{"title":"Simon Conway Morris","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"crucible-of-creation-book-simon-conway-morris-9780198502562","title":"The Crucible of Creation","description":"Challenging the views of scientists including Stephen J. Gould and Richard Dawkins, this text takes us on a fresh journey back in time through the Burgess Shale - the astonishing collection of pre-Cambrian creatures so different from everything now living that many rank as separate trunks of life's tree. In readable style, Conway Morris paints a picture of a critical period in the history of life which saw the diversification of all the major animal groups, and takes a controversial stance on current evolutionary theories. The book should appeal to the general reader interested in popular science and evolutionary theory - in particular readers of Richard Dawkins and Stephen Jay Gould.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49533132767505,"sku":"GOR001838302","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49755152646417,"sku":"CIN0198502567G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50189260456209,"sku":"CIN0198502567VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52705367064849,"sku":"GOR014588952","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0198502567.jpg?v=1750780650"},{"product_id":"life-s-solution-book-simon-conway-morris-9780521603256","title":"Life's Solution","description":"The assassin's bullet misses, the Archduke's carriage moves forward, and a catastrophic war is avoided. So too with the history of life. Re-run the tape of life, as Stephen J. Gould claimed, and the outcome must be entirely different: an alien world, without humans and maybe not even intelligence. The history of life is littered with accidents: any twist or turn may lead to a completely different world. Now this view is being challenged. Simon Conway Morris explores the evidence demonstrating life's almost eerie ability to navigate to a single solution, repeatedly. Eyes, brains, tools, even culture: all are very much on the cards. So if these are all evolutionary inevitabilities, where are our counterparts across the galaxy? The tape of life can only run on a suitable planet, and it seems that such Earth-like planets may be much rarer than hoped. Inevitable humans, yes, but in a lonely Universe.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49534133633297,"sku":"GOR002418103","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49685006287121,"sku":"CIN0521603250G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50955883708689,"sku":"GOR001875750","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51003183989009,"sku":"NIN9780521603256","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52330911170833,"sku":"NLS9780521603256","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":53545717301521,"sku":"NGR9780521603256","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":53627705819409,"sku":"CIN0521603250A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0521603250.jpg?v=1751008133"},{"product_id":"crucible-of-creation-book-simon-conway-morris-9780192862020","title":"The Crucible of Creation","description":"'tells a great story and manages to be informative at all levels. Conway Morris has a collector's eye for the sort of entertaining yet informative snippets that keep readers on their toes.'   New Scientist   Located in the west of Canada, the Burgess Shale contains a unique collection of fossil remains, and has become an icon for those studying the history of life. This remarkable book takes us on a fresh journey back in time through the Burgess Shale and its astonishing collection of pre-Cambrian creatures. In an entertaining and readable style, Simon Conway Morris paints a vivid picture of the critical period which saw the diversification of all the major animal groups, and takes a controversial stance on current evolutionary theories that is sure to provoke much interest and debate.   'It is less bleak in its assessment of life on earth and it is spiritually uplifting, rather than dry and mechanistic as some would have us believe'   THES   'The centerpiece of The Crucible of Creation is a description, authoritative and readable, of the animals themselves.   New York Times Book Review","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49534698717457,"sku":"GOR002763603","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49546471571729,"sku":"GOR002199748","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49554867618065,"sku":"GOR003229008","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50483496288529,"sku":"CIN0192862022G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50655244321041,"sku":"CIN0192862022VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0192862022.jpg?v=1751389151"},{"product_id":"deep-structure-of-biology-book-simon-conway-morris-9781599471389","title":"The Deep Structure of Biology","description":"Twelve renowned scientists and theologians offer penetrating insights into the evolution dialogue in The Deep Structure of Biology. Each considers whether the orthodox evolution model is sufficient and offers their perspective on evolution and biology. Essays include:      Chance and Necessity in Evolution   Green Plants as Intelligent Organisms   Canny Corvoids and Political Primates: A Case for Convergent Evolution in Intelligence   Social and Cultural Evolution in the Ocean: Convergences and Contrasts with Terrestrial Systems   Purpose in Nature: On the Possibility of a Theology of Evolution    Editor Simon Conway Morris provides the introduction, an overview of the issues, and an essay on evolution and convergence. Other contributors are Richard Lenski, George McGhee, Karl Niklas, Anthony Trewavas, Nigel Franks, Nicola Clayton, Nathan Emery, HalWhitehead, Robert Foley, Michael Ruse, Celia Deane-Drummond, and John Haught.    The discussion of biology and evolution in these essays broadens the scope of the traditional evolution discussion as it aims to stimulate the development of other research programs. Scholars in the science and religion field will find this book a valuable resource.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49613723894033,"sku":"GOR004037255","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50204475359505,"sku":"CIN1599471388VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50394009927953,"sku":"CIN1599471388G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1599471388.jpg?v=1754893558"},{"product_id":"from-extraterrestrials-to-animal-minds-book-simon-conway-morris-9781599475288","title":"From Extraterrestrials to Animal Minds","description":"In this learned romp of science writing, Cambridge professor Simon Conway Morris cheerfully challenges six assumptions—what he calls ‘myths’—that too often pass as unquestioned truths amongst the evolutionary orthodox.    His convivial tour begins with the idea that evolution is boundless in the kinds of biological systems it can produce. Not true, he says. The process is highly circumscribed and delimited. Nor is it random. This popular notion holds that evolution proceeds blindly, with no endgame. But Conway Morris suggests otherwise, pointing to evidence that the processes of evolution are “seeded with inevitabilities.”    If that is so, then what about mass extinctions? Don’t they steer the development of life in radically new directions? Rather the reverse, claims Conway Morris. Such cataclysms accelerate evolutionary developments that were going to happen anyway. And what about that other evolutionary canard: the “missing link”? There is plenty to choose from in the fossil record, but persistently overlooked is that in any group, there is not one but a phalanx of “missing links.” Once again, we under-score the near-inevitability of evolutionary outcomes.    Turning from fossils to minds, Conway Morris critically examines the popular tenet that the intelligence of humans and animals are the same thing, a difference of degree, not kind. A closer scrutiny of our minds shows that, in reality, an unbridgeable gulf separates us from even the chimpanzees, so begging questions of consciousness and Mind.   Finally, Conway Morris tackles the question of extraterrestrials. Undoubtedly, the size and scale of the universe suggest that alien life must exist somewhere beyond Earth and our tiny siloed solar system? After all, evolutionary convergence more than hints that human-like forms are universal. But Dr. Conway Morris has serious doubts. The famous Fermi Paradox (“Where are they?”) appears to hold: Alone in the cosmos—and unique, but not quite in the way one might expect.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49619599196433,"sku":"GOR013249946","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1599475286.jpg?v=1751277029"},{"product_id":"runes-of-evolution-book-simon-conway-morris-9781599474649","title":"The Runes of Evolution","description":"How did human beings acquire imaginations that can conjure up untrue possibilities? How did the Universe become self-aware? In The Runes of Evolution, Simon Conway Morris revitalizes the study of evolution from the perspective of convergence, providing us with compelling new evidence to support the mounting scientific view that the history of life is far more predictable than once thought.     A leading evolutionary biologist at the University of Cambridge, Conway Morris came into international prominence for his work on the Cambrian explosion (especially fossils of the Burgess Shale) and evolutionary convergence, which is the process whereby organisms not closely related (not monophyletic), independently evolve similar traits as a result of having to adapt to similar environments or ecological niches.     In The Runes of Evolution, he illustrates how the ubiquity of convergence hints at an underlying framework whereby many outcomes, not least brains and intelligence, are virtually guaranteed on any Earth-like planet. Conway Morris also emphasizes how much of the complexity of advanced biological systems is inherent in microbial forms.     By casting a wider net, The Runes of Evolution explores many neglected evolutionary questions. Some are remarkably general. Why, for example, are convergences such as parasitism, carnivory, and nitrogen fixation in plants concentrated in particular taxonomic hot spots? Why do certain groups have a particular propensity to evolve toward particular states?     Some questions lead to unexpected evolutionary insights: If bees sleep (as they do), do they dream? Why is that insect copulating with an orchid? Why have sponges evolved a system of fiber optics? What do mantis shrimps and submarines have in common? If dinosaurs had not gone extinct what would have happened next? Will a saber-toothed cat ever re-evolve?     Cona Morris observes: “Even amongst the mammals, let alone the entire tree of life, humans represent one minute twig of a vast (and largely fossilized) arborescence. Every living species is a linear descendant of an immense string of now-vanished ancestors, but evolution itself is the very reverse of linear. Rather it is endlessly exploratory, probing the vast spaces of biological hyperspace. Indeed this book is a celebration of how our world is (and was) populated by a riot of forms, a coruscating tapestry of life.”    The Runes of Evolution is the most definitive synthesis of evolutionary convergence to be published to date.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49950912905489,"sku":"CIN1599474646G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50491708309777,"sku":"GOR011471637","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51681794687249,"sku":"GOR014351657","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1599474646.jpg?v=1754893807"},{"product_id":"crucible-of-creation-book-simon-conway-morris-9780198501978","title":"The Crucible of Creation","description":"In this text, palaeontologist Simon Conway Morris looks at the implications of the Burgess Shale - the fossil collection of pre-Cambrian creatures so different from anything now living - for theories of evolution, challenging the views of Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Dawkins.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50940092055825,"sku":"GOR006114329","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50942950179089,"sku":"GOR010918929","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0198501978.jpg?v=1751005226"},{"product_id":"destinations-book-simon-conway-morris-9780195027082","title":"Destinations","description":"Combining impressionism, history, and political interpretation, Morris's essays convey the essence of places as diverse as post Watergate Washington, Manhattan, Delhi under Mrs. Gandhi, and Los Angeles","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51423691931921,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51423692751121,"sku":"CIN0195027086G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51544739741969,"sku":"GOR008511301","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0195027086.jpg?v=1750737763"},{"product_id":"runes-of-evolution-book-simon-conway-morris-9781599475011","title":"The Runes of Evolution","description":"How did human beings acquire imaginations that can conjure up untrue possibilities? 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Conway Morris also emphasizes how much of the complexity of advanced biological systems is inherent in microbial forms.     By casting a wider net, The Runes of Evolution explores many neglected evolutionary questions. Some are remarkably general. Why, for example, are convergences such as parasitism, carnivory, and nitrogen fixation in plants concentrated in particular taxonomic hot spots? Why do certain groups have a particular propensity to evolve toward particular states?     Some questions lead to unexpected evolutionary insights: If bees sleep (as they do), do they dream? Why is that insect copulating with an orchid? Why have sponges evolved a system of fiber optics? What do mantis shrimps and submarines have in common? If dinosaurs had not gone extinct what would have happened next? 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