Cheap In the Blink of an Eye (Book) (Andrew Parker) Price

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Customer Reviews of In the Blink of an Eye

Great theory, described moderately well
This book's theory is attractive enough that many experts ought to feel embarrassed that they didn't propose it earlier. It's not so much that people looking at the Cambrian explosion should have seen the evidence pointing to this theory - the book tends to indicate that some important pieces of evidence were only found in the last decade or so. What puzzles me is why nobody modelled the effects of the evolution of eyesight well enough to decide to go looking for the results in the fossil record. This makes me wonder whether a lot of experts are still uncomfortable with the punctuated equilibrium model of evolution.
But the book's style leaves much to be desired. It often goes off on irrelevant tangents. The absence of references to scientific literature is disappointing. I'm annoyed by the way he presents numbers such as "543 million years ago" with little indication of how accurately they are known.

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Okay, I'll be the naysayer
No thinking person can deny that the presence of light in the environment can be an important selective pressure. Indeed, as Parker argues, it may have been one of the most important influences on the evolution of locomoting organisms since locomotion began. In a very small nutshell, his thesis that adaptation to light, especially the development of sensory mechanisms to take advantage of light in the environment, is reasonably easy to believe.

I am a student of perception and I wanted to be persuaded by Parker's argument, but the book itself is not well done. There is a ridiculous attempt to generate suspense about the conclusion Parker ultimately draws...a conclusion that is basically no surprise if you read the dust jacket. The language is often stilted and pedantic, to my eye, making me wonder if this isn't a warmed-over dissertation recast as pop science.

The most irritating element of the book, however, is the routine citation of items from the research literature...but with no reference list to which to turn for the full citation. Even decent popular science books have at least a few sources for further reading, and notes of some sort for the particulars of research cited. Parker's book has neither.

The book has some value (hence the three stars) for pointing out a variety of interesting elements of invertebrate visual system evolution, but does not help at all if one wants to follow up such threads.

Okay, I'm not a paleontologist and not a biologist, so maybe I'm talking through my hat. Simon Conway Morris, however, IS an eminent paleontologist. If you want a truly informed review of Parker's book, see Morris's review in American Scientist, July/Aug 2003, p. 365 ff. Quoting very briefly: "The jaunty style becomes increasingly irritating, and the claims for scientific originality increasingly questionable."

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Incredible that I can see.
The story of how sight evolved 540 million years ago and what it did to fauna and flora of the earth. Unbeleivable that life could not see before that time. This is an excellent book, well put together and researching subjects other that those outlined in the book. An excellent buy which will amaze you and keep you reading.
This book is a 10+ and recommended to buy.