The very word evolution brings to our minds images of Biology textbooks, artistic recreations of trilobites swimming in Paleozoic seas or drawings of a line of five or six hominids struggling to walk as straight as the Homo sapiens in front. We all know that living species evolve but we do not count our bright sun nor the library next door in the list of evolving species. And yet everything is subject to processes of evolution; living organisms but also inert matter or social institutions... evolution itself has always been evolving. That is the message behind the word metaevolution.

This page begun as a short article but evolved into a popular science book, a book that earned  a prestigious  award and has been recently published in Spain. (El libro "Metaevolución. La Tierra en el Espejo" fue premiado como mejor texto inédito de divulgación científica en el XIII Certamen "Casa de las Ciencias de Divulgación" (año 2000), organizado por el museo "Casa de las Ciencias" de La Coruña.)

Here's a summary of its contents and "coordinates":
 

Title: "Metaevolución. La Tierra en el Espejo"
(winner of the   XIII certamen Casa de las Ciencias de Divulgación. year 2000)
Author: Pedro Gómez Romero
Celeste ediciones, Madrid, Nov. 2001
206 pages, 55 figures, 14.42 Euros
ISBN: 84-8211-342-9

Where to buy it?. In bookstores and also in  Internet :

http://www.libreriagea.com/fichalibro.php?ID=84-8211-342-9

http://www.unilibro.com (librería universitaria OnLine)

http://libros.elcorteingles.es/producto/libro_descripcion.asp?CODIISBN=8482113429
 

Interested in translating it ? contact the author at pedro@icmab.es

Comments:
Don't be misled by that funny word in the title. This book is not about abstract scientific theories. Instead, it offers an integrating overview of the whole process of evolution of matter, from the big-bang up to our little corner of the universe were we are witnessing our own fragile but unique cultural evolution. And it does so in a way most accessible to the non-scientist. But there is more.
Let me put it in questions:
What do the sun, a bacteria and your favorite bookstore have in common?
What is the probability of a soap bubble?
What would have been of the Theory of Evolution if Darwin would have missed his ship?
Who plans our technological evolution?
Does anybody know how much crude oil remains to be extracted in the world?
Is it really necessary that our cars carry a little chimney in the rear end? 
These are some of the surprising questions to which you will find surprising answers in this book. A book with humor and a story-telling style that deals in an engaging way with important questions facing our technological society.
 Because after inviting us to take a look at our evolution from the perspective of aliens in our flying saucers, the author tells us stories of scientific discovery and analyzes our   present state of cultural evolution, the technological crossroads we are presently facing and the fundamental role of science to understand and overcome the challenges ahead.