The Blind Watchmaker Read online

  Dolphins, echolocation, 136

  Doppler Shift, 41

  Douglas, A. M., 148, (24)

  Dover, G., 443, (25)

  Doyle, Sir A. C., 158

  Duplication of genes, 244, (1, 88)

  EQ, 269, (46)

  Ear

  bones, 38

  flaps, 45

  origin, 127

  Echolocation, 32–53, (38, 77)

  compared with seeing, 48

  Economics, 36

  Eigen, M., 190, (26, 27)

  Eldredge, N., punctuated equilibrium, 326–60, (29)

  species as entities, 374, (30)

  Electrolocation, 138

  Embryology, 73, 74, 240, 415

  constraints on evolution imposed by, 442, (58)

  Encyclopaedia Britannica, 27, 164

  Enemies, 254

  Engineers, 29

  Epig enesis, 415

  Equilibrium, line, 300, (4, 50, 51)

  Error correction, DNA, 179, (1)

  Escherichia coli, 186, (70, 88)

  Eukaryotes, 249, (1, 55)

  Exodus, parable, 317

  Exons, 246, (1)

  Explanation, 19–22

  Explosion, analogy, 278

  failure of hydroquinone, 122

  Extended phenotype, 195, (21)

  Extinct animals, reconstruction of, 104

  Eye

  in cloud-cuckooland, 446

  ‘designed’, 25, (71)

  gradual evolution, 107, 333

  interlocking parts, 111, 407, (41)

  pictured, 26

  revealing flaw, 131

  use and disuse, 426, (22)

  Ezekiel, 182

  Facial vision, 32, (38)

  Fairies, unprovable non-existence of, 413

  Family trees, astronomical numbers of, 387, (37)

  Fashion, 308

  Feedback, 278

  Female choice, 285

  Fibrinopeptide, 177, 390, (1)

  Fish

  electric, 137

  flat, 129

  Fisher, Sir R. A., (31)

  evolution of sex, 380

  founder of neo-Darwinism, 163, 432

  necessity of gradualism, 329

  and particulate inheritance, 160

  runaway sexual selection, 283

  Flowers, evolution, 89

  Fool, mathematical ability of, 95, (84)

  Ford, E. B., 114, (33)

  Fossil

  dating, 321

  gaps in record, 326, (29)

  genes, 247

  France, A., 325

  Fungus farming, 152, (90)

  Galambos, R., 50, (38)

  Gaps, in fossil record, 326, (29)

  Gazelle, 255

  Genes

  of computer biomorphs, 75

  cooperation, 242, 273, 353

  as each others’ environments, 240, 252, (21)

  for female choice, 288, (50, 51)

  selectively turned on in development, 418

  Genesis, 448, (7)

  Genetic engineering, 104

  Giraffe, 410

  Globigerina ooze, 158

  Globins, 248, (1)

  Goldschmidt, R., 114, 329, (33)

  Gondwanaland, 143, (39)

  Gould, S. J.

  on Darwin’s gradualism, 348, (36)

  on dung-mimicking insects, 114, (quoted in 41)

  five percent eye, 113, (quoted in 41)

  mentioned, 391, 412

  The Panda’s Thumb, 129, (34)

  punctuated equilibrium, 326–60, (36)

  writes off synthetic theory, 360, (35)

  Gradualism, 102, 318, 324

  Grafen, A., 284, 303

  Grass, 258

  Great Chain of Being, 370

  Green beard, 294, (20, 21)

  Griffin, D. R., 33, 50, (38)

  Haemoglobin, 63, 177, 390, (5)

  Haldane, J. B. S., 357

  Hamilton, W. D.

  kin selection, 294, (20)

  parasites, 303, (40)

  Hardy, G. H., 162, 229

  Hennig, W., 392, 400, (75)

  Herring, 129, 393

  Hierarchy, 363, 366

  Histone, 174

  Hitching, F., 111, 121, (41)

  Ho, M-W., 435, (41, 42)

  Horses, and South American equivalents, 147

  Horses, and South equivalents, 382, (78)

  Hoyle, Sir F., 54, 334, (43)

  Hume, D., 10, (54)

  Huntington’s Chorea, 434

  Huxley, J.

  clade, 396

  force locomotif, 18

  sexual selection, 285

  Hydroquinone, fails to blow up author, 122

  Hypo, crystals, 214, (14)

  Hyracotherium, 324

  Improbability assessment, 231

  Information technology, 159

  Ingredients, needed for life, 182

  Insects, computer, 85, 87

  lost and regained, 91

  as selecting agents, 89

  Intermediates, evolutionary, 371

  Introns, 246, (1)

  Island-hopping languages, 310, (15)

  Isolation, reproductive, 339, (59)

  Jamming, problem for bats, 45

  Jenkin, F., 160, (quoted in 44)

  Jerison, H., 269, (46)

  Johannsen, W., 431

  Kimura, M., 429, 444, (47)

  Kin selection, 294, (20)

  Koala, 378

  Koestler, A., 54, 412

  Lamarck, J-B., 407

  Lamarckism, 80, 405, (22)

  Land, M., 120, (49)

  Lande, R., 284–303, (4, 50, 51)

  Language, evolution, 310, 368, (15)

  Latimeria, 351, (80)

  Laurasia, 143, (39)

  Leigh, E. G., 379, (52)

  Library analogy, 362, 368

  Life

  cycle in clay, 220

  origin, 197–237, (13, 14, 26, 69)

  unique on Earth?, 202

  in universe, 202, 234, (17)

  Light, generated by animals, 31

  Lightning, fails to strike author, 227

  Linkage disequilibrium, 290, (50, 51)

  Loch Ness Monster, 413

  Locomotive, 18

  Loudness, problem for bats, 37

  Luck, measuring, 201

  Lung, half a, 122, (41)

  Lyell, Sir C., 355

  Lysenko, T. D., 412, (53)

  Machine, honorary living thing, 4

  Macromutation, 328

  Mammals, convergent evolution, 142–51, (92)

  Margulis, L., 249, (55)

  Marsupials, 145, (92)

  Maynard Smith, J., 111

  Mayr, E.

  critic of mathematical genetics, 111

  speciation, 341, 346, 353, (59)

  unkind to physical scientists, 160, (61)

  Melanin, 409

  Meme, 225, (20)

  Mendel, G., 159, 431

  Metabolic rate, 150, 270

  Microscope analogy (Fisher), 329, (31)

  Mimicry, 114, (33, 86)

  Miracle, 197, 226, 451

  Missile, 263

  Mitochondria, 249

  Model, computer, 48

  Molecular clock, 349, 385, (37)

  Molecular drive, 443

  Monkey, typing, 66, 201

  Montefiore, H., 54–59, (63)

  Morgan, T. H., 431

  Morris, D., 78

  Mutagens, 434

  Mutation, 184, (57)

  in biomorph model, 76

  in Hamlet model, 68

  macro, 328

  pressure, 434

  randomness, meaning of, 433

  rate of, 177

  smallness of, 101

  Mutationism, 431

  Myotis (bat), 35

  Nagel, T., 47, (65)

  Nautilus, 119, (49)

  Nelson, G., 402, (67)

  Neo-Darwinism, 163, 339

  Nesting, 362, 367

  Neutral theory,
385, 429, 444, (47, 74)

  New Testament, 165

  Noah, 344

  Numerical taxonomy, 396, (81)

  Octopus, 133

  O’Donald, P., 303, (68)

  Organic chemistry, 212

  Orgel, L., 189, (26, 69, 70)

  Origin of life, 197–237, (13, 14, 17, 26, 27, 69)

  Overlap, pulse, as problem for bats, 39, (77)

  Palaeontology, 320, (29)

  Paley, W., 7, 24, 29, 53, (71)

  Parasites, and sexual selection, 303, (40)

  Parsimony, 387

  Particulate inheritance, 160, (57)

  Peacock, 283

  Pebbly beach analogy, 61

  Phenotype, 173, 222, (21, 57)

  Philosophy, woolly, ancient, 401

  Phyleticism, 391

  Physics

  laws of, 17

  simplicity, 5

  Pinhole camera, 119

  Plate tectonics, 142, (39)

  Platnick, N., 402, (67)

  Police, speed traps, 43

  Pop music, 312

  Popper, Sir K., 54

  Porcupine, 382

  Potter, S., 90

  Power, gene, 183

  indirectness of, 192

  Preformationism, 415, (57)

  Progress, 253, 257

  Prokaryotes, 249, (55, 88)

  Proofreading, DNA, 179, (1)

  Protoplasm, 158

  Punctuationism, 317–60, (29, 36, 56, 74)

  and species concept, 374

  Queen, Red, 260, (87)

  RNA, 164

  test-tube evolution, 188, (70)

  ROM, 165

  DNA as, 166

  Radio, extraterrestrial, 236, (6)

  Rattray-Taylor, G., 54

  Recipe, theory of embryology, 415

  Recursion, 73, 173, (12)

  Red Queen Effect, 260, (87)

  Reductionism, hierarchical, 21

  Replicator, 183, (20, 21)

  Retina, back to front, 132

  Ridley, M., 400, 403, (75)

  Risk assessment, 231

  Rousettus (bat), 33, 39, 135, (77)

  Runaway sexual selection, 283, 302, (4, 31, 50, 51)

  Sabretooth, and marsupial equivalent, 149, (78)

  Saltation, 328, 344, 348

  creation as ultimate, 354

  Saunders, P., 435, (42)

  quoted, 435, (41)

  Selection

  artificial, 81, 352

  natural, 86

  sexual, 284

  single step and cumulative, 64, 199, 450

  species, 376

  Send/receive radar, 38

  Sex

  riddle of, 380, (31, 85)

  roles, 287, (85)

  Shakespeare, W., 66, 90

  Shaw, G. B., 411

  Shrew, speciation, 339

  Sideways transmission of genes, 173

  Silicon, 212

  Simulation, 49, 87

  Size, narrow human consciousness of, 228, (64)

  Smilodon (sabretooth), 149

  Snakes

  origin of venom, 127

  vertebral numbers, 335

  Snow, C. P., 132

  Social Darwinism, 358

  Solar System, 62

  Sonar, 30–53, (38, 77)

  Soup, primeval, 210, (69)

  South American fauna, 142, (78)

  Space, mathematical, 94, 104, 449

  Speciation, 337, 346, 350, (59, 74)

  Species

  as entities, 374, (30, 56, 74)

  selection, 376, (21)

  Speciesism, 162, 372, (79)

  Spectrum, of improbabilities, 228

  Spider web, 56

  Spiegelman, S., 187, (82)

  Squid, 393

  Stasis, 318, 345, 346, 351, 354

  Statue, waving hand, 226

  Stebbins, G. L., 345, (83)

  Stickiness, 185

  Stopwatches, 322

  Strangeness filter, 46

  Succession, ecological, 377

  Tadarida (bat), 39

  Takeover, genetic, 224, (13, 14)

  Tasmania, 148

  Taxonomy, 361, see also classification, (60, 75, 81)

  importance exaggerated, 402

  schools of, 391

  Teamwork, among genes, 243, (21)

  Termites, 151, (90)

  Test-tube, evolution in, 188, (27, 70)

  Thermodynamics, second law of, 132

  Thermostat analogy, 299

  Thompson, S. P., 95, (84)

  Thylacinus (marsupial ‘wolf’), 148, 382, (24)

  Thylacosmilus, (Marsupial ‘sabretooth’), 149, (78)

  Timescales, 231, (91)

  Toad, midwife, 413

  Transport, 309

  Trees, arms race in forest, 261

  Trend, 309

  Triangle, 96

  Typist analogy, 175

  Ultrasound, 33, (77)

  Use and disuse, 408, 426

  Utilitarian optimum, 292

  Van Valen, L., 260, (87)

  Variable speedism, 350

  Vavilov, N. I., 413

  Vertical transmission of genes, 173

  Virus, 186

  Vision, graduated defectiveness, 112

  Watch

  Paley’s, 8, (71)

  stop, 322

  Watt steam governor, 278

  Weapons, 263

  Weasel, Methinks it is like a, 66

  Weather, as enemy, 253

  Wegener, A., 142, (39)

  Weinberg, W., 162

  Whales, echolocation, 135–36, (77)

  Widow bird, 286, 304, (3)

  Williams, G. C., 377, (89)

  Willow, raining DNA, 157

  Wilson, E. O., 153, (90)

  Wing, half a, 125, (9, 41)

  Wolf, and marsupial equivalent, 148

  Wolf-whistle, bats, 40, 45

  Wren, 307

  Zarathustra, Also sprach, 85, 92

  PRAISE FOR

  THE BLIND WATCHMAKER

  “He succeeds admirably in showing how natural selection allows biologists to dispense with such notions as purpose and design and he does so in a manner readily intelligible to the modern reader.”

  —Michael T. Ghiselin, New York Times

  “The best general account of evolution I have read in recent years. It is deep enough to be useful to biologists, yet sufficiently simple and well-written (very well-written in fact) to appeal to the same large audience that enjoyed The Selfish Gene.”

  —Edward O. Wilson

  “Brilliant exposition, tightly argued but kept readable by plentiful recourse to analogies and examples…. The Blind Watchmaker shows what a convincing scientific argument looks like; it is popular science at its best. An invigorating minor theme is provided by the side-sweeps that Dawkins hands out to creationists, erring colleagues, misguided interlopers from other sciences, and the media that gleefully misreport their muddleheaded musings. Highly recommended.”

  —London Times

  “Beautifully and superbly written…. It is completely understandable but has the cadence of impassioned speech. Every page rings of truth. It is one of the best science books—one of the best any books—I have ever read.”

  —Lee Dembart, Los Angeles Times

  “The secret of good science writing is that one should understand the ideas oneself: good writing comes from clear thinking…. In The Blind Watchmaker I was repeatedly astonished at the clarity with which Dawkins sees the problems…. It is abundantly clear, however, that Dawkins has not lost his sense of wonder at the natural world as he has gained intellectual understanding of it…. I wish I could write like that.”

  —John Maynard Smith, New Scientist

  “A lovely book, original and lively, it expounds the ins and outs of evolution with enthusiastic clarity, answering, at every point, the cavemen of creationism.”

  —Isaac Asimov

  “It succeeds quite brilliantly. Most particularly, again and again, it
brings home the nature and force of the central evolutionary mechanism of natural selection in a way that I have never seen or felt previously. The closest analogy I can think of is Galileo’s Dialogues which made reasonable the Copernican Revolution, and I hope I will not be thought to be pushing things to an embarrassing point if I say that Dawkins’ book can be compared to Galileo’s, not only in type but in standard.”

  —Professor Michael Ruse

  “I could heartily recommend The Blind Watchmaker just for the pleasure it will afford the reader who is looking for a treatment of evolution that is not only educational but fun. But the more important reason for reading Dawkins’s book is that this is his answer, in clear and often insightful terms, to the opponents of neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory.”

  —Douglas J. Futumaya, Natural History

  Also by Richard Dawkins

  An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist

  The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True

  The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution

  The God Delusion

  The Ancestor’s Tale

  A Devil’s Chaplain

  Unweaving the Rainbow

  Climbing Mount Improbable

  River Out of Eden

  The Extended Phenotype

  The Selfish Gene

  The Blind Watchmaker

  Copyright © 1996, 1987, 1986 by Richard Dawkins

  Illustrations by Liz Pyle

  All rights reserved.

  First published as a Norton paperback 1987

  Reissued in a new edition 1996, reissued 2006, 2015

  Book design by Anna Oler

  Production manager: Amanda Morrison

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

  Dawkins, Richard, 1941–

  The blind watchmaker.

  1. Evolution 2. Natural selection. I. Title

  QH366.2.D37 1985 575 85-4960

  ISBN: 978-0-393-35149-1 pbk.

  ISBN: 978-0-393-35309-9 (e-book)

  W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

  500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110

  www.wwnorton.com

  W.W. Norton & Company Ltd.

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