On his knees, hands buried in sand and seaweed, UC Davis geology professor Geerat Vermeij finds a shell. His fingers move across its surface, feeling the ridges and contours, searching for clues, finding information unnoticed by the untrained eye. For Vermeij, his fingers are his eyes. An internationally known evolutionary biologist and the world's leading authority on an ancient "arms race" among mollusks, Vermeij is blind. His new book, "Privileged Hands: A Scientific Life" (W.H. Freeman, 1996), tells the story of Vermeij's challenges and triumphs as well as of the science of evolution. Born with a rare form of glaucoma, Vermeij has been completely blind since the age of three. He created opportunities for himself -- overcoming prejudice and ignorance about the blind -- studying at Princeton and Yale before embarking on his distinguished career as a professor and scientist and receiving the MacArthur "genius" Award. For Vermeij, the study of shells is a window on larger questions of life, evolution and earth history.