and how natural selection influenced their evolutionary change. Jonathan Weiner also provides insight into other experiments done by other scientists on finches and other species. The book was an interesting read and the author did a good job of keeping complex science concepts simple for the purpose of suiting every type of reader. He included the stories of the Grant's and numerous other scientists to keep the novel interesting and not strictly scientific. The novel was presented in a story-like fashion on how evolutionary concepts were supported.The idea that evolutionary changes are always occurring and that the results of evolution can be seen in both short and long time periods is presented in the novel. Overall, the book was enjoyable and gave the reader valuable insight on evolution and Darwinism.
Rating:
Summary: A perfect sequel to "Origin of Species"
Review: "The Beak of the Finch", subtitled, "A Story of Evolution in Our Time", is a truly amazing book. Its principle topic is the work of Peter and Rosemary Grant, who have been studying the finches of the Galapagos Islands ("Darwin's Finches") in great detail since 1973. They have collected and analyzed data on 24 generations and close to 19,000 individual birds. The result of their work is empirical proof of Darwin's theory of evolution, along with a tremendous amount of new data concerning the mechanisms of evolution and life. The author (Jonathan Weiner) quotes liberally from Darwin. Of course Darwin was not right in every detail, but modern work is validating much of the speculation of "Origin" and other works. Some points I gleaned:
(1)
Natural selection works much more quickly than Darwin or anyone else had, until recently, realized. Under extreme selection pressure the finches were recorded evolving in one direction, then another. The reason the pace has been misjudged by several orders of magnitude is that the effects follow environment, and tend to net out over long periods of time, leaving the impression of a much slower pace.
(2)
The theory of evolution has been rigorously proven through the traditional scientific method of exact hypothetical predictions confirmed with experiment and observation.
(3)
Stephen J. Gould mentions frequently that the observation of evolution is neither unknown or even rare. I learned from Weiner that observed incidents are not necessarily subtle or obscure, and learned about many fascinating specific cases.
(4)
American farmers have never realized a net gain against insects by use of insecticides. When the cotton fields were cleared of "pests" in the forties, adjacent species began invading their crops almost immediately. Pesticides, of course, select for pesticide resistant insects. Before pesticides were introduced farmers lost 7% of their crop to insects. In 1993 the number was 13% and has risen steadily since the first pesticide was introduced. The irony is that the farmers being destroyed by the inevitable forces of evolution are deep in the cotton/bible belt, where they are simultaneously (not all of them of course) trying to keep their schools from teaching evolution, thus crippling the chances of saving their crops.
(5)
Antibiotic resistance is, of course, taking the same course as pesticide resistance, threatening everyone's health. I had missed the point that the same fundie saying s/he doesn't "believe" in evolution is likely aware of one of it's most immediate effects, bacteria surging ahead in our ongoing war.
(6)
I gleaned a pretty good grasp of how divergence and speciation occur in the absence of geographical barriers. This has been a stumbling block to understanding for me, because the geographical separation requirement seemed too rare for the effects attributed to it. Very briefly, when a species is severely stressed by changing environment, there are commonly two or more survival niches best addressed by different evolved configurations (beak shape and overall size, in the case of the finches). Offspring suited to a niche survives, and by staying out of each others' niches, the separating groups survive and prosper. Speciation can occur if the conditions favoring the separation persist long enough.
(7)
"Preserving a species" is an almost meaningless statement. Species are constantly in evolutionary flux, and the descendents of animals we preserve will likely not be the same species, especially if we introduce or reintroduce them to the wild.
Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: 'Beak of the Finch' is a great read, and not only for its entertainment value. It really lends more of a concrete feel to the surprisingly elusive nature of evolution. Darwin's Galapagos finches provide this concrete example; they also happen to serve as a perfect example of evolution occuring under extremely selective conditions. Weiner's very skillful description of these unique conditions and the exact nature of the process of selection under these conditions serves to reveal the nature of the process of evolution in a unique and exciting way.
Rating:
Summary: Evolution by the Numbers
Review:
As a professor of geology and natural history, I am commonly asked by my students how we scientists can be so sure that the process of organic evolution occurs today. The fossil record is rich with the evidence of species that have lived, bred, and then vanished, all in the distant past. From these data we can piece together the history of life on Earth, but cannot easily understand how the dynamics of evolution actually play out in real time. The Beak of the Finch, by Jonathan Weiner, vividly and enthrallingly presents exactly this kind of evidence. Summarizing a huge body of research carried out on Galapagos finch populations for over twenty years by Peter and Rosemary Grant of Princeton University, Weiner amazes the reader with a sweeping account of how severe climatic events have produced measurable evolutionary changes in wild bird populations in the Galapagos - in as little as one year!
In a narrative style that simultaneously preserves the scientific details of the Grants' research and inspires in the reader a sense of wonder and awe at the ubiquity and subtlety of natural selection, Weiner presents a lucid and accessible discussion of the Grants' methods of study, their findings, and the implications of those findings to our understanding of the ongoing parade of life, death and evolution on Earth. Merely a brief description of the Grants' method is awe-inspiring; these two scientists and their students have caught, measured, and cataloged every single individual finch on one isolated island, for over twenty years. The Grants know who has mated with whom, who hatched whom, and who among them survived or perished through drought, flood, and famine during more than two decades of meticulous research. Weiner describes in clear and compelling prose how natural evolutionary change can occur - and be measured - over timescales far shorter than a human lifetime.
Weiner goes further still, and presents for the reader a stunning account of how evolutionary dynamics are being studied today throughout the world, using rigorous and quantitative experiments. By discussing research on fruit flies, guppies, and microbes, Weiner forces the reader to confront the reality that modern evolutionary science is as precise, as measurable, and as 'hard' as physics or chemistry. And as useful: some of the aspects of observable evolution that Weiner discusses include the recent development of antibiotic-resistant diseases, and the continuing arms-race of pesticide manufacturers against new varieties of insects that can ignore even DDT.
This book is required reading in my freshman-level course in Earth History, and in an advanced course I teach in Paleontology and Evolution. For anyone with an interest in natural history and the evolution of life, this book is a must-read. For anyone who rejects evolutionary theory because they perceive it to be 'soft', lacking quantitative rigor or the option of an experimental approach, this book is a wake-up call to the age of modern biology. As a science professional and an educator, I give this book my highest recommendation.
Dr. Johnson R. Haas
Rating: 
Summary: No evolution here
Review: After discussing evolution with a friend, she handed me this book to show me that evolution is indeed an observable fact. She told me that this book demonstrated "evolution in action." This excited me, so I read this book hoping to find some convincing evidence for evolution.
Jonathan Weiner did a remarkable job of recording the Grant's work into an extremely readable book, and I hope that what I'm about to say doesn't detract from the the dedicated fieldwork of the Grants, whose incredibly detailed measurements of thousands of birds over a 20-year period on the small island of Daphne Major are a major contribution to the study of population dynamics and ecology.
It is very unfortunate that neither Weiner or the Grants couldn't understand the simple act that, while natural selection is a necessary aspect of the evolution model, demonstrating it does not in and of itself demonstrate evolution(if by evolution you mean single cell creatures becoming todays biosphere). What I mean is that natural selection does not produce NEW GENETIC INFORMATION. For bacteria-to-man evolution to work, there MUST be an increase in new genetic information. Neither Weiner or the Grants demonstrated one example of an increase in new genetic information. Rather, they demonstrated many examples of a LOSS of information, which is what natural selection does.
Another unfortunate aspect of this book were the serious misrepresentations of creationists. Both the Grants and Weiner seemed to think that any inheritable change in a population is a deathblow to creationists. Nothing could be further from the truth. Creationists have no problem with the concept of "change through time." What we have a problem with is "change with the increase of NEW GENETIC INFORMATION." Throughout the book, Wiener creates these straw men, and many more. I could go on all day on how Wiener seriously misrepresented creationists, but I would rather end this review on a good note.
To the creationist, this book greatly confirms the biblical account of creation, that God created plants and animals according to their kind(not species), and that there are genetic limits to these kinds. For me, natural selection is powerful evidence for an intelligent designer, that God programmed each kind of animal with the genetic information to adapt to many different environments.
Rating:
Summary: The Beak of the Finch a delight.
Review: After reading the Beak of the Finch I cringe every time I hear about the slow pace of evolution. Beautifully written, giving insights into the character of the researchers who have painstakingly unveiled the wonders of life to the masses. Now when I look outside I can't fail to see a new landscape painted in hues of survival and change. A landscape which man has also trod. A delight!
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