Abstract
“For a biologist”, wrote Sir Peter Medawar, “the alternative to thinking in evolutionary terms is not to think at all”. Yet, at the end of an education in biology in most Indian universities, this is not quite the view of evolutionary biology that one is left with. Evolution is presented summarily, almost as a footnote, rather than as a vital branch of biology providing the conceptual foundation for our modern views about the living world. In this issue ofResonance, we remember Stephen Jay Gould, who wrote extensively and eloquently about evolution for a general audience. It seems fitting, then, to also briefly discuss why evolutionary biology is important, not only conceptually but also in terms of practical applications. In this first part of a series of articles on modern evolutionary biology, we examine why the idea of evolution is so important in our intellectual history, and also take a look at the domain of evolutionary biology as a discipline.
Similar content being viewed by others
Suggested Reading
M R Rose,Darwin’s Spectre: Evolutionary Biology in the Modern World, Princeton University Press, Princeton, USA, 1998.
R Dawkins,The Selfish Gene, Oxford University Press, New York, USA, 1976.
S J Gould,The Panda’s Thumb, W W Norton & Co., New York, USA, 1982.
F J Ayala, Theodosius Dobzhansky: a man for all seasons,Resonance, Vol. 5, No. 10, pp. 48–60, 2000.
A Joshi, Sir. R A Fisher and the evolution of genetics,Resonance, Vol. 2, No. 9, pp. 27–31, 1997.
A Joshi, Sewall Wright: A life in evolution,Resonance, Vol. 4, No. 12, pp. 54–65, 1999.
S C Stearns and R F Hoekstra,Evolution: An Introduction, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 2000.
Special Section on Evolutionary Ecology,Current Science, Vol. 72, No. 12, pp. 923–956, 1997.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Amitabh Joshi studies and teaches evolutionary genetics and population ecology at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore. His current research interests are in life-history, evolution, the evolutionary genetics of biological clocks, the evolution of ecological specialization dynamics. He also enjoys music (especially traditional qawali in Braj, Farsi, Punjabi and Urdu), history, philosophy, and reading and writing poetry in Urdu, Hindi and English.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Joshi, A. Evolutionary biology today. Reson 7, 8–17 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02868195
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02868195