Linneo y Buffon: un relato extraordinario de rivalidad y ambici鏮 por clasificar toda la vida en la tierra.
«Una narraci鏮, 廧ica y extraordinaria, de rivalidad y obsesi鏮 cient璗ica en la carrera por estudiar toda la vida en la Tierra .
The New York Times Book Review
En el siglo XVIII, dos hombres de la misma edad (y caracteres opuestos) dedicaron sus vidas a la misma ardua tarea: identificar y describir toda la vida en la Tierra. Carl Linneo, un m嶮ico sueco muy devoto y con dotes de comerciante, consider?que la clasificaci鏮 deb燰 responder a categor燰s ordenadas y est嫢icas. Por el contrario, Georges-Louis de Buffon, arist鏂rata, pol璥ata y director del Jardin du Roi de Francia, ve燰 la vida como un remolino din嫥ico y complejo. Cada uno emprendi?su trabajo consciente de las dificultades pero crey幯dolo posible. C鏔o podr燰 el planeta albergar m嫳 de unos pocos miles de especies?
Pero ambos acabaron muy lejos de sus objetivos, aunque por el camino articularon puntos de vista marcadamente divergentes sobre la naturaleza, la humanidad y el futuro de la Tierra. Linneo otorg?al mundo conceptos como «mam璗ero , «primate y « Homo sapiens , pero tambi幯 neg?que las especies pudieran cambiar y termin?por promulgar una pseudociencia racista. Buffon formul?los primeros esbozos de la ciencia evolutiva y la gen彋ica, advirti?del cambio clim嫢ico global y argument?contra los prejuicios imperantes. El contraste entre sus investigaciones y visiones del mundo se perpetu?hasta mucho despu廥 de que ambos hubiesen fallecido, cuando sus sucesores se disputaron el dominio de la ciencia emergente que dio en llamarse «biolog燰 .
Tras m嫳 de una d嶰ada de investigaci鏮, Jason Roberts narra, con una prosa elegante y 墔il, una inolvidable y seductora historia real que explora las vidas entrelazadas y los legados cient璗icos de estos dos grandes pioneros. Todos los seres vivos traza un arco de conocimiento y descubrimiento que se extiende a lo largo de tres siglos hasta nuestros d燰s.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER - An epic, extraordinary account of scientific rivalry and obsession in the quest to survey all of life on Earth "[An] engaging and thought-provoking book, one focused on the theatrical politics and often deeply troubling science that shape our definitions of life on Earth."--The New York Times "A fluent and engaging account of the eighteenth-century origins of Darwinism before Darwin."--
The Wall Street Journal
WINNER OF THE PEN/E.O. WILSON LITERARY SCIENCE WRITING AWARD - A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR In the eighteenth century, two men--exact contemporaries and polar opposites--dedicated their lives to the same daunting task: identifying and describing all life on Earth. Carl Linnaeus, a pious Swedish doctor with a huckster's flair, believed that life belonged in tidy, static categories. Georges-Louis de Buffon, an aristocratic polymath and keeper of France's royal garden, viewed life as a dynamic swirl of complexities. Each began his task believing it to be difficult but not impossible: How could the planet possibly hold more than a few thousand species--or as many could fit on Noah's Ark?
Both fell far short of their goal, but in the process they articulated starkly divergent views on nature, the future of the Earth, and humanity itself. Linnaeus gave the world such concepts as
mammal, primate, and
Homo sapiens, but he also denied that species change and he promulgated racist pseudoscience. Buffon formulated early prototypes of evolution and genetics, warned of global climate change, and argued passionately against prejudice. The clash of their conflicting worldviews continued well after their deaths, as their successors contended for dominance in the emerging science that came to be called
biology.
In
Every Living Thing, Jason Roberts weaves a sweeping, unforgettable narrative spell, exploring the intertwined lives and legacies of Linnaeus and Buffon--as well as the groundbreaking, often fatal adventures of their acolytes--to trace an arc of insight and discovery that extends across three centuries into the present day.
