Tower of Iron Will

Bill Nye does an excellent job of explaining for a general audience why rejecting evolution is not a reasonable position. He covers both the positive and negative sides on the debate. On the positive side he covers many examples of the evidence supporting evolution, natural selection, the deep age of the Earth, and punctuated equilibrium. On the negative side he touches on all the major arguments against evolution, including thermodynamics, gaps in the fossil record, intermediate forms, and the argument from incredulity, and shows why these arguments are invalid. Nye wisely does not touch on religious arguments, this is not a Richard Dawkins book, but ignoring religion in the evolution debate is like trying to ignore an elephant in the room.

In the later chapters Nye discusses many scientific controversies related to evolution, including cloning, human stem cell research, and genetically modified foods. One of his most interesting topics is on how different human skin colors are a fairly recent adaptation and how this undercuts ideas of racial identity. Nye is at his most passionate when he is writing about the possibility of discovering life on other worlds, especially when he describes the proposed Europa Clipper which could skim low enough over Jupiter's moon Europa to catch liquid water that regularly erupts in geysers from beneath the thick layer of ice and test it for evidence of life. I would consider voting for a presidential candidate whose only platform position was funding the Europa Clipper.