Recommended Reading for Evolution?

Sable

I'll make this short and sweet.

I've been reading Dawkin's The Selfish Gene, and it's been really helpful filling in some of the gaps I have in my understanding of how evolution actually works.

The last biology class I took was in high school, and I don't think the mechanics of evolution is covered particularly well in American high schools.

I'm looking for recommendations - has anyone read any books that accurately describe the process of evolution for someone without specialized knowledge of biology? I've already checked LessWrong's recommended textbooks, and while it recommends some books on evolutionary psychology and on animal behavior from an evolutionary perspective, it doesn't appear to have anything that describes evolution itself in sufficient detail to model it.

I'm toying with the idea of trying to program an evolution simulator, and so I need a fairly detailed, accessible account.

Thanks for the help!

I'll make this short and sweet.

I've been reading Dawkin's The Selfish Gene, and it's been really helpful filling in some of the gaps I have in my understanding of how evolution actually works.

The last biology class I took was in high school, and I don't think the mechanics of evolution is covered particularly well in American high schools.

I'm toying with the idea of trying to program an evolution simulator, and so I need a fairly detailed, accessible account.

Thanks for the help!

I'll try to summarize:

1) I want to know enough about the low-level mechanics of gene transfer to be able to model it accurately enough (not necessarily for a scientific paper) with mathematics. This has to have been done before - links to how would be appreciated, or I could start from scratch.

2) I want to know enough about how it works on the macro level to simulate that too, perhaps with the lower level mechanics working behind the scenes.

3) I am very interested in how evolution started - Dawkins references a soup of chemicals, and then the creation of the first replicator mainly by chance over a very long period of time. Is that accurate?

How did evolution work in the beginning? Dawkins mentioned that there were other explanations than the one he gave - what are they? How do I find them?

My training is in engineering/programming, and my genetics knowledge doesn't much exceed anything taught at the high school level. I am, however, prepared to read college-level textbooks on the subject.

Thanks.

3) I am very interested in how evolution started - Dawkins references a soup of chemicals, and then the creation of the first replicator mainly by chance over a very long period of time. Is that accurate?

You are not the only one. :)

Most of the current thinking around abiogenesis involves the so-called 'RNA world', after observations of messenger RNA molecules (a single strand of 'naked' genetic polymer floating around the cell, rather than the double DNA helix). Because complementary nucleotides attract one another to varying degrees, a given nucleotid... (read more)

4hyporational11y

We read this in med school, a bit too wordy for my taste but easy to understand. [...] Nobody knows for sure. The primordial soup is just an educated guess based on the fact that complex molecules had to arise from simpler ones. This paper focuses on the evolution of multicellularity and briefly references other necessary milestones in early evolution.

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Recommended Reading for Evolution?

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Recommended Reading for Evolution?

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