SFI Professor and senior scientist at the Department of Paleobiology at the National Museum of Natural History, Douglas H. Erwin, recently reviewed the book, Evolution: The First Four Billion Years, edited by Michael Ruse and Joseph Travis. The first part of the book is comprised of 16 essays on topics ranging from origins of life to the relation of evolution to society and religion. The remainder of this book contains an encyclopedia containing 200 short essays. Erwin notes many informed readers will wonder why some of the bigger names in the field are missing from the book and why certain ones are included. To summarize his review of this book, Erwin states, “For students and the general public, many of the essays in this volume provide useful introductions to a number of central issues in evolution, and the shorter contributions are a ready reference on a wide range of topics.”