Product Description
An accomplished young scientist solves one of the greatest mysteries of evolution: What caused the dramatic explosion of life half a billion years ago? About 550 million years ago, there was literally an explosion of life forms, as all the major animal groups suddenly and dramatically appeared. Although several books have been written about this surprising event, known as the Cambrian explosion, none has explained why it occurred. Indeed, none was able to. Here, for the first time, Oxford zoologist Andrew Parker reveals his theory of this great flourishing of life. Parker's controversial but increasingly accepted"Light Switch Theory" holds that it was the development of vision in primitive animals that caused the explosion. Drawing on evidence not just from biology, but also from geology, physics, chemistry, history, and art, In the Blink of an Eye is the fascinating account of a young scientist's intellectual journey, and a celebration of the scientific method.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 20 reviews)

I still want to finish this... but its so hard to read! by W. B. Abbott (Oakland, CA USA)

2 Stars
January 22, 2010
The basic thesis, that vision was the cause of the "Cambrian Explosion" is interesting and I'd like to read about it. This wasn't the book I wanted, however. The author repeats his points and then poses rhetorical questions as if introducing the subject freshly, in almost every chapter.. A better editor was needed! Maybe a different narrative arc. I've enjoyed Richard Fortey's "Trilobite!, eyewitness to evolution" and, "Life, the first 4 billion years", Gould's "Wonderful Life", Conway-Morris' "The Crucible Of Creation", and similar books like "When Life Almost Died", "Synapsida", "Taking Wing", "Life on Young Planet", "Your Inner Fish", as well as many other natural history and biology books. I like the subject, I enjoy reading about it. While I recognize this book is trying to tell me something and convince me that its true, I couldn't get started reading it from the beginning, or reading from a few chapter in, or reading at a random page. Its unusual, because I really do go for this kind of subject, but this author and this information never 'gelled' for me. Oh well! Bill

A reasonable theory presented in an annoying manner by a reader (the middle of nowhere, pennsylvania)

3 Stars
November 23, 2009
The "Light Switch Theory" of the Cambrian Explosion can be summarized in Wikipedia or on the cover of the book. While I find it an interesting theory (thus, I gave the book 3 instead of 2 stars), I am not sure why it takes the author 299 pages to get to the point. Perhaps it is the seemingly endless digressions which illustrate how well-educated and how well-travelled the author is. Personally, I wish he would just stick to the science.

Species and Specious by Robert Carlberg (Seattle)

2 Stars
July 15, 2009
Author Parker posits that vision triggered the Cambrian explosion of variety in body styles, but his reasoning is specious. He assumes for instance that eyes developed spontaneously, all at once, allowing perfect vision on the first try ("That first eyed individual literally saw a whole new suite of niches open up. It observed areas of the sea floor in light and shade, which had previously been combined. But importantly it could easily identify the other animals sharing its environment.") Obviously, we know from the fossil record that the evolution of sight was a long and gradual process. Second, although a professional zoologist (Oxford-trained no less!) Parker makes the common but unforgivable mistake of confusing evolutionary results with intention, or direction. Evolution does not "want" to create sight, and sight would not evolve merely because it is a good idea. There must be selective pressure to reinforce the mutational gains in sight's emergence, and these Parker cannot explain with his thesis. Third, Parker has an unfortunate habit of tripping over his own ill-advised word choices. He describes the cuttlefish eye as a "red herring," convergence as a "stumbling block," and when recounting the historical record states "I should like to change the facts" when he means "I should like to clarify matters." It's jarring and one quickly learns not to trust what one is reading. Sean Carroll presents a much richer, more logical and ontologically-supported explanation for the Cambrian explosion in his book "Endless Forms Most Beautiful." Parker's vision, if it was a factor at all, would have been a minor footnote at best.

A great work on evolutionary theory by Newton Ooi (Phoenix, Arizona United States)

5 Stars
May 24, 2008
When one thinks of prehistoric life, the first thoughts to come to mind are often dinosaurs, then maybe wooly mammoths and cavemen. But prehistoric life extended farther back, and one of the most intriguing periods is the Cambrian age when the diversity of animal life exponentially increased. This "Cambrian Explosion" is one of the most studied aspects of prehistoric life, and its origins is one of biology's greatest questions. This book answers the question by showing how the development of vision, that is the evolution of the eye, dramatically changed life on earth. The author comes to this answer as someone would piece together a puzzle, one piece at a time. Each piece is one chapter of this book. Some of the pieces include an explanation of how eyes and vision work, a study of color and its importance in ecosystems and the survival of individuals and species, a comparison of different ecosystems and how the amount of light in each one has affected evolution, and a review of life's evolution, covering both knowns and unknowns. Over the course of this book, the author very clearly and objectively shows that the development of eyes, sensory organs that could identify and locate objects, was the spark that accelerated the rate of species diversification and the onset of numerous external features such as skin color, teeth, spikes, horns, etc... All in all, a great work of science.

Eyes Wide Open by John Lyons (Atlanta, Georgia)

5 Stars
October 31, 2007
Imagine what it must have been like to be the first creature that had eyes, that could see through the murky waters. The world is no longer just what you touch, or what chemicals drift your way. Now you can range widely to hunt for food, and your dinner can't even see you coming! From an evolutionary perspective, this must have been the nuclear scenario for many species, and the true start of the evolutionary arms race. This is Andrew Parker's thesis, presented for a general audience. At times, you might feel like he's belaboring his points, but long before the end of the book you'll wonder why something this obvious never occurred to you. On the way you run into some unique characters, some mysterious creatures, and get some fossil-digging history too. Very interesting and easy to read.

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History by Stephen Jay Gould (Author) "Luminous. . .Filled with profound and upsetting ideas like the Burgess Shale itself and just as solid. It is surely one of nature's best stories, told with a light touce by a master of the field."--Lewis Thomas, M.D.
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