Melanism: Evolution in Action (ISBN 0-19-854982-2) is a book by Dr Mike Majerus, published in 1998. It is an update of Bernard Kettlewell's book The Evolution of Melanism.
The book contains a very useful summary of Majerus' work on melanism in ladybirds and a review of the peppered moth story, including observations on moth behavior which sparked controversy. It has been criticised for being unevenly edited so as not to suit any one audience in its entirety. For example, it explains the basic principles of evolution such as the Hardy-Weinberg law in earlier sections, and in later sections includes graduate level concepts.
Jerry Coyne reviewed the book for Nature, calling attention to the importance of the new moth behavior observations, and how they shook Bernard Kettlewell's original hypothesis.
This review has been criticised by Majerus and others of not being representative of the work. Other reviews such as by Laurence Cook fail to see the controversy coming.
Famous quotes containing the words evolution and/or action:
“The evolution of sense is, in a sense, the evolution of nonsense.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“Therefore all just persons are satisfied with their own praise. They refuse to explain themselves, and are content that new actions should do them that office. They believe that we communicate without speech, and above speech, and that no right action of ours is quite unaffecting to our friends, at whatever distance; for the influence of action is not to be measured by miles.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)