Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
The evolutionary theorist François Jacob captured this in his concept of evolution as a “tinkerer,” not an engineer; our bodies are also works of bricolage, old parts strung together to form something radically new.
Steven Johnson • Where Good Ideas Come From
increase of molecular complexity alone would not be sufficient; we need also an increase of functionality.
Pier Luigi Luisi • The Emergence of Life: From Chemical Origins to Synthetic Biology
The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time
amazon.com
the uncut DNA could be cut simply by designing a new guide RNA to match 20 nucleotides of its sequence.
Thomas R. Cech • The Catalyst: RNA and the Quest to Unlock Life's Deepest Secrets
Darwin’s mechanism can’t begin to make a comparatively simple bacterial flagellum, let alone the human brain. Thus all of the intellectual work built on that vaporous foundation falls with it.
Michael J. Behe • Darwin Devolves: The New Science About DNA That Challenges Evolution
That assumption springs from a belief in evolution as a random process that has produced sub-optimal human brains,
George Gilder • Life After Google
Gruber’s Darwin on Man is both the canonical study of Darwin’s intellectual journey toward the idea of natural selection and one of the most insightful books on scientific creativity ever written.
Steven Johnson • Where Good Ideas Come From
The most general way of stating the central assertion of the neo-Darwinian theory of evolution is that a population of replicators subject to variation (for instance by imperfect copying) will be taken over by those variants that are better than their rivals at causing themselves to be replicated.