BOOK REVIEWS

cate that the typological perpective new topics, including kin recognition and Colonial rule taken here is not the most effective one the genetics of division of labour. The for understanding the evolution and extensive coverage of bee genetics Gene E. Robinson mechanisms of colony function. An (Moritz's own area of expertise) is useful alternative approach that is proving to because this topic has received much Bees as Superorganisms: An Evolution• be productive is to invoke a heuristic recent empirical and theoretical atten­ ary Reality. By Robin F. A. Moritz and metaphor to help analyse a specific fea­ tion. But because of its misinterpreta­ Edward E. Southwick. Springer: 1992. ture of colony biology, such as South­ tions, errors of fact and attribution, and Pp. 411. DM195, $129, £77. wick's "colony as a homeotherm" to numerous typographical errors, the book describe thermoregulation, or S. Cama­ will not compete with Tom Seeley's THE superorganism is back, revived pri­ zine's "colony as an automaton" to de­ Honey Bee Ecology (Princeton Univer­ marily by E. 0. Wilson in the mid-1980s, scribe nest organization. sity Press, 1985) and Mark Winston's after more than a 20-year absence, to The book does make a strong case for The Biology of the Honey Bee (Harvard highlight the importance of wedding re­ the idea that natural selection at the University Press, 1987) as the most ductionist analyses of individual insect level of the colony can be a potent useful and enjoyable treatises on the colony members with a holistic appreci­ influence on the evolution of both indi­ honey bee (individual and colony) for ation of the colony. Recently others (D. vidual and colony traits, an insight that students or generalists. D S. Wilson and E. Sober; T. Seeley) have originated from Darwin. It deals com­ gone further, asserting that the super­ prehensively with only colony biology Gene £. Robinson is in the Department of organism is not only a useful metaphor, (as was intended), and social-insect Entomology, University of Illinois, Urbana, but a real biological entity. This is also biologists will appreciate the encyclo­ Illinois 61801, USA. Robin Moritz and Edward Southwick's paedic literature review. Most aspects of • Yosiaki Ito's Behaviour and Social Evolution of thesis. One unintended lesson of their the biology of the individual bee are Wasps: The Communal Aggregation Hypothesis has book, which focuses on honey bees, is covered only superficially and important just been published in Oxford University Press's Series in Ecology and Evolution. The author argues that considerable problems emerge when areas such as neuroethology are virtually that kin selection has been over-emphasized as an attempting to move the superorganism ignored. There are reasonably balanced evolutionary explanation of sociality. £30, $61 from metaphor to reality. treatments of several controversial or (hbk); £28, $13.50 (pbk). One problem arises when interpreta­ tions of colony biology are forced to fit the biology of individual organisms. Moritz and Southwick sometimes resist Forbidden symmetries this temptation, for example when de­ scribing how swarming in bees is not Walter Steurer genetically equivalent to budding. But ers geometrical properties and construc­ they succumb at other times, to Quasicrystals: A Primer. By C. Janot. tion methods of quasiperiodic tilings. In erroneous or confusing effect. For exam­ Oxford University Press: 1992. Pp. 320. the following experimental section, he ple, they conclude that bee colonies £42.50, $65. describes the preparation and character­ sleep, on the basis of only W. Kaiser's ization of real quasicrystals, and includes suggestive evidence that individual "Gooo order is the foundation of all some wonderful photographs of quasi­ worker bees show sleep-like states of in­ good things", wrote Edmund Burke. For crystals with dodecahedral or triaconta­ activity. M. Lindauer's exhaustive obser­ many years, crystallographers were sure hedral growth morphology. An answer vations, however, have shown that brood that fivefold symmetry and crystalline to the question "where are the atoms?" rearing and some other tasks are per­ order were incompatible. But in 1984, can be found in the chapters on quasi­ formed around the clock; for such activi­ D. Shechtman's discovery of grains with crystal structure analysis. The theory and ties a more apt analogy would be E. 0. icosahedral diffraction symmetry in a practice of quasicrystallography's most Wilson's "colony as a factory" (with bees rapidly cooled aluminium-manganese powerful tool, the high-dimensional working day or night shifts, perhaps). alloy opened heated debates about the embedding method, is presented using Also, bound by the strictures of this existence of this new ordering state of the example of icosahedral Al-Cu-Li. construct, the authors labour to show matter. The feverish activity in the study The strange behaviour of phasons, or how the superorganism can die (when of structure and properties of these phase fluctuations, as well as defects and the queen dies or leaves with a swarm) phases, later called quasicrystals, is re­ lattice dynamics, are discussed in the while the colony lives on (with a replace­ flected in more than 2,000 publications chapters on the physics of quasicrystals. ment queen). Perhaps this theme, so far: how noncrystallographic sym­ Janot was one of the pioneers of which has important implications for metry and quasiperiodic translational experimental quasicrystal research, and sociogenetics, would be better illumi­ order combine to give perfectly ordered his authority and influence pervade the nated by a "colony as a corporation" structures is now essentially under­ book. This sometimes results, however, analogy (the faces may change, but the stood. What quasicrystals are good for is in a preponderance of his own work on brand stays the same ... ). hinted at by Janot: "For quasicrystals, icosahedral quasicrystals at the cost of A second problem is that it is difficult the age of effectiveness has already important contributions by other scien­ to define what a superorganism really is, started to overlap the dreaming period". tists. And decagonal phases, or two­ as the authors' idiosyncratic roster re­ Indeed, quasicrystals are now finding dimensional quasicrystals, gain only a veals. We read that naked mole rats uses as surface coatings, for instance mention. might be superorganisms; but Polistes for non-stick frying pans. On the whole, however, the book is wasps, to which these fascinating eu­ An easily readable textbook to guide a an excellent primer for all who are social mammals have often been com­ wide range of readers through this enor­ interested in the fascinating field of pared, are not even considered. Even mous amount of diverse information has quasicrystals. D more baffling is the omission of Polybia long been needed. In Quasicrystals, and other swarm-founding wasps, which Janot presents clearly the fundamentals Walter Steurer is in the Institute for Min• in some ways display honey bee-like of quasicrystal research, starting with an eralogy, University of Hannover, Welfen• social complexity. These problems indi- introduction to crystallography that cov- garten 1, D---3000 Hannover 1, Germany. 126 NATURE · VOL 362 · 11 MARCH 1993 © 1993 Nature Publishing Group