By Richard Lewontin. 136 pp., illustrated. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 2000. $22.95. ISBN 0-674-00159-1.
The thinking that distinguishes biology from other sciencesoriginated in the 19th century with Darwin's appreciation thatmembers of all species exhibit phenotypic variation. This ledto the idea that change in external circumstances would favorsome phenotypes over others and that such selection could intime result in the evolution of new species. In the 20th century,biology attracted many chemists and physicists. Rather thanobserve organisms, they broke them into components, which theythen studied in great detail. By necessity, this reductionistapproach could be used with only a few species, but that wasof little concern, because . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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