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From humans to hermit crabs to deep water plankton, all living things compete for locally limiting resources. This universal truth unites three bodies of thought--economics, evolution, and history--that have developed largely in mutual isolation. Here, Geerat Vermeij undertakes a groundbreaking and provocative exploration of the facts and theories of biology, economics, and geology to show how processes common to all economic systems--competition, cooperation, adaptation, and feedback--govern evolution as surely as they do the human economy, and how historical patterns in both human and nonhuman evolution follow from this principle. Using a wealth of examples of evolutionary innovations, Vermeij argues that evolution and economics are one. Powerful consumers and producers exercise disproportionate controls on the characteristics, activities, and distribution of all life forms. Competition-driven demand by consumers, when coupled with supply-side conditions permitting economic growth, leads to adaptation and escalation among organisms. Although disruptions in production halt or reverse these processes temporarily, they amplify escalation in the long run to produce trends in all economic systems toward greater power, higher production rates, and a wider reach for economic systems and their strongest members. Despite our unprecedented power to shape our surroundings, we humans are subject to all the economic principles and historical trends that emerged at life's origin more than 3 billion years ago. Engagingly written, brilliantly argued, and sweeping in scope, Nature: An Economic History shows that the human institutions most likely to preserve opportunity and adaptability are, after all, built like successful living things.

History of civilization --- Natural history --- Economic aspects --- Competitive Behavior. --- Economic Competition. --- Evolution. --- Economic aspects. --- 330 --- 338 <09> --- AA / International- internationaal --- 331.100 --- Theoretische economie. Economische theorie. Economische analyse --- Economische geschiedenis --- Economische geschiedenis: algemeenheden. --- 338 <09> Economische geschiedenis --- 330 Theoretische economie. Economische theorie. Economische analyse --- Science --- Natural science --- Science of science --- Sciences --- History, Natural --- Physiophilosophy --- Competition, Economic --- Competitions, Economic --- Economic Competitions --- Commerce --- Behavior, Competitive --- Behaviors, Competitive --- Competitive Behaviors --- Biology --- Economische geschiedenis: algemeenheden --- Competitive behavior --- Competitiveness (Psychology) --- Conflict (Psychology) --- Interpersonal relations --- Motivation (Psychology) --- Philosophy --- Creation --- Emergence (Philosophy) --- Teleology --- Competition --- Competition (Economics) --- Competitiveness (Economics) --- Economic competition --- Conglomerate corporations --- Covenants not to compete --- Industrial concentration --- Monopolies --- Open price system --- Supply and demand --- Trusts, Industrial --- Natural sciences --- Natural history - Economic aspects

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Geerat Vermeij wrote this celebration of shells to share his enthusiasm for these supremely elegant creations and what they can teach us about nature. Most popular books on shells emphasize the identification of species, but Vermeij uses shells as a way to explore major ideas in biology. How are shells built? How do they work? And how did they evolve? With lucidity and charm, the MacArthur-winning evolutionary biologist reveals how shells give us insights into the lives of animals today and in the distant geological past. And, in a new preface, Vermeij tells us how a childhood love of collecting seashells in his native Holland sparked a lifelong passion for natural history and science.--

Shells --- Mollusks --- Shellfish

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Here is one biologist's interpretation of the chronology of life during the last six hundred million years of earth history: an extended essay that draws on the author's own data and a wide-ranging literature survey to discuss the nature and dynamics of evolutionary change in organisms and their biological surroundings. Geerat Vermeij demonstrates that escalation--the process by which species adapt to, or are limited by, their enemies as the latter increase in ability to acquire and retain resources--has been a dominant theme in the history of life despite frequent episodes of extinction.

Evolution (Biology) --- Ecology. --- Hyolitha. --- Opiliones. --- Paleocene epoch. --- acanthodian fishes. --- arachnid arthropods. --- archaeocyathans. --- bioerosion. --- bioturbation. --- bryozoans. --- calcification. --- caves, as safe places. --- cetacean mammals. --- chitons. --- cladoceran crustaceans. --- crinoid echinoderms. --- crocodiles. --- didemnid ascidians. --- dispersal. --- echiuran worms. --- endothermy. --- eurypterids. --- extralimital evolution. --- fitness. --- fungi. --- glypheoid crustaceans. --- growth rate. --- gymnosperms. --- herbivory. --- hermatypic animals. --- hippuritacean pelecypods. --- holothurioidean echinoderms. --- improvement, unilateral. --- intimate associations. --- introduced species. --- isopod crustaceans. --- lapworthellids. --- limpets. --- mangroves. --- metabolic rates. --- mimicry. --- natural selection. --- nautiloid cephalopods. --- octopod cephalopods. --- opercula. --- parasitism. --- phoronid worms. --- photosynthesis. --- placoderm fishes. --- predation. --- rachiglossan gastropods. --- rhyniophytes. --- rugosan corals. --- safe places. --- salamanders.

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Evolution --- Evolutie.

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A sweeping new account of the role of power in the evolution of all life on EarthPower has many dimensions, from individual attributes such as strength and speed to the collective advantages of groups. The Evolution of Power takes readers on a breathtaking journey across history and the natural world, revealing how the concept of power unifies a vast range of phenomena in the evolution of life-and how natural selection has placed humanity and the planet itself on a trajectory of ever-increasing power.Drawing on evidence from fossils, living organisms, and contemporary society, Geerat Vermeij documents increases in power at all scales, from body size, locomotor performance, and the use of force in competition to efficiency in production and consumption within ecosystems. He shows how power-which he defines as the rate at which organisms acquire and apply energy-is tied to the emergence of cooperation, and how the modern economy, which for the first time has established a monopoly over the biosphere by a single species, is a continuation of evolutionary trends stretching back to the dawn of life. Vermeij persuasively argues that we can find solutions to the many problems arising from this extreme concentration of power by broadening our exclusively human-centered perspective.A masterful work by one of today's most innovative and forward-thinking naturalists, The Evolution of Power offers a new understanding of our place in the grand sweep of evolutionary history.

Evolution (Biology). --- A New Understanding of the History of Life. --- Geerat J. Vermeij. --- Princeton University Press. --- The Evolution of Power. --- biology. --- ecology. --- economics. --- ecosystems. --- evolution. --- evolutionary biology. --- history and evolution of life. --- history. --- human history. --- monopoly. --- paleoecology. --- paleontology. --- patterns of power. --- philsophy of biology. --- power. --- Evolution (Biology)