Evolution—The Extended Synthesis

Sixteen evolutionary biologists and philosophers of science review how the field's central theory has changed since Julian Huxley's Evolution: The Modern Synthesis appeared some six decades earlier. Huxley's framework has been joined by concepts and entire research areas it never included, and the contributors examine these shifts in both long-established fields, such as quantitative genetics and paleontology, and newer ones, such as genomics and EvoDevo.

Most of the authors still accept much of the classical picture, yet they argue that some of its assumptions should be loosened and that it needs substantial conceptual additions. They draw a parallel with the Modern Synthesis's own founders, who reworked earlier forms of Darwinism. The book treats this ongoing cycle of re-examining old ideas, proposing new ones, and keeping what works as a window onto how science operates, and onto how researchers have gradually assembled a robust account of the diversity of life that Darwin admired.