Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- Chapter 1 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTIONARY THOUGHT -- Aristotle -- Averröes -- The mystery of fossils -- Condorcet -- Linnæus -- Erasmus Darwin -- Lamarck -- The debates between Cuvier and Geoffroy St. Hilaire -- Suggestions for further reading -- Chapter 2 CHARLES DARWIN'S LIFE AND WORK -- Family background and early life -- Aboard the Beagle -- Work in London and Down -- The Origin of Species -- The Descent of Man -- The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals -- ethology -- Suggestions for further reading -- Chapter 3 MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION -- Classical genetics -- The structure of DNA -- Protein structure -- RNA and ribosomes -- The genetic code -- Genetic engineering -- The Polymerase chain reaction -- Theories of chemical evolution towards the origin of life -- Molecular evidence establishing family trees in evolution -- Symbiosis -- Suggestions for further reading -- Chapter 4 STATISTICAL MECHANICS AND INFORMATION -- The second law of thermodynamics -- Maxwell's demon -- Statistical mechanics -- Information theory -- Shannon's formula -- Entropy expressed as missing information -- The information content of Gibbs free energy -- What is life? -- Suggestions for further reading -- Chapter 5 INFORMATION FLOW IN BIOLOGY -- Cybernetic (or semiotic) information -- codes and languages -- The language of molecular complementarity -- The flow of information between and within cells -- Nervous systems -- Animal languages -- Suggestions for further reading -- Chapter 6 CULTURAL EVOLUTION AND INFORMATION -- The coevolution of human language, culture, and intelligence -- Early forms of writing -- The invention of paper, ink, and printing -- The information explosion -- Information-driven human cultural evolution as part of biological evolution -- Suggestions for further reading.

Chapter 7 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY -- The first computers -- Electronic digital computers -- Cybernetics -- Microelectronics -- The history of the Internet and World Wide Web -- Self-reenforcing information accumulation -- Suggestions for further reading -- Chapter 8 BIO-INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY -- The merging of information technology and biotechnology -- Self-assembly of supramolecular structures -- Nanoscience -- Molecular switches -- bacteriorhodopsin -- Neural networks, biological and artificial -- Genetic algorithms -- Artificial life -- Suggestions for further reading -- Chapter 9 LOOKING TOWARDS THE FUTURE -- Tensions created by the rapidity of technological change -- Can information-driven society achieve stability? -- Respect for natural evolution -- Construction versus destruction -- Suggestions for further reading -- Appendix A ENTROPY AND INFORMATION -- Appendix B BIOSEMIOTICS -- Suggestions for further reading -- Index.