Playing Host to Evolution

books and arts

Newton Morton’s rather sketchy chapter by expressions of embarrassment at the on genetic epidemiology provides a useful “Eskimo” custom of lending their wives to Playing host to comment on both its history and its meth- dinner guests (in the concluding chapter by odology, but might have more properly Luca Cavalli-Sforza), even if the reference is evolution belonged in the introduction. So too would to the Lonely Planet guidebooks. One can Infectious Disease and Michel Tibayrenc’s endorsement of the imagine such a gross example of the com- Host–Pathogen Evolution Human Genome Diversity Project as a means moditization of women appearing in one of edited by Krishna R. Dronamraju of answering certain critical questions sur- Haldane’s essays for the Daily Worker,but it is Cambridge University Press: 2004. 384 pp. rounding susceptibility to infectious disease. doubtful that it would have found its way to £65, $95 Finally, extending haldanesque thinking to the part of his mind that dwelt upon disease ■ Sunetra Gupta diseases of unknown origin, the chapter and host evolution. on diabetes by Kyle and Gregory Cochran is Sunetra Gupta is in the Department of Zoology, It is apt that in the year that marks the 40th a refreshing addition to a book that could University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK. anniversary of the death of J. B. S. Haldane, have restricted itself to diseases that are we should have a book on host–pathogen obviously infectious. evolution that so explicitly acknowledges But set among these are several chapters the debt this field owes to him. I refer not on issues that do not easily integrate into the just to his ideas regarding the influence of general theme of Haldane’s legacy. Two Populations in infectious disease on host evolution, but also excellent, detailed chapters on the evolution to his tireless efforts to inject rigour into of plasmodia could claim to have come in on space and time the language used to describe it. “Words,” he the malaria ticket,but those on the evolution Ecology, Genetics, and Evolution said, “are well adapted for description and of influenza and cholera, although of high of Metapopulations the arousing of emotion, but for many kinds quality, do not find their natural home edited by Ilkka Hanski & Oscar Gaggiotti of precise thought other symbols are much here. More inexplicable is the inclusion of a Academic Press: 2004. 696 pp. $54.95, £36.99 better.” His genius lay not only in defining a chapter on regulatory DNA. Alan Hastings set of problems that would keep so many of There is a good reason to be so concerned us gainfully employed, but also in identify- about theme.The chapters are based on peer- Edited compilations of papers can often be ing some of the tools with which to try and reviewed work that has appeared in high- the only place to find an integrated and tackle them. quality journals,and the authors have,almost timely view of a rapidly developing subject The book opens with two wonderful without exception, devoted time and effort area. This volume on metapopulation essays. The first, by James Crow, locates Hal- to put their findings together in a clear and dynamics is the third to be co-edited by dane’s ideas on disease and evolution within intelligible manner. But who will read this Ilkka Hanski in the past 15 years. Given the his multiple and diverse intellectual occupa- book? Long gone is the age where “definitions editors’ decision to commission new chap- tions. The second, by David Weatherall, fol- first appeared in books rather than articles”, ters, rather than to revise the previous lows the fascinating trajectory of Haldane’s to quote from Morton’s chapter.The purpose books, it is perhaps best to view this one ‘malaria hypothesis’ — the proposal that the of putting together such a book is surely to not as a fully developed, integrated view high frequency of the blood disorder thalas- inspire students and teachers of biology at of metapopulation dynamics, but rather as saemia could be attributed to selection by the an advanced level, and thematic unity is a the latest, extended issue of a journal — malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.“It critical element in achieving this goal. In perhaps entitled ‘Trends in Metapopulation is doubtful,”Weatherall comments,“whether this respect, the book’s lack of continuity is Research’. Haldane could have had any idea of the large detrimental to the ever-diminishing dialogue The concept of metapopulations is one industry that his short paper of 1948 had between scientists and eager students of way to include the role of space in population spawned.” So, just how well does this book science. This gap is unlikely to be bridged dynamics.The original models for metapop- exploit this? ulations focused on the fraction of occupied Sara Tishkoff and Brian Verelli’s chapter patches or habitat as the measure of popu- on glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase defi- lation size, and included only colonization ciency and malarial resistance in humans, and extinction as processes, but more recent and Peter Zimmerman’s discussion on the work has become increasingly sophisticated the link between the Duffy blood-group and general. Any treatment of the subject antigens and resistance to Plasmodium vivax needs to ask whether biological questions are HULTON-DEUTSCH/CORBIS malaria, fit neatly into the scheme. The being forced into the metapopulation frame- chapter by Alain Dessein and others on the work of local colonization and extinction genetics of host resistance to Leishmania when other approaches to spatial dynamics and schistosomes carries the theme into the might be more appropriate, and whether realm of other parasites; Tom Little and the metapopulation approach should be Dieter Ebert’s summary of their elegant extended — is it more than a way to under- work on Daphnia and its diminutive para- stand butterflies? sites broadens the context to include a The book’s overview chapters focus on different host. The latter is a model chapter, connecting metapopulation research to and refers intelligently throughout to the other advances in studying spatial ecology, evolutionary principles articulated by Hal- including continuous-space stochastic mod- dane. Extending some of these principles els and landscape approaches, but in my to public-health concerns, the chapter by view this section could have been extended. Andrew Read and co-authors, which out- Some connections, such as those to recent lines with due caution their theory that work on ideas of scaling in spatial ecology,are J. B. S. Haldane laid the foundations for studies vaccines may increase virulence, also finds not discussed in enough depth. of how infectious disease affects host evolution. a rational place in this collection. Much of the current ecological work on

NATURE | VOL 432 | 4 NOVEMBER 2004 | www.nature.com/nature 19 © 2004 Nature Publishing Group books and arts metapopulations can be traced back to work weight to the evolutionary and ecological questions are considered, few contributions by Richard Levins in 1970, but similar kinds aspects of the subject. There are also fewer truly synthesize these different disciplines. of issue were raised in a genetic context by overviews of metapopulations, so this is not Not many readers are likely to read this Sewall Wright as long ago as the 1930s. Also a volume to teach newcomers the basics. massive volume from cover to cover, but it in the 1930s, A. J. Nicholson and V.A. Bailey, Instead the emphasis is on more specialized should prove useful as a reference book. along with G. F. Gause, raised ecological topics and applications, including conser- There is good coverage of enough important questions in their classic contributions, but vation and reserve design, disease and recent advances, such as the use of coales- without using the term ‘metapopulation’. pathogen dynamics,and speciation. cents and the study of metacommunities, so Yet, as discussed in the introductory chapter, The papers in this volume use primarily at least parts of the book will be required research in this area has increased sharply theoretical and conceptual approaches. reading for students and researchers in in the past 15 years, making any attempt at Readers looking for data-heavy contribu- spatial ecology. ■ an overview difficult. tions to help place the conceptual work in Alan Hastings is in the Department of In contrast to the earlier volumes co- context will be disappointed. Also, although Environmental Science and Policy, University of edited by Hanski, this one gives almost equal both genetic–evolutionary and ecological California, Davis, California 95616, USA.

Science in culture Facial diversity

An exhibition in London features the changing expression and representation of the face.

Jonathan Cole each enjoying life and wearing a big smile. Max Factor (the man behind the brand) appears The face is both a unique identifier and an embod- trying in vain to measure facial imperfections

ied read-out of emotion. We look through it to see with steel gadgetry, as shown below. Elsewhere, AZIZ CUCHER — or think we see — personality. And we use the a tattooed face shows too much, and a Geisha face as a means of expression, to communicate reveals little. Hollywood’s monsters lurk in a with others, with and without words. Yet we now series of small photos. Dolls lie in glass cases; one see so many unknown faces, in the street and in has several faces, seen by rotating the head, the the media, that sometimes we gaze on others with posh face happy, the poor miserable. A computer a detached curiosity that can never be satisfied, gives the next doll facial expressions and respon- seeing but not engaging. Sandra Kemp is well sive emotions — but is she comforting or scary? aware of this; her wonderful exhibition, which is We are given a view of recent developments in presented by the Wellcome Trust and can be seen the recognition of facial features and expression at London’s Science Museum until 13 February, before we see examples of how new technology invites us to look and admire faces but also, con- can alter our perception of the face. We meet Kaya, stantly, to question and to feel. a virtual model, given imperfections to improve In the first room, a series of scientific represen- her humanity, and an avatar who talks to us face tations explore where the face begins and ends. to face, a presence from a strange virtual world. Contemporary images from scans of faces and of Then we are seduced by a digital Marlene Dietrich. blood vessels in the face and head combine accu- shows the same people doing the same a Kemp shows us that we have always portrayed racy with beauty. An 1837 drawing of a dissection decade later. At the age of 10 they were animated, faces in culture, often distorting them, but that, has presence and poise. Opposite these are alive and playful, but by 20 they were concerned, through new technology, we will do this even more ancient, exquisite sculptures of faces, presaging knowing and apparently less, or at least differ- powerfully in the future. Might this alter our views on Picasso and Modigliani. The scientific and the ently, embodied in their faces. There is also a facial attractiveness, or even alter the semiotics of artistic complement each other in content and short series of people with facial disfigurements, facial expression? This small gem of an exhibition aesthetics throughout. delights and questions through- At the heart of the room is out. It is complemented by an a collection of masks, used to excellent book, Future Face by conceal and transform identity Sandra Kemp (Profile Books, because of disease, in Japanese £12.99), and an interactive CD. Noh theatre, or to hide the face On the way out we pass a of an executioner. Beyond this gleaming black-and-white photo are pictures of facial injuries of a man yawning, an image that from the First World War and is almost unnerving and com- the fitting of prostheses for pletely contemporary. Extraordi-

camouflage. Across the room, a narily, the original was sculpted MUSEUM ENTERTAINMENT HOLLYWOOD middle-aged man in a tweed in the eighteenth century. Where, jacket has his enucleated eye Kemp asks, will our imagination socket dressed. and new technology take facial A video installation by Chris representation in the future? ■ Dorley-Brown has two screens. Jonathan Cole is at the University One screen shows a series of of Bournemouth and is a clinical 10-year-olds who were given 15 neurophysiologist at Poole seconds to express themselves Hospital, Longfleet Road, in their faces; the other screen Poole BH15 2JB, UK.