Testosterone Chronicles: — Particularly in Today’S Plagiaristic World of Social Media, with Its Immense Powers of Nar- Rative Acceleration

Books & arts graphics in Narrative Economics and those in he was also a visionary. In his essay ‘Economic attempting to “lean against false or misleading his bestselling book Irrational Exuberance Possibilities for Our Grandchildren’ (1930), narratives and establish a moral authority (2000). But the message is effective: the value he foresaw a time when our society would against them”. Roosevelt’s remark was designed of your story might go up as well as down. move beyond growth. It hasn’t happened yet to “create and disseminate counternarratives The empirical core of the book is a detailed — in spite of economist Kenneth Boulding’s that establish more rational and more pub- exploration of numerous real-life case stud- remark to the US Congress in 1973 that “any- lic-spirited economic behavior”. What Shiller ies, ranging from bimetallism (an old-fash- one who believes exponential growth can go seems to be saying is this: when ordinary ioned form of money) to bitcoin (a brand-new on forever in a finite world is either a madman human sentiment runs counter to the prevail- one), and from the Great Depression of the or an economist”. ing logic of capitalism, the state must override 1930s to the Great Recession of recent years. Shiller is clearly not a madman. But in the it. It is a deeply suspect, potentially dangerous Along the way, his anecdotes form a fascinat- course of an otherwise fascinating exploration conclusion. But it, too, demonstrates just how ing subscript. A convincing case is made, for pervasive narrative is. instance, that fears of a ‘singularity’ — a point of “It’s troubling, of course, Ultimately, Narrative Economics is an no return arising from technological advances eloquent and accessible exposition of a — are perennial. He notes numerous viral out- to be reminded that the seductive idea. It’s a particularly compelling bursts of this meme (associated with cotton rewards for creativity are hypothesis for Britain, a country still reeling mills, electricity and computers, for instance) often mislocated.” from a public referendum whose outcome was dating back to the nineteenth century. Today’s determined by viral confabulations of the most apocalyptic anxieties about a robot takeover pernicious kind. We are all “tellers of stories are nothing new and should not be heeded, of the power of story, he never once acknowl- and makers of poems”. But neither economists Shiller seems to imply. How that will turn out edges that eternal growth is itself just a nar- nor politicians can claim moral authority over remains to be seen. rative. He notes that the logic of relentless narrative truth. We must all choose carefully We learn that the mechanism through which expansion conflicts with the logic of human which stories we live by. a memorable turn of phrase goes viral can be anxiety. But he assumes that it is people who described as a form of contagion, mirroring are at fault. Narratives can have clear, moral Tim Jackson is director of the Centre for the models from epidemiology. But we are also and prudential foundations, it seems, but they Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity at persuaded that viral success depends inher- might still be cast as irrational. the University of Surrey in Guildford, UK, and ently on the messenger. Few remember that the Indeed, for Shiller, that memorable speech author of Prosperity without Growth. phrase “the only thing we have to fear is fear on the “fear of fear” shows government e-mail: [email protected] itself”, immortalized by US president Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression, was first uttered years earlier by economist Irving Fisher. It’s troubling, of course, to be reminded that the rewards for creativity are often misallocated Testosterone chronicles: — particularly in today’s plagiaristic world of social media, with its immense powers of narrative acceleration. But for me, this particular truths and tall tales example raised a deeper concern. Fear is a rational response from people whose livelihoods are under existential threat. So A book on the hormone dissects fact from fake and why would a president inveigh against it? The answer is that Roosevelt was painfully aware questions interpretations. By Randi Hutter Epstein of the implications of fear. He was addressing what the economist John Maynard Keynes (borrowing from another long-forgotten crea- n 1 June 1889, renowned neurologist sociomedical scientist Rebecca Jordan-Young tive) called the “paradox of thrift”: the tendency Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard did not write Testosterone to rehash familiar of ordinary people to curtail their consumption shocked his colleagues. Speaking tales of wacky hormone experiments of yore, in the face of economic uncertainty, and put at the Paris Society of Biology, the although this is one of a few that they include. their money into savings instead. 72-year-old announced that a slurry Their contention is that many testosterone Such behaviour is sensible, admirable even, Omade from the ground testicles of guinea pigs researchers — then and now, and intention- at the individual level. Perhaps it is so at the and dogs (injected under his skin ten times in ally or not — interpret data with blinkers on. planetary level, too: lower consumption might three weeks) made him stronger. He also noted When the facts do not fit the paradigm, the benefit the environment. But economics has a that his “jet of urine” lengthened by 25%. authors argue, findings are moulded into problem with it. As people spend less, demand is Brown-Séquard was ridiculed by his peers flawed dogma. Karkazis and Jordan-Young suppressed, prolonging the recession. The same throughout Europe for disseminating results strive to comprehend how scientific practice thing happened after the 2007–08 crisis. The with no scientific basis and promoting quack paradox of thrift was the foundation for Keynes’s youth-enhancing ‘cures’. Yet the bizarre elixir Testosterone: most famous proposal: that governments pro- found favour with members of the public An Unauthorized vide stimulus that could return the economy in the United States, United Kingdom and Biography Rebecca M. Jordan- to growth when people would not. This was the Europe — at least among men eager to recap- Young, Katrina rationale for Roosevelt’s New Deal package of ture youthful sexual prowess. As the engaging Karkazis. reforms, and the inspiration for the proposed book Testosterone explains, Brown-Séquard’s Harvard University US legislation called the Green New Deal. testimonial helped to shape future studies that Press (2019) Keynes was a pragmatist; his prescriptions linked the hormone to alleged ‘manliness’. were a response to the diseases of the day. But Anthropologist Katrina Karkazis and

SIDNEY MOULDS/SPL SIDNEY Polarized-light micrograph of crystals of testosterone.

around testosterone unfolds, and explore how precursor, DHEA, have a role in the maturation risk-taking through “weirdly narrow and also the results “circulate and morph in the world”. of ovarian cells; DHEA might boost fertility wildly divergent” behaviours, such as riding a Today, the biochemistry of this steroid hor- directly or as a mediator of oestrogen produc- motorcycle without a helmet. They cite a team mone is well known, from its daily fluctuations tion. There are chapters focusing on traits often that surveyed business students about their to its synthesis from cholesterol and occasional assumed to be associated with testosterone, entrepreneurial experience and used a saliva conversion to oestradiol, a form of oestrogen. such as athleticism. The authors also scrutinize sample to gauge their testosterone levels4. On Testosterone is known to restore sex drive the brouhaha surrounding a small psychology the basis of these dubious data, the investiga- and muscle tone among men with ailments study1 claiming that holding particular poses tors concluded that those who had the highest that reduce levels of the hormone, such as boosts testosterone production. There is a levels, coupled with family business experi- pituitary tumours. During puberty, a surge of section on parenting, thanks to studies that ence, were the most entrepreneurial. testosterone in young men typically leads to created a fleeting media buzz by claiming that When it comes to testosterone and aggres- enlargement of the muscles, penis, testes and new fathers’ testosterone plummets when sion, the authors say that some of the most rigor- prostate gland, and the emergence of second- they change nappies and do other nurturing ous studies (double-blind, placebo-controlled) ary sex characteristics. In women, testosterone chores2,3. And the authors discuss athletes who show no connection. What’s more, they write excreted by the adrenal glands and ovaries is take testosterone to boost their abilities. that even the investigators of studies that tie generally important for ovarian function and They do not dispute that injections, gels testosterone to violence acknowledge that the bone strength. or patches that send testosterone levels sky- link is inconsistent and weak. Yet the idea that Like pathologists doing a post mortem, rocketing above the norm build muscles when testosterone drives violence remains widely Karkazis and Jordan-Young dissect the remains coupled with intense training. But they are accepted and “grossly overblown”. of a selection of studies. They parse statistics sceptical about whether the hormone makes By setting the record straight, the authors and the cultural context that prompted the a large difference for every athlete. Some build on their past record. Jordan-Young research and influenced how the data were studies, they write, have found a correlation explored the evidence for putative neuro- analysed. (Full disclosure: I have served on a between high natural testosterone levels and logical sex differences in the 2011 book Brain history of medicine panel with Karkazis and, as speed and power; others show tenuous or no Storm; Karkazis demolished preconceptions medical authors writing about endocrinology, links. And a few studies link higher testosterone about people who are intersex in her 2008 our paths have crossed several times.) levels to worse performance. work Fixing Sex, which also explores the often The authors delve first into testoster- Jordan-Young and Karkazis challenge murky disturbing history of ‘treatments’ for ‘ambig- one’s role in ovulation. The hormone and its definitions. They show how researchers define uous’ genitalia.

Books & arts Although often academic in tone, the book is leavened by a welcome informality. The authors describe the link between testoster- Science by design: one and violence as a zombie: “a fact that seem- ingly can’t be killed with new research”. They personify testosterone as “T” and characterize Nature renewed their book as an “unauthorized biography”. An authorized biography, they note, “sweeps away all kinds of details and smooths over contradic- From custom typeface to digital-friendly logo, follow tions”. Theirs intends to pull back a veil that has obscured the field. the journey to the journal’s new look. By Kelly Krause Still, I sometimes wanted more. In a chapter on ovulation, they quote a woman receiving fertility treatment who thinks that a therapy hould science be ugly? This is a serious sense of humour. When she learnt that she had containing DHEA helped her to produce more question asked by serious people at a terminal illness, she apparently joked that eggs of higher quality. The authors note that seminars. Some assume that an aes- at least she wouldn’t have to buy Windows 95. the idea of testosterone aiding a woman’s thetically appealing presentation sig- Our team designed the typeface specifi- fertility has been anathema to reproductive nals at best a lack of priorities, and at cally for science, in partnership with Com- endocrinologists, but quote only one clinician. Sworst a lack of rigour. mercial Type founders Christian Schwartz That left me wondering whether other clini- I disagree. Science sorely needs best prac- in New York and Paul Barnes in London, and cians were still reluctant, or if this were part tices in visual communication as well as in with London designer Mark Porter, whom of standard treatment. I wanted to hear from information design, a mature field with quan- Nature engaged for the overall redesign. Care other fertility clinicians. titative methods. In my view, the idea that was taken to identify the needs of technical In the opening of the chapter on athleticism, scholarly publishing should be divorced from material, because scholarly articles use clas- the authors refer to a 2012 meeting with an evidence-based applications of good visual sic type styles in unique ways. For instance, endocrinologist who explains that testoster- design is perplexing. papers often have mathematical equations one rises sharply in response to intense exer- and formulae in the sub- and superscript cise, but that responses vary among athletes. “The ‘flavour’ of the typeface lines, along with Greek letters and special Then, they describe an interview with a second characters. So we have made the sub- and expert who tells them the opposite, and also — the feelings it evokes, its superscript characters larger than stand- says that some types of sports training might personality — evolved over ard, and created a Greek alphabet carefully lower testosterone. I wanted to know who these several months.” honed to convey scientific meaning rather experts were. than typical Greek-language prose — for Moreover, although Jordan-Young and Kar- example, clearly rendering an alpha (α) in a kazis are lively storytellers, every now and then Looking back over the past 150 years of shape that looks like a mathematical symbol, an anecdote doesn’t jibe with the chapter’s Nature, we see an aesthetic that bends with so that it is not easily confused with a Latin content. For example, they start the discus- time and trends, from ornate Victorian embel- italic letter a. We have also made the italics sion on risk-taking with a delightful account lishments in 1869 to stark minimalism in the more slanted so they are more distinct; sin- of 63-year-old Annie Edson Taylor, who in 1901 late 1960s. But design is not solely about how gle italic characters, such as h for Planck’s went over Niagara Falls on the US–Canadian something looks; it is also concerned with how constant, are often used as isolated symbols border in a pickle barrel. That seems a literary it works, and that understanding has never with scientific meaning. stretch: we know nothing of Taylor’s hormonal been more urgent than in the digital age. Design Harding is designed to cope across the state (except that because she was probably as a discipline exists to solve problems, and disciplines. It boasts an unusually large range postmenopausal, her testosterone would have working researchers, readers and contributors of special characters, from triple prime and been low, and her oestrogen and progesterone have many. As publishers, we’ve asked how we nabla to a full set of astronomical symbols and certainly lower than before). might assist working scientists. We have heard the ‘click’ phonemes found in some African These quibbles, however, are minor in a your pleas, many stemming from information languages. deeply researched and thoughtful book that overload and the need to pack ever more data A key consideration in Harding’s over- adds a fresh perspective to a growing body of on to small screens. all design is performance on small digital work aiming to debunk myths about hormones. So we are refreshing Nature’s look, and not screens. To boost readability in a limited just in honour of our 150th anniversary. We are space, it helps to enlarge the main portion Randi Hutter Epstein is writer in residence in the early stages of our evolution towards of the lower-case letters, while making the at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, designing for readers’ digital reality. Here is a ascenders and descenders (as in ‘h’ and ‘g’, Connecticut, and author of Aroused: The tour of what is different, and why and how we respectively) smaller. Ultimately, this ren- History of Hormones and How They Control have changed it. ders long, complex strings of words easier Just About Everything and Get Me Out: A to parse, and allows for neat stacking of History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden Typography lengthy technical research-article titles over to the Sperm Bank. A custom typeface, Harding, has been created a number of lines. e-mail: [email protected] for Nature’s new logo and much else: you’re The ‘flavour’ of the typeface — the feelings reading it right now. Harding is named after it evokes, its personality — evolved over sev- 1. Carney, D. R., Cuddy, A. J. C. & Yap, A. J. Psychol. Sci. 21, 1363–1368 (2010). the late neurologist Anita Harding. Brilliant and eral months. We initially looked at six fledg- 2. Gettler, L. T., McDade, T. W., Feranil, A. B. & Kuzawa, C. W. generous, she published in Nature before she ling concepts, each with distinct letterforms Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, 16194–16199 (2011). died in 1995 at age 42. According to colleagues, such as rounded serifs (the small strokes at 3. Storey, A. E. et al. Evol. Hum. Behav. 21, 79–95 (2000). 4. White, R. E., Thornhill, S. & Hampson, E. Organ. Behav. she was known for taking questions from the the end of letters). After we winnowed these Hum. Decision Process. 100, 21–34 (2006). clinic back into the laboratory, and for her wry down to two, Harding emerged as the clear