Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond is an American scientist, author, and professor at UCLA.  He examined anthropology and ornithology.  Diamond researched human and animal evolution.  He examined human evolution and its relevance to the modern world.  Diamond explains the political and economic dominance of Eurasian societies.  Using evidence from archaeological and historical case studies and evidence from genetics and linguistics, he explained that gaps in technology are not the result of cultural or racial differences.  Mr. Schick told us to research him because Diamond had a great deal of contribution of our knowledge of human and animal evolution.  He has traveled all over the world to many islands to research the evolution and ecology of birds. He rediscovered New Guinea's long-lost golden fronted bowerbird.  Diamond also researched past civilizations to see if they collapsed or succeeded.  With looking at these past civilizations, Diamond determines whether or not contemporary sciences can learn from these historical examples.  He has a PhD in philosophy and geography.  Diamond went to Papua New Guinea to study ecology.  He wrote the book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Society. 

Guns, Germs, and Steel is a book that Jared Diamond wrote in 1997.  It attempts to explain why Eurasian civilizations have survived and and conquered others.  It argues against the idea that Eurasian hegemony is due to any form of Eurasian intellectual, moral, or inherent genetic superiority.  In this book, Diamond argues that the gaps in power and technology between human societies originate in environmental differences.  This theory is amplified by various positive feedback loops.  When cultural or genetic differences have favored Eurasians , Diamond asserts that these advantages occurred because of the influence of geography on societies and cultures, and were not inherent in the Eurasian genomes.  This book has won the Pulitzer Prize and has had a documentary made by National Geographic.  This book won the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction.