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Design problem: does the internal physiology of animals imply a harmony of structure and function?

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THE TINKERER'S ACCOMPLICE How Design Emerges from Life Itself By J. Scott Turner Cambridge | $27.95

The biologist Ward Watt once wrote that "adaptation is a central but troublesome concept ill evolutionary biology." It might say something about the state of evolutionary biology, or perhaps about the nature of Big Ideas in general, that a similar statement could be made about several other central concepts in this field as well. Evolutionary biology is full of important questions so contentious that biologists often do not agree about the significance of particular phenomena, much less the mechanisms behind them. That contentiousness is, in most ways, a sign of a vital, dynamic discipline and of important problems worth arguing about. But it's also a reminder that these Big Questions are hard questions, too, not solvable by superficial thinking, casual observations, quick experiments, or easy answers.

In a new book, The Tinkerer's Accomplice, animal physiologist J. Scott Turner tackles one of the biggest and most troublesome biological issues, the problem of design in biology. Turner approaches this problem from the perspective of an animal physiologist and works to link a central concept in animal physiology--homeostasis--with that of design. In its classic definition, homeostasis is a mechanism that regulates...

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