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The Greatest Show on Earth
- The Evidence for Evolution
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
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Publisher's summary
In 1859 Charles Darwin's masterpiece, On the Origin of Species, shook society to its core. Darwin was only too aware of the storm his theory of evolution would provoke. But he surely would have raised an incredulous eyebrow at the controversy still raging a century and a half later.
Evolution is accepted as scientific fact by all reputable scientists and indeed theologians, yet millions of people continue to question its veracity. Now the author of the iconic work The God Delusion takes them to task.
The Greatest Show on Earth is a stunning counterattack on advocates of "Intelligent Design", explaining the evidence for evolution while exposing the absurdities of the creationist "argument". Dawkins sifts through rich layers of scientific evidence: from living examples of natural selection to clues in the fossil record; from plate tectonics to molecular genetics. Combining these elements and many more, he makes the airtight case that "we find ourselves perched on one tiny twig in the midst of a blossoming and flourishing tree of life and it is no accident, but the direct consequence of evolution by non-random selection."
The Greatest Show on Earth comes at a critical time: systematic opposition to the fact of evolution is menacing as never before. In American schools, and in schools around the world, insidious attempts are made to undermine the status of science in the classroom. Dawkins wields a devastating argument against this ignorance, but his unjaded passion for the natural world turns what might have been a negative argument into a positive offering to the reader: nothing less than a master's vision of life, in all its splendor.
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- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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The world's largest land mammal could help us end cancer. The fastest bird is showing us how to solve a century-old engineering mystery. The oldest tree is giving us insights into climate change. The loudest whale is offering clues about the impact of solar storms. For a long time, scientists ignored superlative life forms as outliers. Increasingly, though, researchers are coming to see great value in studying plants and animals that exist on the outermost edges of the bell curve.
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Fascinating survey of amazing biology
- By Nerd's-eye view on 12-06-19
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The Beak of the Finch
- A Story of Evolution in Our Time
- By: Jonathan Weiner
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Rosemary and Peter Grant and those assisting them have spend 20 years on Daphne Major, an island in the Galapagos, studying natural selection. They recognize each individual bird on the island, when there are 400 at the time of the author's visit or when there are over a thousand. They have observed about 20 generations of finches - continuously.Jonathan Weiner follows these scientists as they watch Darwin's finches and come up with a new understanding of life itself.
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Fascinating in-depth look at evolution in action
- By Philip on 05-15-11
By: Jonathan Weiner
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The Most Perfect Thing
- By: Tim Birkhead
- Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
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How are eggs of different shapes made, and why are they the shapes they are? When does the shell of an egg harden? Why do some eggs contain two yolks? How are the colours and patterns of eggshells created, and why do they vary? And which end of an egg is laid first - the blunt end or the pointy end?
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Great book about eggs!!
- By Timothy on 03-24-21
By: Tim Birkhead
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The Complete (Short) Guide to Absolutely Everything
- Adventures in Math and Science
- By: Adam Rutherford, Hannah Fry
- Narrated by: Hannah Fry, Adam Rutherford
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
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Geneticist Adam Rutherford and mathematician Hannah Fry guide listeners through time and space, through our bodies and brains, showing how emotions shape our view of reality, how our minds tell us lies, and why a mostly bald and curious ape decided to begin poking at the fabric of the universe.
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A great listen and fun way to learn some things
- By R. Mueller on 06-10-23
By: Adam Rutherford, and others
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Letters to a Young Scientist
- By: Edward O. Wilxon
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 4 hrs and 57 mins
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Edward O. Wilson has distilled sixty years of teaching into a book for students, young and old. Reflecting on his coming-of-age in the South as a Boy Scout and a lover of ants and butterflies, Wilson threads these twenty-one letters, each richly illustrated, with autobiographical anecdotes that illuminate his career - both his successes and his failures - and his motivations for becoming a biologist.
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Long on biography, short on advice
- By A. Mandelin on 08-02-18
By: Edward O. Wilxon
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The Lives of a Cell
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- By: Lewis Thomas
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 4 hrs and 12 mins
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In The Lives of a Cell, Dr. Lewis Thomas opens up to the listener a universe of knowledge and perception that is perhaps not wholly unfamiliar to the research scientist; but the world he explores is also one of men and women, of complex interrelationships, old ironies, peculiar powers, and intricate languages that give identity to the alienated and direction to the dependent. This remarkable work offers a subtle, bold vision of humankind and the world around us - a sense of what gives life - from a writer who seems to draw grace and strength from the very substance of his subject.
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So enlightening and enjoyable!
- By Flora on 03-15-18
By: Lewis Thomas
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Nature's Nether Regions
- What the Sex Lives of Bugs, Birds, and Beasts Tell Us About Evolution, Biodiversity, and Ourselves
- By: Menno Schithuizen
- Narrated by: Steven Menasche
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
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The story of evolution as you’ve never heard it before. What’s the easiest way to tell species apart? Check their genitals. Researching private parts was long considered taboo, but scientists are now beginning to understand that the wild diversity of sex organs across species can tell us a lot about evolution. Menno Schilthuizen invites listeners to join him as he uncovers the ways the shapes and functions of genitalia have been molded by complex Darwinian struggles.
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A New Favorite
- By S. Pepper on 05-15-15
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The Tyrannosaur Chronicles
- By: David Hone
- Narrated by: Gavin Osborn
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
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Adored by children and adults alike, tyrannosaurus is the most famous dinosaur in the world, one that pops up again and again in pop culture, often battling other beasts such as King Kong, triceratops, or velociraptors in Jurassic Park. But despite the hype, tyrannosaurus and the other tyrannosaurs are fascinating animals in their own right and are among the best-studied of all dinosaurs.
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An Engaging Biography of the King
- By Erik on 08-06-18
By: David Hone
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Creation
- How Science Is Reinventing Life Itself
- By: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
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What is life? Humans have been asking this question for thousands of years. But as technology has advanced and our understanding of biology has deepened, the answer has evolved. For decades, scientists have been exploring the limits of nature by modifying and manipulating DNA, cells, and whole organisms to create new ones that could never have previously existed on their own.
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The Goldilocks book on what is life
- By Gary on 07-11-13
By: Adam Rutherford
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Arrival of the Fittest
- Solving Evolution's Greatest Puzzle
- By: Andreas Wagner
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
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In Arrival of the Fittest, renowned evolutionary biologist Andreas Wagner draws on over 15 years of research to present the missing piece in Darwin's theory. Using experimental and computational technologies that were heretofore unimagined, he has found that adaptations are not just driven by chance, but by a set of laws that allow nature to discover new molecules and mechanisms in a fraction of the time that random variation would take.
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Robustness makes for an interesting life and book
- By Gary on 11-29-14
By: Andreas Wagner
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A Perfect Abridgement
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Part 1 of Godless, "Rejecting God", tells the story of how I moved from devout preacher to atheist and beyond. Part 2, "Why I Am an Atheist", presents my philosophical reasons for unbelief. Part 3, "What's Wrong with Christianity", critiques the bible (its reliability as well as its morality) and the historical evidence for Jesus. Part 4, "Life Is Good!", comes back to my personal story, taking a case to the United States Supreme Court, dealing with personal trauma, and experiencing the excitement of Adventures in Atheism.
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good writing, irritating narration
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Your Inner Fish
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To better understand the inner workings of our bodies and to trace the origins of many of today's most common diseases, we have to turn to unexpected sources: worms, flies, and even fish.
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Your Inner Fish
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What listeners say about The Greatest Show on Earth
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Dalton
- 09-23-09
Back to His Strong Suit
This book is not the same arguments you've heard before. Usually a book about evolution gives all of the old arguments and then adds the new data at the end. Dawkins gives a unique and thoroughly modern argument for evolution. I felt as if I was hearing the story for the first time. This book reminded me why evolution isn't just true but beautiful.
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70 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Joseph
- 10-28-09
Well read, well explained, scientific.
This book does three things. It does two brilliantly, and it does one a little less so.
First, the book lays out the scientific evidence for evolution, and it does so in a way that any curious-minded reader regardless of scientific background can follow. The details build point by point to demonstrate what scientists ask and how they find their answers. This is the strongest feature of the book--demonstrating the precise evidence and the predictive and provable conclusions of evolution theory. Dawkins never reaches for a grand explanation until he has shown the precise scientific evidence used to prove that explanation.
Second, Dawkins answers criticisms of evolution theory as he goes along, showing for instance that it can be proven and tested by predictable experiments, and that ideas like irreducible complexity are invalid.
Third, he holds a running argument with believers of religions, and at times is almost taunting. While I understand that he has been attacked by some believers often enough to be defensive, I think this makes an otherwise scientific text personal, and is likely to repel rather than convince doubters. He weakens his logic, for instance arguing points like "no creator would do X instead of Y, thus proving that creation is wrong." (not actual quote). Who could say what a creator would do? It's a minor objection, not enough to cost a star because the evidence as laid out stands firm despite this issue, but it weakens his presentation.
Over all, this is a beautiful, intriguing, and engaging scientific summary that demonstrates the complexity of life and makes one see the universe differently. Evolution Theory does not try to understand the origins of life itself, only how species came to be differentiated, and for the life of me I can't understand how it can be so controversial. If doubters read this book, maybe they would feel less afraid of or threatened by the subject, and we could all put this debate behind us.
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67 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Tim
- 10-20-09
Killing ID softly with his words
This should be required reading for every biology 101 class. Or make that Chemistry. And geology. It comes at evolution from so many angles, makes it understandable and very interesting. Want to understand carbon dating? Embryology? I just wish it was longer. I kept thinking, "I wish Darwin could hear what we know now." Verification everywhere. So many ways evolution could be disproven, yet it keeps on winning. If you have a friend who is somehow stuck against evolution, insist that he read this book. If not the best audiobook I ever heard, it is in the top 3. Bravo!
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- Mark
- 05-30-15
Richard bangs his head against a brick wall
This book is quite comical. It’s written by a famous and brilliant author, a man who has contributed greatly to the body of knowledge in the field of biology (and, more controversially, in theology), and has greatly changed the way that many people, me included, think about life and existence.
In this book he concentrates great effort into summarising the evidence supporting evolution, and he does it in his usual immensely clear and interesting style. So why is it comical? Well, tragi-comical would probably be a better way to put it. The comedy is that he is trying to defend the theory of evolution as if he was debating with a creationist. To me this is comical. It doesn’t matter how much you reason with a creationist, you will never change their mind. It’s like banging your head against a brick wall: you won’t get through and it will make your brain hurt.
The tragedy is that creationists still exist in great numbers (40% of Americans, apparently) and continue to exert influence on the way biology is taught in schools. They fight tenaciously to prevent evolution being presented as being factual. I find it tragic, comical and mind-boggling that such a lot of people in an educated, modern country believe that the bible, written by bronze-age Middle Eastern tribesmen, is entirely, literally, factually true - and it is worrying that they are so militant in their opposition to evolution. It’s also ironic that Dawkins, who gave the world the word ‘meme’, is in this book up against people afflicted by a severe and irreversible meme infection. He won’t cure them, no matter how clear and logical are his arguments.
Anyway - rant over – this book is excellent and presents the evidence supporting evolution from many different angles. For me, please excuse the religious metaphor, he was preaching to the already converted, but I nevertheless learned a lot of new stuff which reinforced even further my ‘belief’ in evolution as being the best explanation of how living things came to be the way they are on this planet.
It’s narrated by Dawkins himself, and he alternates with a female narrator (as he did in The Blind Watchmaker audiobook). This alternating approach is a bit pointless and is sometimes distracting, but I don’t want to be too negative about this aspect because the book is a great listen.
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- Hung
- 11-18-09
Unconvinced
Dawkins does a wonderful job of describing the beauty and intricacies of the evolutionary process. However, he fails to provide any convincing evidence that proves natural selection is responsible for the diversity of species. This is a nice retrospective study, but in order to scientifically prove a theory, we need prospective, double blinded, randomized studies. He does not provide any examples of these kind of studies. He also contradicts one of the crucial points of modern evolutionary theory. The late Stephen Jay Gould would attest to the fact the evolution occurs in spurts. Dawkins proposes that evolution is a slow tedious almost imperceptible process like the movement of a clock. The fossil evidence supports Gould's observation. Also, he completely ignores the new discovery of epigenomes which are genetic code sequences in the DNA which get turned on and off in response to certain environmental conditions resulting in expression of certain phenotypes. Dawkins' agenda seems to be more towards taking jabs at the creationists rather than trying to give a truly scientific argument to support evolution theory.
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- Nathan A Lyons
- 11-02-09
Very compelling
Dawkins does a great job of laying out the case for evolution. He cites, in detail, experiment after compelling experiment to prove his points. This book is going to rub creationists the wrong way, as Dawkins rarely hesitates to take shots at them. But, if you can keep an open mind throughout the book, I don't know how you can come away still believing in creationism (at least as taught in the Bible).
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- Don
- 09-27-09
Extremely moving!
I listened to this audiobook while visiting underwater world. Pink dolphins, baby sharks, strange jellyfish! Looking at all the amazing sea life really intensified the words from Richard Dawkins and Lalla Ward and made me appreciate the evidence for natural selection even more! I am going to re-listen next week while visiting the zoo!
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- Brandi
- 10-14-10
Brilliant, accessible, and well worth your time!
Richard Dawkins has gone above and beyond the clever writing in books past. THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH is a book driven by logical, evidence-based ideas/laws/theorum/commentary, delivered in Dawkin's signature combination of wit and exquisitely turned phrases. I'm an MSW *masters in social work/psychoanalysis*, and this book was accessible, and a joy to listen to it unfold, gracefully. The book's pace and depth of topic are perfectly graded such that anyone with a sincere thirst for knowledge, and access to the net, could thoroughly enjoy themselves. I thought I understood the nuts and bolts of evolution, but I was wrong. My "up North" Michigan educators had not bothered to illuminate the subject of evolution, and consequently, I now realize the depth/breadth and degree of ignorance I'd been suffering all my 32 years, until completing this book.
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- Rochelle S. Epperson
- 11-27-09
Fabulous read; easy to understand.
This one is a winner! I have read several of Dawkins' books before, but listening to his voice (and the other reader, too) really helped me understand the ideas and examples he presented. We have done a poor job educating our student population on Evolution. This book explains everything in such simple and understandable detail! A must read for an educated person!
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- Uriah
- 02-25-11
Fantastic examination of the evidence
As a biology teacher in rural America i am always encountering resistance to the theory of Natural Selection. Mr. Dawkins does a fantastic job stating the evidence in a clear way. His introduction on the general misconceptions of theory in science and the colloquial is an excellent way to open any debate over the theory of natural selection.
Dawkins does have a bit of a snide tone towards the non believers, but to his credit it does not detract from his narrative and who can blame him. These "history deniers" as he terms them are like ostriches with their heads in the sand and refuse to objectively and honestly examine the plethora of evidence that has been collected in favor of natural selection and macro-evolution.
I cannot wait until I can incorporate Dawkins lessons into my lessons on evolution. This is a must read for anyone who finds themselves in debates over this topic. Arm you self with knowledge
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