tiffanyevolves

Hi there. The reason I got involved with this project (and wrote my other book on evolution for kids) is because firstly, I wanted to take the "fear factor" and "controversy" out of evolution, by just showing how simple the basic logic and concepts are. Secondly, I know I'm biased, but I believe evolution should be one of the first lessons in any biology class - not an after thought or an optional "tag on". It underlies all biology and equips anyone who understands to ask questions and make educated guesses about why the living world is the way it is. A famous scientist called Dobzhansky said "nothing in biology makes sense, except in the light of evolution" I couldn't agree more.

At the moment, I'm moving into a field that applies evolutionary theory and experiments to cancer biology, and I think it's fascinating! Cancer cells will independently evolve within you - that's why they become resistant to drugs and spread around the body etc. I think this new area has loads of things to discover and really important applications.

I think children are capable of understanding a lot more than we give them credit for, but as much as I love to think of myself as really intelligent, the basics of evolution aren't hard to understand - it is a very logical process. But I think a lot of the change in attitude is less fear from the parents. Our grandparents generation probably didn't learn about a lot of this stuff, so it's scary for your kids to ask you questions about things you don't necessarily understand. I think a lot of parents now are more wised up on a lot more things, and see the importance of exposing their children as much knowledge as possible.

The best estimate we have at the moment is 8.7 million. But we haven't yet catalogued all the species (or investigated each specimen of mold lurking in people's bathrooms - ewww) but this figure excludes bacteria and other types of organisms - of which there are an insane number of. Trouble is no one is quite sure when a bacteria can be considered a different species.

It will span a large age group, as the colourful pictures and fun poems will also be followed by a short excerpt from the scientist which describes the science in more detail. But I think kids from about 8 to 12 would get this book.