The Beak of the Finch

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize On a desert island in the heart of the Galapagos archipelago, where Darwin received his first inklings of the theory of evolution, two scientists, Peter and Rosemary Grant, have spent twenty years proving that Darwin did not know the strength of his own theory. For among the finches of Daphne Major, natural selection is neither rare nor slow: it is taking place by the hour, and we can watch. In this dramatic story of groundbreaking scientific research, Jonathan Weiner follows these scientists as they watch Darwin's finches and come up with a new understanding of life itself. The Beak of the Finchis an elegantly written and compelling masterpiece of theory and explication in the tradition of Stephen Jay Gould.

Jonathan Weiner, formerly a writer and editor for <b>The Sciences</b>, is the author of <b>Planet Earth</b> and <b>The Next One Hundred Years</b>.  He lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with his wife and their two sons.