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Darwin's Other Books COMMENT BOOKS & ARTS involved in transplanting them is paid for their contribution. Because the buyers insist on using the language of gifts, the recompense for the donor — from clinics, hospitals or brokers — is tiny. So only the poor and desperate are tempted. Profiteers increase the supply through coercion. Protecting donors’ anonymity enables buyers to turn a blind eye to the source of their flesh. And as Carney puts it: “The one-two punch of anonymity and dona- tion means that profit-taking middle­ men control the entire supply chain.” The global industry in body parts exploits the varied regulations and eco- nomic conditions in different coun- tries. The fact that body parts have often travelled across continents also obscures their source. By the time an Indian child’s papers reach an adop- tion agency in the United States, for example, there is often no easy way of verifying whether that child was given up voluntarily. Banning organ commerce will not help, Carney says, because the red market would be driven further underground and “Every child, the poorest would kidney or continue to supply bag of blood it in return for ris- should be ible fees. Nor will labelled fully embracing with the the market work, name of the as demand will rise An 1881 Punch cartoon satirizing Charles Darwin’s body of work that connected humans with worms. person who alongside supply. Physicians will find EVOLUTION provided it.” new indications for transplants as more organs become available, and as they hold out hope for ever-smaller improve- Darwin’s other books ments in the lives of very sick patients. A third option, to grow synthetic body From geology to mould, the naturalist’s publications parts, is appealing but remains science form a coherent whole, finds Eugenie Scott. fiction for now. Carney does argue that the market should be transparent, with every child, ost people are familiar with On the geology and four on barnacles. Ten further kidney or bag of blood labelled with the Origin of Species, but few are aware books and monographs appeared after name of the person who provided it. The of Charles Darwin’s decades of the Origin, including The Formation of supply pool might shrink, but the crimi- Mproductive work before and after its publica- Vegetable Mould, through the Action of nal middlemen would be eliminated. The tion. Indeed, creationists present Darwin as Worms, which was published in 1881, the G. BERNARD/SPL richer members of society — those creat- a one-trick pony: a rich dilettante who loafed year before his death at the age of 72. ing most of the demand — could also learn around his country manor until he stumbled As in his earlier treatment of the Origin, to accept their mortality, and to question across evolution by natural selection. So I was titled Almost Like a Whale (published in whether, in every case, the extended life delighted to read Steve Jones’s The Darwin the United States as Darwin’s Ghost), Jones that a transplant promises is worth the Archipelago (published in Britain as Darwin’s shows how Darwin’s ideas have inspired and human suffering it costs farther back along Island), an entertaining and thoughtful treat- been augmented by subsequent research. the chain. It’s not much of a sticking plaster, ment of Darwin’s other books. And Jones shows his flair for a one-liner: a but The Red Market is a reminder that Darwin was a respected scientist — and worm is an “animated intestine”, and molec- there are some problems that science alone a recipient of the Wollaston Medal, the ular biology is “no cannot solve. ■ Geological Society of London’s highest more than compara- NATURE.COM award — well before the Origin’s publication tive anatomy plus a For more, see Laura Spinney is a writer based in in 1859. By then, he had eight books to his mountain of cash”. Nature’s Darwin 200 Lausanne, Switzerland. name, starting with The Voyage of the Beagle Jones notes that special issue: e-mail: [email protected] in 1839 and followed by three volumes on all of Darwin’s work nature.com/darwin 158 | NATURE | VOL 474 | 9 JUNE 2011 © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved BOOKS & ARTS COMMENT supports the prin- ciple that, driven by natural selec- Q&A Christiaan Zwanikken tion, small changes “given time, can produce gigantic ends”. Anatomy, The machinist behaviour, bio­ Dutch artist Christiaan Zwanikken makes computer-controlled mechanical sculptures, many geography, embry- of which use animal skeletons he has found. As a film about Zwanikken’s work and life at an ology — so many isolated Portuguese convent premieres in Edinburgh, UK, he discusses human relationships with The Darwin characteristics of other animals and machines. Archipelago: The Naturalists’s organisms can be Career Beyond explained by selec- Origin of Species tion on precursors Can you describe your artworks? ) STEVE JONES that gave some I take the remains of animals and plants Yale University Press: advantage to their and bring them back to life by means of CONVENTO 2011. 248 pp. $27.50 possessors. The computer-controlled motors, or servos. peculiar “contriv- The sculptures can interact with people and ances” of insectivorous plants to attract each other. There is a strong natural element and capture prey, for example, can be and a technological part; for example, one of explained only by natural selection. my sculptures has two goat skulls that bang Darwin’s works also show what his con- into each other using a pneumatic system. temporary William Whewell referred to Another is a snake eagle that dives down ( J. ALTERMAN (2008)/PHOTO: as “consilience”: the confluence of evi- from a height of ten metres to meet a Dura- dence from a variety of sources. As Jones cell bunny. There is a hare skull to which puts it: “The great naturalist’s lifelong I gave a new copper face. And I have five labours generated an archipelago of infor- masks with little tongues that repeat lines mation; a set of connected observations from the 1982 film Blade Runner, in which that together form a harmonious whole.” an android asks for a longer life. Time and again, Jones’s book caused me to reflect on how delighted Darwin would How did you become interested in machines have been to have had some titbit of evi- and animals? dence discovered after his death — such My grandfather was an aeroplane techni- as the fossilized bee found with a pollen cian, and as a child I worked with him in his sac attached, which sheds light on the evo- basement full of exotic parts of aeroplanes. Mechatronics gives an eagle skull new life. OISEAU! VOTRE MONSIEUR HOUDIN, N’OEBLIEZ PAS lution of plants, or the discovery of genes Then my family moved to an isolated con- for olfaction in mice. This latter finding vent in rural Portugal and I explored the my work is programming them so that they supplements Darwin’s observations of the natural surroundings. I had dreams of seem to behave naturally. C. ZWANIKKEN, importance of urine marking in mice for machines that could fly, jump and swim. choosing a mate and avoiding inbreeding. When I was at art school I had three dog What point are you trying to make? The last chapter is depressing but skulls in my studio, and I arranged them I am trying to unravel humans’ relationship important. Introduced plant and animal into a mechanical Cerberus, the many- with nature. We have rudimentary reac- species sometimes spread at the expense headed dog that guards the underworld tions to other animals, often a fight-or-flight of natives, reducing diversity, Jones notes. in classical mythology. People were really reaction. There is a dark side to my work, Similarly, our own species has become shocked by it. perhaps a warning about the loss of species. less diverse: as our ability to manipulate But I also try to merge the worlds of animal the environment has grown, the variance What technologies do and machine, so that they coexist peacefully. ) in human death rates and birth rates has you use? I try to make something that appears to be fallen, and variation within and between I use old-fashioned real, using technology to create a world that CONVENTO populations has declined because of materials such as no one has seen before. migration and intermixing. Yet this vari- cogs and wheels, ation is the key to adaptation by natural clockwork devices, What is your most recent piece? J. ALTERMAN ( J. ALTERMAN selection. electromagnetic coils My installation Scorched Earth, on show What does this say for the future? We and servos, as well until 15 August at an exhibition in Lille, know that environmental pressures will as radar and ultra- France, is a post-apocalyptic landscape in Convento require adaptation. “One day, [Darwin’s] sonic sensors. I create DIRECTED BY JARRED which all flora and fauna are extinct and machine will take its revenge,” Jones an illusion, but also ALTERMAN the remains of animals have been com- warns. “We may well fail in the struggle give away my tricks Edinburgh bined with machines to populate the world. for existence against ourselves, the big- by leaving the mech- International Film The artificial animals are autonomous, gest ecological challenge of all.” Natural anisms exposed. Festival, 19 June. intelligent and uncontrollable. Humans selection bats last. ■ Although computer- Sculptures on show exist only as a memory. The morning it 15–26 June. aided manipulation was finished, I saw the images from Japan Eugenie Scott is executive director of the of materials is getting Paranoia after the tsunami.
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