The Plausibility of Life: Kirschner and Gerhart

I am delighted to find so robust a rebuttal of the Modern Synthesis from such eminent scholars in the field of evolution. Chapter by chapter they describe "machine tools" (in effect) by application of which living creatures are manufactured and through which they are able to adapt to changing circumstances. These machine tools, embedded in the genome, mask their complexity by offering to circumstances simple levers and buttons by which adaptation and evolution can be effected, as a car's brake and accelerator present to us extremely simple means of control of enormously complex machinery by which we can, with minimal attention, adapt to the changing conditions of the road and our own whims. More...