Virtual Event: Neil Shubin

Harvard Book Store's virtual event series, the Harvard University Division of Science, and the Cabot Science Library welcome NEIL SHUBIN—bestselling author of Your Inner Fish and professor of organismal biology at the University of Chicago—for a discussion of his latest book, Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA.

About Some Assembly Required

Over billions of years, ancient fish evolved to walk on land, reptiles transformed into birds that fly, and apelike primates evolved into humans that walk on two legs, talk, and write. For more than a century, paleontologists have traveled the globe to find fossils that show how such changes have happened.

We have now arrived at a remarkable moment—prehistoric fossils coupled with new DNA technology have given us the tools to answer some of the basic questions of our existence: How do big changes in evolution happen? Is our presence on Earth the product of mere chance? This new science reveals a multibillion-year evolutionary history filled with twists and turns, trial and error, accident and invention.

In Some Assembly Required, Neil Shubin takes readers on a journey of discovery spanning centuries, as explorers and scientists seek to understand the origins of life's immense diversity.

Praise for Some Assembly Required

"Neil Shubin has been one of my favorite science communicators ever since I took his undergraduate anatomy course. In this ambitious and readable book, Shubin blends his own research, epic tales from the history of science, and the latest discoveries in paleontology and genetics to tackle some of the biggest mysteries of evolution. This is an engrossing account from a scientific storyteller at the height of his talents." —Steve Brusatte, University of Edinburgh paleontologist and author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs

“Shubin is a brilliant scientist storyteller—an eloquent narrator, who draws you into his rich, evolving world of walking fish and mutant flies, prehistoric birds and precocious biologists. Part adventure, part mystery, with twists and turns you couldn’t make up if you tried, Some Assembly Required is an irresistible read!" —Robert M. Hazen, Carnegie Institution for Science, and author of Symphony in C

"Through tales of remarkable creatures, and some even more remarkable people who study them, Neil Shubin unravels the mystery at the heart of evolution—how nature invents. From bacteria to brains, fish lungs to ballistic salamander tongues, Shubin decodes the surprising origins of the marvelous gadgets that have driven the riot of life’s diversity.” —Sean B. Carroll, author of The Serengeti Rules and Brave Genius