autumn books

The author tasted the flavour of the world’s attitude towards the Germans when he was a child growing up in England. He states that an aphorism that echoed through his boyhood and youth was: “The only good German is a dead German.” Others saw something “congenitally malevolent about German people”.Some of this anti-German attitude has remained in his psyche and surfaces from time to time in the book, even though he engages the newer interpre- tations. According to Cornwell, no scientist who worked in Nazi Germany is exempt from blame; even an academic scientist working on the purest research is guilty by association. Cornwell, however, wants all scientists to have a conscience, not just those who worked during the Nazi period. Cornwell extends his period to reflect on the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 and technology,and adds material that seems over-detailed and tangential. But like other recent books on science under the Nazis, the real story begins a century earlier. The first quarter of the book describes Germany in the early twentieth century as a scientific mecca, with scientists such as Haber developing ••••••••••••••••••••••••••• precluded by “the howling wildernesses of poison gas for the fatherland. The science of the maladaptive”, where the vast majority eugenics, later so important to the Nazis, was The eyes have it of genotypes are non-viable and prevent also born in this era. Others have written Life’s Solution: Inevitable Humans further exploration by natural selection. about how science “survived the swastika”, in a Lonely Universe Conway Morris is spectacularly successful but Cornwell emphasizes the strain of the by Simon Conway Morris at tracking down and organizing examples Weimar period, when Germany was under Cambridge University Press: 2003. 464 pp. of convergent evolution, but he admits the yoke of the Versailles Treaty and suffered £18.95, $30 that work to place convergences “into any because of the resulting economic problems. Richard E. Lenski sort of quantitative framework is still in Science flourished there nevertheless. its infancy”. In effect, he emphasizes the The more sensational topics, such as The late Stephen Jay Gould argued that numerator (convergence) while skirting the medical experiments and slave labour, evolution is unpredictable. His thought- denominator (all examples of evolution, receive the most attention. There is one experiment of replaying life’s tape, in both convergent and divergent). chapter on sciences that flourished under the Wonderful Life (W. W. Norton, 1989), led Conway Morris is not content, however, Nazis, which includes a summary of Robert him to assert: “Alter any early event, ever so to catalogue examples of convergent evolu- Proctor’s book The Nazi War on Cancer slightly and without apparent importance tion. He wants to convince us that conver- (Princeton University Press,1999).But Corn- at the time, and evolution cascades into gence implies the inevitability that some well ignores the literature that demonstrates a radically different channel.” The aim of sentient human-like being will evolve on that basic biological research also survived Life’s Solution is to overthrow that histori- any life-bearing planet like Earth. Thus, and thrived; he thinks it just stagnated. He cally contingent view of life. What is at he focuses his compilation on the attributes also fails to mention the anomaly that three stake, according to its author Simon Conway we associate with ourselves and the lineage Nobel prizes were awarded to scientists of Morris, is more than the statistical mechanics that produced us. Fruiting bodies of slime the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in the 1930s and of evolution: at stake is how we understand moulds and myxobacteria show that multi- 1940s for work they did during the Nazi our place in the Universe. cellularity has evolved repeatedly. Warm- period:Richard Kuhn in 1938 for his work on Life’s Solution builds a forceful case for bloodedness evolved several times,as did live carotenoids and vitamins; Adolf Butenandt the predictability of evolutionary outcomes, birth and even penile tumescence. Sensory in 1939 for his work on sex hormones; and not in terms of genetic details but rather organs exhibit numerous cases of conver- Otto Hahn in 1944 for his 1938 discovery of their broad phenotypic manifestations. The gence: the eyes have it, as seen in the camera- nuclear fission. He does, however, add some case rests on a remarkable compilation of like eyes of vertebrates and octopuses, and original research and comments to the con- examples of convergent evolution, in which the similar eyes of certain worms and jelly- troversy surrounding Werner Heisenberg’s two or more lineages have independently fish. So, too, mechanisms used by diverse visit to Niels Bohr in Copenhagen. evolved similar structures and functions. organisms to smell, hear, echolocate, sense Even if Hitler’s Scientists is not based on The examples range from the aerodynamics electrical fields and maintain balance are original research and not all scientists of hovering moths and hummingbirds to often convergent. belonged to Hitler, it is a useful compilation the use of silk by spiders and some insects Complex social systems have evolved for readers who would like just one volume to capture prey. repeatedly, exemplified by termites, ants and on science under the Nazis. Convergence is widespread, despite the mole-rats. Fungus-farming ants and tool Kristie Macrakis is in the Department of History infinitude of genetic possibilities, because use by crows remind us that even agriculture and the Lyman Briggs School of Science, “the evolutionary routes are many, but and invention have evolved elsewhere. Just Michigan State University, East Lansing, the destinations are limited”, as Conway as the availability of light to guide organisms Michigan 48825, USA. Morris puts it. Certain destinations are has led repeatedly to the evolution of eyes,

NATURE | VOL 425 | 23 OCTOBER 2003 | www.nature.com/nature © 2003 Nature Publishing Group 767 autumn books the acquisition of complex information our place in the Universe, and to biologists ferring to debate the logic of the enterprise about an organism’s environment implies interested in adaptation and constraints. within linguistic theory.They have tended to selection to better store and use the informa- I am obliged, however, to caution readers ignore findings from studies of acquisition tion. The evolution of extra-large brains about the deprecating way in which Conway that are inconsistent with their favourite and corresponding intelligence in dolphins Morris sometimes refers to evolutionists theories. In short, they have not recognized and primates illustrates that convergence. whose views he opposes. He is especially that describing a language is not the same Conway Morris stops short of saying that dismissive of Gould, who died a year ago: as describing the process by which people another species has yet evolved the sophisti- readers interested in their conflict can read acquire it. cated language of humans, but suggests that an exchange elsewhere (Natural History 107, By contrast, in the past few decades, “waiting in the wings of the theatre of con- 48–55; 1998). Conway Morris’s antagonism psycholinguists have documented many of sciousness are other minds stirring, poised to Gould becomes more puzzling when the facts of acquisition. They have examined on the threshold of articulation”. These are one reads — in a chapter titled “Towards a what speech children hear, studied the provocative words and, whether or not one theology of evolution?” — of his disdain for processes for learning complex systems, agrees with his conclusions, the examples “ultra-Darwinists” and “genetic fundamen- and identified factors that influence devel- are fascinating and indicate a prodigious talism”,as these were also frequent targets of opment.But they have also generally ignored knowledge of the scattered literature on Gould’s pen. But while Gould argued for the changes in syntactic theories — descriptions convergent evolution. separation of science and religion, Conway of the rules that govern language — and the Given this rampant convergence here on Morris is searching for common ground. associated issue of just what is innate about Earth, Conway Morris believes that “extra- Conway Morris derides the “almost language in humans. terrestrials with nervous systems will hear, gleeful abasement of humans” by ultra- Tomasello has added a new perspective to see, and smell in very much the same way Darwinists, and claims that Darwin himself these debates from the psycholinguistic side, as we do, and if that is so will also possibly “retreated into a gloomy agnosticism”. But based on his work with primates as well as have similar mental processes”.So where are the closing passage of The Origin of Species children. He has brought together a number these ETs? Alas, he doubts that they exist. is far from gloomy: “There is grandeur in of the topics that psycholinguists have Conway Morris and Gould both think that this view of life, with its several powers worked on: language studied as a system for we humans might be alone, but for different having been originally breathed into a few communication, the relationships between reasons. For Gould,“the awesome improba- forms or into one; and that … from so language, memory and attention, how infer- bility of human evolution” derives from simple a beginning endless forms most ences about meaning are made in context, contingency in adaptive evolution. Conway beautiful and most wonderful have been, choices of conceptual perspective — the Morris argues that if our planet were even and are being,evolved.”In the second edition decision to call a dog a “dog” rather than an slightly different from the way it actually is, Darwin inserted three words (italicized “animal” — how common ground is built then life might not have emerged. His argu- here): “… breathed by the Creator”. I n up in communication, and how a speaker’s ment is based on the difficulties of getting Life’s Solution, Conway Morris has perhaps intentions are interpreted. He emphasizes life started, on the failure of scientists to explained why, in his view of life, the second that language is essentially social and that it synthesize life from scratch, and on some edition might be preferable to the first. I relies not only on vocabulary and linguistic unusual features of Earth and our Solar Richard E. Lenski is in the Department of constructions, but also on non-linguistic System. He even suggests that intelligence Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, elements such as gesture and gaze. might never have evolved here had not a Michigan State University, East Lansing, He starts from the premise that children cataclysmic impact jettisoned the Moon into Michigan 48824, USA. acquire language by attending closely to the its orbit. This sounds rather like Gould’s language they hear. To do that, they must historical contingency, except that Conway analyse speakers’ intentions and find any Morris emphasizes physical events creating ••••••••••••••••••••••••••• patterns in the language that speakers use. opportunities for life to emerge and adapt, Tomasello argues that children acquire whereas Gould emphasized the idiosyncratic Listen, learn constructions in the same way as they do nature of adaptation itself. words: they have to learn both, and just as The tension between inevitability and and construct they slowly build up their vocabulary, they loneliness leads Conway Morris towards a Constructing a Language: also slowly build up a repertoire of construc- higher objective, which is to re-establish A Usage-Based Theory of tions. Words, in fact, are stepping-stones “notions of awe and wonder” in evolution Language Acquisition to constructions. For instance, children and thus “allow a conversation with religious by Michael Tomasello first use a verb like “want” only with “that” sensibilities”. He dismisses Fred Hoyle’s Harvard University Press: 2003. 388 pp. (“want that”), then with a following verb “strange ideas about the origins of biological $45, £29.95 (“wanna go”), and only later still with a complexity” but admits a grudging respect Eve V. Clark direct object and following verb (“want him for Hoyle’s remark that the Universe is a [to] go out”). They build up larger construc- “set-up job”.Conway Morris’s metaphysical In 1965, Noam Chomsky posited that lin- tions by combining smaller ones. Because vision occasionally becomes overwrought, guistic theory should be able to account Tomasello looks at speaker intentions as well as when he says: “Not only is the Universe for how children acquire a first language. as patterns of use, he integrates the cognitive strangely fit to purpose, but so, too, as I have In so doing, he triggered debates that have and the social in language development from argued throughout this book, is life’s ability lasted ever since. What is innate? What and the start. to navigate its solutions.”Whatever Conway how much language do children hear? Are Researchers have always assumed that Morris may think about the Universe and its children’s errors corrected? Do children use children acquire vocabulary by learning, predispositions, Life’s Solution invokes the two different mechanisms for learning but many have argued that learning alone standard darwinian explanation of adap- grammar: one for regularities in syntax and can’t explain children’s acquisition of the tation by natural selection for life’s ability morphology that can be described with regularities of language that can be described to navigate. rules, another for irregular forms? in rules for syntax and morphology. Acqui- I recommend this book to anyone grap- But few linguists have spent much time sition of these, propose Steven Pinker and pling with the meaning of evolution and looking at language acquisition itself, pre- others, depends on innate language-specific

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