Books

Short works

Books : reviews

John Maynard Smith.
Mathematical Ideas in Biology.
CUP. 1968

John Maynard Smith.
The Theory of Evolution: 3rd edn.
CUP. 1975

John Maynard Smith.
The Evolution of Sex.
CUP. 1978

John Maynard Smith.
Evolution and the Theory of Games.
CUP. 1982

John Maynard Smith.
The Problems of Biology.
OUP. 1986

What are genes, and what do they do? Why is the process of sexual fusion so widespread, when reproduction is about splitting in two? What controls chemical reactions in the body? Can animals store maps in their brains and, if so, how?

These are some of the questions which John Maynard Smith attempts to answer in this book. In terms comprehensible to the reader with no previous knowledge of the subject, he describes the fundamental problems faced by modern biology, and provides a non-technical account of the recent advances in molecular genetics. Starting from the definition of life and the mechanisms of replication and heredity, he considers a wide range of topics—the pattern of nature, animal behaviour, the brain’s function, and, finally, the origin of life—concentrating on those problems, particularly in evolution, development, and cognition, to which biologists have as yet found no complete solution.

John Maynard Smith.
Evolutionary Genetics.
OUP. 1989

John Maynard Smith, Eors Szathmary.
The Major Transitions in Evolution.
OUP. 1995

John Maynard Smith, Eors Szathmary.
The Origins of Life: from the birth of life to the origin of language.
OUP. 1999