[I]ncredibly useful ... refreshingly honest ... witty and engaging.
Tiffany Taylor, Times Higher Education [F]orthright, informal, and humorous. His reminder that not every trait has a biologically adaptive function is a welcome lesson, as is his self-deprecating description of his ideas as just another 'just-so' story... [A] call to the biologists who take over from him to do more ... Read moreresearch to confirm or to refute the often surprising ideas here.
Rob Hardy, Commercial Dispatch [Bonner] provides a well-written, well-documented collection of evidence suggesting randomness as a primary engine behind natural selection... This is an excellent essay, valuable to a wide audience. Evolution is an important, timely topic, making Bonner's work a worthy contribution.
Choice [T]he book provides a careful analysis of the relationship between randomness and size in evolution and makes a good case for neutral morphologies.
James Bradley, Quarterly Review of Biology The main strength of this provocative book is that it undoubtedly provides a successful argument against the widespread tendency to give an adaptive explanation for any biological trait, and, above all, it opens the door to a fruitful way to reconsider the traditional view of evolution as mainly driven by natural selection.
Francesca Merlin, Biol Theory Show Less