lt is well established that evolution has occurred, but the mechanism responsible for it is unknown. A distinction must be clearly made between the phenomenon of evolution and its mechanism. Few phenomena in biology are so well established as evolution, but few are so poorly understood. Nearly every discipline of biology has helped in vindicating the occurrence of evolution. But the demonstration of the occurrence of evolution is not tantamount to the demonstration that its mechanism is based on selection. A radically different approach to the phenomenon of evolution was introduced by Lima-de-Faria, A in 1988. This is republished here with a new preface. The central thesis of this work is "Biological form and biological function are the products of the mould of form and function already present in quarks and leptons, or any other of the elementary particles". This conclusion was based on a vast body of information available at four levels of (1) Elementary particles. (2) Chemical elements. (3) Minerals. (4) Living organisms. The data assembled supported the notion that nothing fundamentally new occurred when the biological level emerged during the evolution of matter. Three evolutions had taken place before the cell arrived.
Full review to come. The book deals with the physical and chemical laws that create constraints on biological organisms (and by extension on the process of evolution).