Biograffiti (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780393000313)

Legend has it (it may even be true) that J. B. S. Haldane, when asked by a clergyman what he could infer about God from the works of creation, responded, "He must have had an inordinate fondness for beetles." Were I asked to infer something essential about Homo sapiens from his work, I should probably reply that this zoological odd-ball required humor to lighten a life taken too seriously. How else can we explain the fact that very profession has its underground classic of humorous self-deprecation and verse? Garstang's Larval Forms has long filled this role for evolutionary biology. But, as a residual Victorian, Garstang turned out some mighty stuffy poems--and recapitulatory theory of the details of invertebrate morphology do no reside on the frontier of modern biology. But voyeurs and hedonists can now rejoice, for John Burns has produced a worthy successor, a work full of all that is modern in evolutionary biology--mathematical modeling, ecological strategies, ethological theories and, oh yes, plenty of sex.

Author: John M. Burns
ISBN-10: 0393000311
ISBN-13: 9780393000313
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Language: English
Published: 03/01/1981
Pages: 132
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.33lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.00w x 0.31d