文档介绍：DARWIN'S BLACK BOX
THE BIOCHEMICAL CHALLENGE TO EVOLUTION
MICHAEL J. ВЕНЕ
FREE PRESS
New York London Toronto Sydney
TO CELESTE
CONTENTS
PREFACE IX
THE BOX IS OPENED
1. LILIPUTIAN BIOLOGY 3
2. NUTS AND BOLTS 26
EXAMINING THE CONTENTS OF THE BOX
3. ROW, ROW, ROW YOUR BOAT 51
4. RUBE GOLDBERG IN THE BLOOD 74
5. FROM HERE TO THERE 98
6. A DANGEROUS WORLD 117
7. ROAD KILL 140
WHAT DOES THE BOX TELL US?
8. PUBLISH OR PERISH 165
9. INTELLIGENT DESIGN 187
10. QUESTIONS ABOUT DESIGN 209
11. SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION 232
AFTERWORD 255
APPENDIX 273
NOTES 295
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 313
PREFACE IX
PREFACE
A MOLECULAR PHENOMENON
It monplace, almost banal, to say that science has made great
strides in understanding nature. The laws of physics are now so well
understood that space probes fly unerringly to photograph worlds billions
of miles from earth. Computers, telephones, electric lights, and untold
other examples testify to the mastery of science and technology over the
forces of nature. ines and high-yield crops have stayed the ancient
enemies of mankind, disease and hunger—at least in parts of the world.
Almost weekly, announcements of discoveries in molecular biology
encourage the hope of cures for ic diseases and more.
Yet understanding how something works is not the same as
understanding how it came to be. For example, the motions of the s
in the solar system can be predicted with tremendous accuracy; however,
the origin of the solar system (the question of how the sun, s, and
their moons formed in the first place) is still Science may
eventually solve the riddle. Still, the point remains that understanding
the origin of something is different from understanding its day-to-day
workings.
Science's mastery of nature has led many people to presume that it
can—indeed, must—also explain the origin of nature and life. Dar-
X
win's proposal that life can be explained by natural selection ac