History Repeats Itself Is Doing a Disservice to the Astronomical Nature 381, 123 (1996)

book reviews

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The Killing of the Countryside by Graham Harvey Vintage, £7.99 Looks at the current state of farming in Britain, and makes the case for a sustainable future.

The Complete Fables of Aesop 8 Translated by Olivia and Robert Temple, with an introduction by Robert Temple Penguin, £5.99, $8.95 First English translation ever to make available the complete corpus of 358 fables. The stories provide fascinating glimpses of ordinary life in ancient Greece, and include satirical tales of alien creatures — apes, camels, lions and elephants — which presumably originated in Libya and Egypt.

The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory Sky eye: raising the superstructure of the 140-ft telescope at Green Bank in the 1960s. by David J. Chalmers Oxford University Press, £9.99 Bank Telescope, which has run into similar “Chalmers’s dualism is a very mild one and does delays in construction. I feel that the author not invoke any spooky soul-stuff”, C. Koch, History repeats itself is doing a disservice to the astronomical Nature 381, 123 (1996). The History of Radio Astronomy and community by not exploring the underlying the National Radio Astronomy issues, although I imagine that there are The Machinery of Life Observatory some who would prefer not to have such by David S. Goodsell by Benjamin K. Malphrus problems aired in public. As George San- Copernicus, $19.50 Krieger: 1996. Pp. 210. $49.50, £44.50 tayana said: “Those who cannot remember “The drawings are among the most instructive Leslie Sage the past are condemned to repeat it.” one can find in structural biology, and the The story of NRAO, and its companion mechanisms of life are elegantly explained.... As a long-time user of telescopes at the US organization at optical wavelengths (the The genius of the book is in its simplicity.... National Radio Astronomy Observatory National Optical Astronomy Observato- Important insights are stated succinctly and (NRAO), I was eager to read this book to ries), is one that deserves to be told to a wide boldly.... The most elegant mechanisms are learn more about my ‘scientific origins’. I was audience, as the two have revolutionized presented in an easily accessible but very disappointed by it; the discussion seems how astronomy is done, not just in the consistently informative way”, H. P. Erickson, shallow as both science and history. United States, but throughout the world. By Nature 365, 306 (1993). The emphasis is on the development of giving telescope time based on the scientific the NRAO site at Green Bank, West Virginia, merit of the ideas, rather than the institu- Darwin’s Dreampond: Drama in Lake along with some historical background. tional affiliation of the observer, they have Victoria Most of the text is about the (now collapsed) led to the field exploding over the past 40 by Tijs Goldschmidt 300-ft telescope and the recently closed years, and to a revolution in our knowledge MIT Press, $15 140-ft telescope, but there is a very brief of the Universe. I wish this book had done a “Goldschmidt was part of the Dutch chapter containing sections about the 36-ft better job of telling that story. haplochromine ecology survey team that telescope at Kitt Peak in Arizona, the Very Leslie Sage is an assistant editor of Nature. devoted more than 20 years to collecting baseline Large Array in New Mexico, and the new ecological, morphological, taxonomic and Green Bank Telescope, which is the replace- corrections fisheries data on the cichlids, which provide the ment for the 300-ft antenna. The Millimetre- G In I. J. Good’s review of The Conscious basic protein source for the people around Lake Wave Array is not mentioned at all. Universe by Dean Radin (Nature 389, 806; Victoria.... [His] book is both unusual and Although the author discusses exten- 1997), an editorial addition led to an eminently readable. He alternates between sively the scientific results obtained from the innaccurate statement being attributed to personal narrative... and scientific passages”, Axel older telescopes, he does so in a way so laden the author rather than to the sceptical Meyer, Nature 383, 590 (1996). with jargon that only an astronomer could psychologist Mark Hansel. The fourth understand them. Moreover, he does not sentence in the penultimate paragraph Hal’s Legacy: 2001’s Computer as explain why the results are (or at least were) should have read: “Radin quotes Hansel as Dream and Reality interesting in terms of advancing our physi- saying that three P values, each of 0.01, edited by David G. Stork, with a foreword by cal understanding of the Universe. Rather, amount to one of 10–6, and that he (Hansel) Arthur C. Clarke the discussion is about phenomenology, so would find that convincing.” MIT Press, $17.50 that even optical astronomers may some- G Some of the bibliographical details for Brings together science and pop culture. times be left in the dark about why the obser- Embryology: Constructing the Organism Contributions by various scientists include vations were made. edited by Scott F. Gilbert and Anne M. essays on supercomputer design with regard to I was struck by the lack of historical analy- Raunio (Nature 391, 857; 1998) were given speech synthesis, common-sense reasoning, sis. There are parallels between the building incorrectly. The book has 513 pages, not emotions, lip reading and chess playing. of the 140-ft telescope and the new Green 240, and is published in hardback only.

564 NATURE | VOL 392 | 9 APRIL 1998 Nature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 1998 book reviews atheoretical diagnostic language — is thus given further support. While denying that they are ‘anti- psychiatry’, Kutchins and Kirk do deplore the proliferation of psychiatric labelling, facili- tated by DSM’s ever-lengthening diagnostic list. Nowadays many groups, and not just psychiatrists, patently have an interest in translating everyday behaviours into psychiatric diseases — worry for example becomes “generalized anxiety disorder”. In this medicalization process, the wretched and the powerless are all too easily further victimized by labels that carry a last- ing stigma. One solution, of course, would be for the public acceptance, without shame, of mental disorder. But that would be crying for the moon. This is a serious and well-documented study, which casts serious doubt on the touted scientific status of DSM categories. It is also readable, although Kutchins and Kirk’s preoccupation with the day-to-day minutiae of the politics of naming may dispose some psychiatrists to see in this a case of ancient obsessional disorder. It is certainly sobering to discover just how the terms we take for truth have come into currency. Roy Porter is at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 183 Euston Road, London Body language NW1 2BE, UK. email: [email protected] Facial features of the sanguine, phlegmatic, (Oxford University Press, £18.99, $25). Vyse melancholic and choleric personality types argues that scientific analysis of differences in (clockwise from top left), taken from Johann personality traits — such as sensitivity to Lavater’s Essays on Physiognomy (1789). They coincidence, fear of failure, a need for control — Where has the billion are reproduced in Believing in Magic: The can help us to understand why superstition and trillion gone? Psychology of Superstition by Stuart A. Vyse belief in the paranormal are so prevalent today. The Conscious Universe: The nent parapsychologist. He did controlled field theory does seem to be natural in order Scientific Truth of Psychic card-guessing experiments resembling those to understand how the activities of numer- Phenomena of Rhine. At the suggestion of Whateley Car- ous neurons in a brain somehow summate. by Dean I. Radin ington, Soal examined his records, looking Perhaps psi depends on Ȣ [the Schrödinger HarperEdge: 1997. Pp. 320. $25. for ‘hits’ one ahead and one behind the guess wave function].” I. J. Good of the ‘current’ card. In one series of experi- Leaving psi aside, there are much more ments, the tail probability, or P value (the serious and technical speculations about the My friend Christopher R. Evans worked for a probability that, by chance, the outcome relationship between consciousness and time with the well-known parapsychologist would be at least as ‘extreme’ as the observed quantum fields by Stuart Hameroff and J. B. Rhine, but became a sceptic. In 1974 I outcome), was 10ǁ35 for the ‘one-aheads’, Roger Penrose, related to microtubules — invited Evans to Blacksburg, Virginia, to give thus seeming to prove the existence of pre- extremely small skeletal elements in neu- a lecture on extra-sensory perception (ESP), cognitive telepathy. rons. One could say that microtubules and picked him up at Roanoke airport. He But evidence accumulated, culminating update Descartes’ pineal gland. Penrose had travelled from London in a Boeing 727. in the ingenious detective work of Betty does not, however, mention ESP in his work The licence number of my car happened to Markwick in 1978, showing that Soal’s stud- on consciousness. be CRE 727. The probability of that ies were very probably fraudulent. Dean Taken at its face value, some of the evi- coincidence was about 1/263 ǂ 1,000 ≈ Radin, author of The Conscious Universe, dence from controlled experiments is con- 1/17,000,000. avoids mentioning Soal. clusive. But we have to allow for fraud and I have experienced three even more Radin is firmly convinced that paranor- the ‘file-drawer’ effect. Take the first of these. remarkable coincidences, one of which mal events happen. His conviction is based Even many ‘normal’ scientists have cheated, changed the course of my life. But I doubt mainly on evidence from controlled experi- as recorded by Alexander Kohn in False whether these coincidences were paranor- ments but is influenced also by the ‘non- Prophets: Fraud and Error in Science and mal because there are more than 5 million local’ phenomena of quantum mechanics. Medicine (Barnes and Noble, 1986). To that minutes a decade. Some people must have Quantum mechanics has affected many collection may be added the psychologists experienced chance coincidences with prob- people’s metaphysical speculations about who lie to their subjects and call the lying abilities of about 10ǁ14. So controlled, not consciousness and ESP. For example, some ‘experimental dissimulation’. anecdotal, observations are needed. 50 years ago, in a conversation with the Parapsychologists and psychics have In England, for about 20 years starting in prominent physicist Léon Rosenfeld about more incentive to cheat because, if their 1939, S. G. Soal was by far the most promi- subjective experiences, I said: “A [quantum] research results are uninteresting, they have

806 Nature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 1997 NATURE | VOL 389 | 23 OCTOBER 1997 book reviews less opportunity to turn to teaching. Uncon- the sigmage would be divided by √16 = 4 and precognizing of the psychics and to help their scious cheating, wishful thinking (which is would become 9.5/4 = 2.4, with a P value of evaluation. This procedure would rule out universal), unsound experimental design about 1/100. the possibility of undetectable fraud. and analysis, and seeing what we expect are Because the number of individual guesses I. J. Good is in the Department of Statistics, further pitfalls. The statistician M. G. is so large, this P value appreciably supports Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Kendall once described the phenomenon of the null hypothesis (no ESP). This is because Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0439, USA. seeing what one expects as “one of the dead- a Bayes factor (the factor by which the odds liest forms of bias in psychology”. He was of a hypothesis are multiplied in the light of referring to an experiment in which an the observations), corresponding to a fixed observer of a reliable random-number gen- P value, is roughly proportional to 1/√N, Dangerous liaisons erator had a tendency to write down too where N is the sample size. So Radin’s Menachem’s Seed many even numbers. method for evaluating the file-drawer effect, by Carl Djerassi Potentially the most important evidence whatever that method may be, must be mis- University of Georgia Press: 1997. Pp. 196. in Radin’s book is in the chapter on meta- guided. This conclusion largely undermines $21.95 analysis, which is also emphasized in the Radin’s meta-analysis which is central to his Jack Cohen introduction — and it is here that the ‘file- case for ESP. drawer’ effect comes into play. Nevertheless, Radin’s book is well written This is the third novel in a series of what the Meta-analysis is the combination of and provides a good summary of the argu- chemist Carl Djerassi calls “science-in- results from many experiments. A problem ments supporting the existence of ESP, with fiction” in which everything mentioned in meta-analysis, and in statistics generally, is about 600 references. It is less good on the could or does exist. “Most of my characters, how to allow for the researches that remain counter-arguments. Readers should also fictional as well as real, are scientists,” he unpublished and unknown because their P consult ESP and Parapsychology: A Critical says. “By exposing their lives, I try to make values did not reach a conventional signifi- Evaluation by C. E. M. Hansel (Buffalo, comprehensible the culture and behaviour cance level such as 0.05. I do not know who 1980), where much fraudulent work is of scientists.” coined the name ‘file-drawer’ effect for this exposed. Radin quotes Hansel as saying that There is a similar, specialized genre on the problem. This effect drags down the statisti- three P values, each of 0.01, amount to one of fringes of modern science fiction — stories cal significance of published work. Radin 10ǁ6, and that he (Radin) would find that about fictional scientists like fictional detec- claims that “parapsychologists were among convincing. But the product of independent tives or even fictional cowboys. Carl Sagan’s the first to become sensitive to this problem” P values is not a P value. The product has to Contact is a well known example, but — although he does not say when — and he be transformed by a method due to R. A. Gregory Benford’s Timescape or Artefact, mentions that “in 1975 the Parapsychologi- Fisher. Both Hansel and Radin have over- Greg Bear’s Blood Music, as well as Nigel cal Association’s officers adopted a policy looked this. In the present example, the com- Kneale’s older Quatermass series or even E. E. opposing the selective reporting of positive posite P value is 1/9,000, not 1/1,000,000. ‘Doc’ Smith’s archaic Lensman all come to outcomes”. The problem was known to sta- I am not a sceptic by definition. There is mind as fiction about scientists. Science-in- tisticians by 1958. one type of experiment that could convince fiction, however, seems to be less exciting Consider the following typical example. me if it were successful. Guesses, by psychics, and to have fewer possibilities. Radin points out that there were 186 publi- of the parities (even or odd) of future cricket I reviewed elsewhere the first of Djerassi’s cations on ESP card tests worldwide from scores could be published on the World Wide novels, Cantor’s Dilemma, and recom- 1882 to 1939. “The combined results of this Web. The actual scores and parities could be mended it, but with reservations: a patchy four-million trial database [taken at face published (later) in large print to help the mainstream novel about scientists. This value],” he says, “translate into tremendous odds against chance — more than a billion Toy review Smaller, cheaper, more plasticky trillion to one.” (A ‘trial’ is the guess of one card.) He means that the P value is about With Christmas still months away, and the latest operational ǁ 10 21 — he is not writing only for the scien- Mars landing already fading in the memory, it is a parameters. tific establishment. This P value corresponds good time to draw your attention to this And at $5 to a bulge above ‘chance’ expectation of 9.5 Ȝ, scientific stocking-filler. In collaboration with initial outlay where Ȝ is the standard deviation. (I call that the US Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mattel has (only a ‘sigmage’ of 9.5.) brought out the “Mattel Hot Wheels JPL available Apart from the possibility of conscious Sojourner Mars Rover Action Pack Set”. in the and unconscious fraud and wishful thinking This is a set of three small plastic models: the United in some fraction of the publications, Radin Pathfinder spacecraft in transit, with removable States, at present) claims, with no explanation, that, in order to heat shield and tiny lander; a larger-scale version it is certainly in Toy robot: the Sojourner rover model (slightly of the lander, with foldable panels and removable keeping with “nullify” the statistical significance, the file smaller than actual size). drawer would have to contain “more than rover; and a larger-scale-still Sojourner rover. NASA’s new 3,300 unpublished, unsuccessful reports for The rover is undoubtedly the star, with sprung economical each published report”. That number 3,300 is ‘rocker-bogey’ suspension that allows it to take philosophy. a gross overestimate. It should be reduced at up all sorts of cute rock-sniffing postures. But for those who hark back longingly to the least to about 15 (or even to 8). The Nature review copy of the Mattel Hot old days of expensive, ‘gold-plated’ missions, an The expected sigmage in the file drawer, Wheels JPL Sojourner Mars Rover Action Pack expensive, literally gold-plated model of under the null hypothesis, would be slightly Set has now completed its primary mission Sojourner is available (for $49.99). It “is negative but I will call it zero. If these results objectives, successfully demonstrating the mounted on a silver base plate molded to were combined with the published work, the technology involved in operating for several resemble the martian surface and has a total sample size would be multiplied by weeks on top of a computer screen in a harsh handsome brass identification plate”. Surely a 16, thus becoming 64 million individual environment of editorial curiosity, without must for every mantelpiece. guesses. Given the null hypothesis suffering any appreciable reduction in its Stephen Battersbyis an assistant editor of Nature. (‘chance’), the bulge would be unaffected so

NATURE | VOL 389 | 23 OCTOBER 1997 Nature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 1997 807 book revi e ws

methodically. A way to keep things simple is to stick to one organism at a time. This book Old embryos and contains several chapters that jump around between the seven organisms and require the new devel o p m e n t s reader to have instant recall of many names Principles of Deve l o p m e nt of genes and body parts. For this reason it by Lewis Wolpert with Rosa Beddington, may not be quite as clear as it first seems. Jeremy Brookes and Thomas Jessell Gilbert, author of the present standard Current Biology/Oxford University Press: textbook on developmental biology, has 1998. Pp. 484. £25.95, $65 found time, with Anne Raunio, to edit a E m b r yology: Constructing the completely different kind of book: Embryol - O rg a n i s m ogy: Constructing the Organism. At first sight edited by Scott F. Gilbert and the title might seem a needless risk, as every- Anne M. Raunio one knows that the word “embryology” Sinauer: 1997. Pp. 240. $69.95, £32.95(hbk), Embryologist in the making? A six-week sounds old-fashioned to American ears, and £12.99 (pbk) human embryo. in today’s cut-throat world no academic J o n athan Slack book can afford to seem old-fashioned. But basic body plan and include topics such as Gilbert has clearly planned this as a resource Twenty years ago it was possible to pick up mesoderm induction, somitogenesis and for the rapidly growing field of Evo–Devo, two textbooks of developmental biology Drosophila developmental genetics. Then because it is a phylum-by-phylum account of written by different authors and find almost there is a quick gallop through selected topics the descriptive embryology of animals. no common ground in the contents. That in a variety of non-Drosophila invertebrates ‘Descriptive embryology’ is what people was because, as recently as the 1970s, there and plants, before a return to vertebrates for used to do in the nineteenth century, before were profound disagreements about what various subjects including morphogenetics ‘experimental embryology’ was invented, the basic questions of development actually movements, cell differentiation, sex deter- and it means just describing what you can see were, and what sort of things we might mination and neuronal development. I was happening down the microscope. This may accept as a satisfactory explanation. surprised to find that “organogenesis” con- sound very boring, but in fact it grows on To some, it was all about the nuts and sists almost entirely of the limb and you, and nobody can possibly understand bolts of the control of gene expression, to Drosophila discs, as there are, after all, a lot of anything about the development of an others it was all about cell movement, and organs in the vertebrate body apart from the organism without a firm grasp of its descrip- there was even a small group to whom it was limb. As usual, the last chapter deals with the tive embryology. In the past, anyone who really a matter of guarding the true faith of evolution of developmental mechanisms, wanted to know about this in an animal classical experimental embryology, in the known in the trade as “Evo–Devo”. other than the six models had to find a copy hope that future generations would have the The book uses a consistent style of of Kumé and Dan’s Invertebrate Embryology means to solve the problems. coloured illustration throughout that is (1957), which was almost unobtainable until But those days are gone and the basic prob- the hallmark of the co-publisher Current it was reprinted by Garland in 1988, and is le ms are now solved, at least in prin c i p l e . Biology. These figures are mainly very clear once again out of print. Today, when we pick up a textbook and flip and attractive, although in a few places the Gilbert’s book covers all the major animal through it, we find pretty much what we number and brightness of colours can phyla and also some of the minor ones for expect to find. This consensus means that the impede appreciation of the content. which the available information is hardly subject has reached maturity. In the past 20 Students often find developmental sufficient for a whole chapter (such as the years we have understood things that were biology difficult. This is partly because they lophophorate phyla). The approach is previously mysterious, and we understand now tend to have a poor knowledge of animal fiercely comparative, so the chapter about them well enough to have some confidence structure, so the necessary minimum of insects does not dwell too long on Droso- in relaying the findings to undergraduates. descriptive morphology is all totally new phila, and that about mammals finds space Lewis Wolpert and his co-authors have to them. It is also because developmental for monotremes and marsupials as well as been at the forefront of the revolution that biology is essentially a synthesis of anatomy, the mouse. There is even a token chapter on has brought the subject so far. Principles of molecular biology and genetics. Students are plants, which does not confine itself to Development is an ambitious attempt to cap- used to learning one thing at a time, and it Arabidopsis but mentions bryophytes and ture the world undergraduate market from can be confusing to jump from a genetic pteridophytes as well. the main competition, Scott Gilbert’s Devel - cross to a signal transduction pathway to an Although entirely in black and white, the opmental Biology, now in its fifth edition. In altered anatomy all in a few minutes. illustrations are excellent and make this an this regard he has the advantage of starting Wolpert has taken great care to make attractive book. Because of its vast scope it afresh, whereas Gilbert’s book has evolved things as clear and simple as he can but the contains a lot of very interesting stuff. I am from a first edition written when the subject subject is still challenging. To take a random always impressed by our ignorance of the was in a far less secure state. As someone who example: “As a result of Toll receptor activa- mechanisms of asexual reproduction by has recently had to design some undergradu- tion cactus protein is degraded and no longer budding, as enjoyed by many cnidarians, ate courses, I think Wolpert has done well, binds the dorsal protein, which is then free to bryozoans and tunicates. This is a problem both in relation to the selection of which top- enter the nuclei. In embryos lacking cactus unsolved even in principle. I am also amazed ics to include and in the level of detail at protein almost all the dorsal protein is found by my own ignorance of so many things which they are presented. in the nuclei; there is a very poor concentra- known to other people, but thanks to Gilbert The book starts by introducing the model tion gradient and the embryos are ventral- I am now at least acquainted with the “grop- organisms on which most developmental ized.” A research developmental biologist ing penis” of the barnacle. biology research is done: Xenopus, the chick, will absorb such a sentence immediately, but I am struck by the fact that, despite the the mouse, the zebrafish, Drosophila, a student busy with other subjects from relative obscurity of its contents, the book is Caenorhabditis elegans and Arabidopsis. The receptor biochemistry to animal behaviour fairly easy reading compared with Wolpert’s, next few chapters cover the formation of the needs to have it unpacked slowly and as there is no need here to understand the

NATURE | VOL 391| 26 FEBRUARY 1998 857 book revi e ws complex genetic pathways involving repres- sion of repressors. Students who find modern developmental biology difficult would find it a lot easier if they had mastered this material first. So logically they should be required to take a course in descriptive animal embryology using Gilbert’s book, and then progress to developmental biology I and II using Wolpert’s. However, the appetite for animal structure in most places is so small that I suspect this could happen only in universities with a very strong zoology programme. In most places Gilbert’s book is likely to be relegated to small but eager graduate classes studying Evo–Devo. Still, as the authors claim in the preface, this is a “timeless” book and it will still be useful when fashions change. Jonathan Slack is in the Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK.

The great elusionist The Elusive Neutrino: A Subato m i c D ete c t i ve Sto r y by Nickolas Solomey W. H. Freeman/Scientific American Library: Image-makers: tracks left by the many different particles produced in a neutrino reaction. 1997. Pp. 206. $34.95, £19.95 Stephen Batte r s b y and six types of qua r k interact by excha n gi n g Another problem is that, like beta decay, var ious force- c a r rying partic les. And neutri- parts of the book do not add up: vital parti- The manner in whi c h a noth i n g - pa r tic le no astrono my has produc ed res ults: a puz- cles of meaning seem to be escaping unde- was first relu ct a n t l y propos ed and then zling deficit of obs e rved neutrinos from the tectably. Explanations are routinely let down triu m p h a n t l y displa yed is one of the trul y Sun is well establi s h e d, and, as Asi m o v hoped, by the language. It is not just a matter of dis- excit ing adventu r es of scien ce . ne utrinos have been seen from a sup erno va tracting infelicities (“somewhat close prox- (in 1987). imity”, “not as fully complete”, “was This is from Isaac Asimov’s The Neutrino In the past couple of yea r s, there have even impinged on the fluorescent screen”); it is (1966), an early predecessor of Nickolas been hints that neutrinos have mass, a prop- often language careless enough to confuse or Solomey’s new book, The Elusive Neutrino. erty that could explain the solar neutrin o misinform the lay reader. Asimov does tell an exciting story, speeding deficit and the large-scale struc tur e of the In the introduction, Solomey mentions through much of the history of science to Uni verse and would cons ti t ute a step beyond the electron, proton and neutron, and then explain what conservation laws are and why the Standard Model. “particles that are even more elementary: they are important. Only then does he In The Elusive Neut rin o , Sol om ey ’ s goal s quarks and leptons”. The electron is a lepton, describe how three such laws — the conser- ar e neces s a ri l y grea t er than Asi m ov ’ s beca u s e so here it is rendered more elementary than vation of energy, momentum and angular of these hug e advan c es in our underst a n d i n g . itself. Time reversal for macroscopic objects momentum — led Wolfgang Pauli to postu- In any case, Asi m o v has few peers as a scienc e is “forbidden outright” (to contrast with late the existence of the neutrino in 1931. writ er, so it is unfair to comp a r e the new book “might not be plausible” for particles) and The biggest problem of the day in particle with the earli e r. Unf a i r , but irres i s ti bl e . then in the next parag raph becomes “not a physics was that the energy and momentum More than halfway though The Neutrino plausible occurrence”. Later we read that sums in beta decay (a form of radioactivity) comes chapter seven, “Enter the neutrino”. “Because [random number generators] didn’t add up. Pauli realized that the problem At that point in the proofs, Asimov’s editor never repeat a sequence of numbers, they are could be solved by assuming that a new parti- wrote “At last!”. But that’s the way it stayed. as unpredictable as a roulette wheel”. That is cle was escaping undetected from experi- Solomey’s book might have benefited from just nonsense. ments, carrying away energy, momentum similar restraint. Asimov knew that his read- The book is wide-ranging and, for the and angular momentum, but with no charge ers needed educating before they could most part, informative — enough to make it and little or no mass. The neutrino (little understand the significance of the neutrino, fairly interesting. The only parts I found dull neutral one) came to be a vital part of particle as shown by his chapter titles: “Momentum”, might reasonab ly interest an experimental physics, and eventually any lingering dis- “E n er gy ” , “Atomic struc tur e”, “Mas s - en er gy ” , physicist: Solomey is meticulous in appor- comfort at this ‘cheat’ was removed when “Electric charge”. Solomey, instead, skates tioning credit for the various discoveries, physicists detected the particle directly. That over the basics in chapter one, getting all the and he describes scores of experiments in detection paved the way for neutrino astron- way to Fermi’s four-point theory of beta detail. He also discusses many of the experi- omy, which was just beginning in 1966. decay. Then in chapter two he plunges ments that got it wrong, or were not sensitive In the 30 yea r s since Asi m ov ’ s book, a revo- straight into one of the more speculative enough to be definitive. Surely two or three lutio n in fundamental physics has taken place. topics in the book, “Cosmology and the neu- of these would have been enough to make In the Standard Model of partic le physi c s , trino mass”. Perhaps Solomey thought a long the point that science is a messy process? th r ee types of neutrin o , three types of ele ctron introduction would bore the reader. Stephen Battersby is an assistant editor at Nature.

858 NATURE | VOL 391| 26 FEBRUARY 1998 book reviews petrology, microscopy and tree-ring studies. doctors later confidently recall seeing female Every step of the way Dillehay has antici- nurses and male doctors. Those writing pop- New in paperback pated possible objections and been careful to ular books on psychological sex differences explain, describe and evaluate not only his often seem to have similar problems with One River: Science, Adventure and methodology but also the smallest category remembering research findings. Hallucinogenics in the Amazon Basin of potential evidence. For example, no less The book relies heavily on theories from by Wade Davis than 1,461 pieces of charcoal were examined evolutionary psychology. These theories are Simon and Schuster, £7.99 for spatial distribution, degree of charring difficult to test empirically and are particu- Reviewed in Nature 384, 229 (1996) and identification, where possible, of wood larly prone to contamination by gender taxa. This level of recording yielded valuable schemas. They seem sensible only because The Conscious Mind 8 insights into the selection of specific kinds of they correspond to popular preconceptions. by David J. Chalmers wood for fuel, and the use of fire for cooking, For instance, Blum describes a theory that Oxford University Press, £9.99 heating and tool manufacture. men prefer blondes because men are evolu- Reviewed in Nature 381, 123 (1996) From such detail comes the realization tionarily predisposed to prefer youthful that Monte Verde is one of those rare books mates, and blondness is a sign of youth. But Humphry Davy: Science and Power that, as an impressive and influential schol- the blondness of youth usually disappears by by David Knight arly achievement, set a benchmark for all puberty. Cambridge University Press, £16.95, $27.95 future work. If preference for blondes reflects an Reviewed in Nature 359, 785 (1992) Nicholas J. Saunders is in the Department of evolutionary predisposition to youthful Anthropology, University College London, Gower mates, men would be predisposed to pae- Infinite Potential: The Life and Times Street, London WC1E 6BT, and the Department of dophilia. If this suggestion seems more of David Bohm Archaeology, University of Southampton, absurd than the original, it is because pre- by F. David Peat Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK. vailing gender schemas suggest that men Helix, $16 have innate preferences for young women Reviewed in Nature 385, 592 (1997) but not children. The book also suffers from a failure to The End of the World: The Science and The trouble with sex screen information for reliability. Every- Ethics of Human Extinction Sex on the Brain: The Biological thing, from replication of results in refereed by John Leslie Differences Between Men and journals, through presentations and com- Routledge, £9.99 Women ments at scientific conferences, to reports in Reviewed in Nature 380, 296 (1996); see also by Deborah Blum the popular press, is given equal credibility. Nature 387, 338 (1997) Viking: 1997. Pp. 329. $24.95 This casual approach to facts, combined with Melissa Hines phrases like “those nitpicky cell-counting Catastrophism: Asteroids, Comets, studies”, left me feeling as if I had eaten too and Other Dynamic Events in Earth It is hard to write a good book about psycho- much junk food. History logical sex differences. The topic is relevant Some might argue that accuracy is unim- by Richard Huggett to attitudes and social policy in many areas, portant, because a popular book can stimu- Verso, £14, $19 including who should take primary respon- late interest in a research area. But facts do Original 1990 edition reviewed in Nature 345, sibility for childcare, whether education matter. Take again the supposed androgen- 778 (1990) should differ for girls and boys, whether laws induced predisposition to mathematical should prohibit certain sexual practices, and ability. Research into attitudes and perfor- Bats: Biology and Behaviour to what extent choice of occupation is dictated mance shows that an assumption of inability by John D. Altringham by sex. can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. This Oxford University Press, £17.99 The scope of this book is broad. For a gen- misinformation itself could therefore impair eral idea of its factual accuracy, I looked at its mathematical performance in girls and coverage of my own research areas: sex dif- women. Corrections ferences in the human brain and the role of Research into psychological sexual differ- G The full list of co-authors of Principles androgen and oestrogen in shaping gender entiation has produced surprising findings of Development by Lewis Wolpert development. Here the disappointment that sometimes contradict prevailing gender (reviewed in Nature 391, 857; 1998) began. schemas. For instance, although we think of should have read: Rosa Beddington, A simple example is whether prenatal sex as being determined by the sex chromo- Jeremy Brockes, Thomas Jessell, Peter exposure to high concentrations of andro- somes (XX or XY), their role is minor com- Lawrence and Elliot Meyerowitz. gen (‘male’ hormone) improves mathemati- pared with that of gonadal hormones. Also, G Some lines dropped off Derek cal ability. In this book Deborah Blum says although hormones from the male gonads Fordham’s review of Nansen (Nature that it does, suggesting that prenatal brain are essential for masculine development, 391, 137; 1998). The sixth paragraph programming by hormones causes males to hormones from the female gonads have rela- should start: “When it became clear the excel at mathematics. But the only two exist- tively little influence on feminine psycholog- Fram would not drift over the North ing studies of the relationship between pre- ical development. Even more remarkably, Pole, Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen left natal androgen and mathematical ability what we think of as the major ‘female’ hor- the ice-locked vessel at latitude 84º 4’ found impaired ability. mone, oestrogen, can have powerful mas- and attempted to reach the pole over The trouble with sex is that people, scien- culinizing influences during development. the ice. They turned back at latitude 86º tists and non-scientists alike, have their own For further information consult scientific 14’, having established a new farthest- theories about how men and women differ. publications, but mind your gender north record...”. Developmental psychologists call these the- schemas. G In the review of Next of Kin (Nature ories ‘gender schemas’ and find that they Melissa Hines is in the Department of Psychology, 390, 246; 1997), an editorial change influence memory. For example, children City University, Northampton Square, London rendered the fictitious veterinarian “Dr shown pictures of male nurses and female EC1V 0HB, UK. Dolittle” (John) as “Dr Doolittle” (Eliza).

146 NATURE | VOL 392 | 12 MARCH 1998 Nature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 1998 book reviews

methodically. A way to keep things simple is to stick to one organism at a time. This book Old embryos and contains several chapters that jump around between the seven organisms and require the new developments reader to have instant recall of many names Principles of Development of genes and body parts. For this reason it by Lewis Wolpert with Rosa Beddington, may not be quite as clear as it first seems. FORMAT/NESTLE/SPL PETIT Gilbert, author of the present standard Jeremy Brookes and Thomas Jessell Current Biology/Oxford University Press: textbook on developmental biology, has 1998. Pp. 484. £25.95, $65 found time, with Anne Raunio, to edit8 a Embryology: Constructing the completely different kind of book: Embryol- Organism ogy: Constructing the Organism. At first sight edited by Scott F. Gilbert and the title might seem a needless risk, as every- Anne M. Raunio one knows that the word “embryology” Sinauer: 1997. Pp. 240. $69.95, £32.95(hbk), Embryologist in the making? A six-week sounds old-fashioned to American ears, and £12.99 (pbk) human embryo. in today’s cut-throat world no academic Jonathan Slack book can afford to seem old-fashioned. But basic body plan and include topics such as Gilbert has clearly planned this as a resource Twenty years ago it was possible to pick up mesoderm induction, somitogenesis and for the rapidly growing field of Evo–Devo, two textbooks of developmental biology Drosophila developmental genetics. Then because it is a phylum-by-phylum account of written by different authors and find almost there is a quick gallop through selected topics the descriptive embryology of animals. no common ground in the contents. That in a variety of non-Drosophila invertebrates ‘Descriptive embryology’ is what people was because, as recently as the 1970s, there and plants, before a return to vertebrates for used to do in the nineteenth century, before were profound disagreements about what various subjects including morphogenetics ‘experimental embryology’ was invented, the basic questions of development actually movements, cell differentiation, sex deter- and it means just describing what you can see were, and what sort of things we might mination and neuronal development. I was happening down the microscope. This may accept as a satisfactory explanation. surprised to find that “organogenesis” con- sound very boring, but in fact it grows on To some, it was all about the nuts and sists almost entirely of the limb and you, and nobody can possibly understand bolts of the control of gene expression, to Drosophila discs, as there are, after all, a lot of anything about the development of an others it was all about cell movement, and organs in the vertebrate body apart from the organism without a firm grasp of its descrip- there was even a small group to whom it was limb. As usual, the last chapter deals with the tive embryology. In the past, anyone who really a matter of guarding the true faith of evolution of developmental mechanisms, wanted to know about this in an animal classical experimental embryology, in the known in the trade as “Evo–Devo”. other than the six models had to find a copy hope that future generations would have the The book uses a consistent style of of Kumé and Dan’s Invertebrate Embryology means to solve the problems. coloured illustration throughout that is (1957), which was almost unobtainable until But those days are gone and the basic prob- the hallmark of the co-publisher Current it was reprinted by Garland in 1988, and is lems are now solved, at least in principle. Biology. These figures are mainly very clear once again out of print. Today, when we pick up a textbook and flip and attractive, although in a few places the Gilbert’s book covers all the major animal through it, we find pretty much what we number and brightness of colours can phyla and also some of the minor ones for expect to find. This consensus means that the impede appreciation of the content. which the available information is hardly subject has reached maturity. In the past 20 Students often find developmental sufficient for a whole chapter (such as the years we have understood things that were biology difficult. This is partly because they lophophorate phyla). The approach is previously mysterious, and we understand now tend to have a poor knowledge of animal fiercely comparative, so the chapter about them well enough to have some confidence structure, so the necessary minimum of insects does not dwell too long on Droso- in relaying the findings to undergraduates. descriptive morphology is all totally new phila, and that about mammals finds space Lewis Wolpert and his co-authors have to them. It is also because developmental for monotremes and marsupials as well as been at the forefront of the revolution that biology is essentially a synthesis of anatomy, the mouse. There is even a token chapter on has brought the subject so far. Principles of molecular biology and genetics. Students are plants, which does not confine itself to Development is an ambitious attempt to cap- used to learning one thing at a time, and it Arabidopsis but mentions bryophytes and ture the world undergraduate market from can be confusing to jump from a genetic pteridophytes as well. the main competition, Scott Gilbert’s Devel- cross to a signal transduction pathway to an Although entirely in black and white, the opmental Biology, now in its fifth edition. In altered anatomy all in a few minutes. illustrations are excellent and make this an this regard he has the advantage of starting Wolpert has taken great care to make attractive book. Because of its vast scope it afresh, whereas Gilbert’s book has evolved things as clear and simple as he can but the contains a lot of very interesting stuff. I am from a first edition written when the subject subject is still challenging. To take a random always impressed by our ignorance of the was in a far less secure state. As someone who example: “As a result of Toll receptor activa- mechanisms of asexual reproduction by has recently had to design some undergradu- tion cactus protein is degraded and no longer budding, as enjoyed by many cnidarians, ate courses, I think Wolpert has done well, binds the dorsal protein, which is then free to bryozoans and tunicates. This is a problem both in relation to the selection of which top- enter the nuclei. In embryos lacking cactus unsolved even in principle. I am also amazed ics to include and in the level of detail at protein almost all the dorsal protein is found by my own ignorance of so many things which they are presented. in the nuclei; there is a very poor concentra- known to other people, but thanks to Gilbert The book starts by introducing the model tion gradient and the embryos are ventral- I am now at least acquainted with the “grop- organisms on which most developmental ized.” A research developmental biologist ing penis” of the barnacle. biology research is done: Xenopus, the chick, will absorb such a sentence immediately, but I am struck by the fact that, despite the the mouse, the zebrafish, Drosophila, a student busy with other subjects from relative obscurity of its contents, the book is Caenorhabditis elegans and Arabidopsis. The receptor biochemistry to animal behaviour fairly easy reading compared with Wolpert’s, next few chapters cover the formation of the needs to have it unpacked slowly and as there is no need here to understand the

NATURE | VOL 391 | 26 FEBRUARY 1998 857 Nature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 1998 book reviews complex genetic pathways involving repres- sion of repressors. Students who find modern developmental biology difficult would find it a lot easier if they had mastered this material first. So logically they should be required to take a course in descriptive animal embryology using Gilbert’s book, and then progress to developmental biology I and II using Wolpert’s. However, the appetite for animal struc- 8 ture in most places is so small that I suspect this could happen only in universities with a very strong zoology programme. In most places Gilbert’s book is likely to be relegated to small but eager graduate classes studying Evo–Devo. Still, as the authors claim in the preface, this is a “timeless” book and it will still be useful when fashions change. Jonathan Slack is in the Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK.

The great elusionist The Elusive Neutrino: A Subatomic Detective Story by Nickolas Solomey W. H. Freeman/Scientific American Library: Image-makers: tracks left by the many different particles produced in a neutrino reaction. 1997. Pp. 206. $34.95, £19.95 Stephen Battersby and six types of quark interact by exchanging Another problem is that, like beta decay, various force-carrying particles. And neutri- parts of the book do not add up: vital parti- The manner in which a nothing-particle no astronomy has produced results: a puz- cles of meaning seem to be escaping unde- was first reluctantly proposed and then zling deficit of observed neutrinos from the tectably. Explanations are routinely let down triumphantly displayed is one of the truly Sun is well established, and, as Asimov hoped, by the language. It is not just a matter of dis- exciting adventures of science. neutrinos have been seen from a supernova tracting infelicities (“somewhat close prox- (in 1987). imity”, “not as fully complete”, “was This is from Isaac Asimov’s The Neutrino In the past couple of years, there have even impinged on the fluorescent screen”); it is (1966), an early predecessor of Nickolas been hints that neutrinos have mass, a prop- often language careless enough to confuse or Solomey’s new book, The Elusive Neutrino. erty that could explain the solar neutrino misinform the lay reader. Asimov does tell an exciting story, speeding deficit and the large-scale structure of the In the introduction, Solomey mentions through much of the history of science to Universe and would constitute a step beyond the electron, proton and neutron, and then explain what conservation laws are and why the Standard Model. “particles that are even more elementary: they are important. Only then does he In The Elusive Neutrino, Solomey’s goals quarks and leptons”. The electron is a lepton, describe how three such laws — the conser- are necessarily greater than Asimov’s because so here it is rendered more elementary than vation of energy, momentum and angular of these huge advances in our understanding. itself. Time reversal for macroscopic objects momentum — led Wolfgang Pauli to postu- In any case, Asimov has few peers as a science is “forbidden outright” (to contrast with late the existence of the neutrino in 1931. writer, so it is unfair to compare the new book “might not be plausible” for particles) and The biggest problem of the day in particle with the earlier. Unfair, but irresistible. then in the next paragraph becomes “not a physics was that the energy and momentum More than halfway though The Neutrino plausible occurrence”. Later we read that sums in beta decay (a form of radioactivity) comes chapter seven, “Enter the neutrino”. “Because [random number generators] didn’t add up. Pauli realized that the problem At that point in the proofs, Asimov’s editor never repeat a sequence of numbers, they are could be solved by assuming that a new parti- wrote “At last!”. But that’s the way it stayed. as unpredictable as a roulette wheel”. That is cle was escaping undetected from experi- Solomey’s book might have benefited from just nonsense. ments, carrying away energy, momentum similar restraint. Asimov knew that his read- The book is wide-ranging and, for the and angular momentum, but with no charge ers needed educating before they could most part, informative — enough to make it and little or no mass. The neutrino (little understand the significance of the neutrino, fairly interesting. The only parts I found dull neutral one) came to be a vital part of particle as shown by his chapter titles: “Momentum”, might reasonably interest an experimental physics, and eventually any lingering dis- “Energy”, “Atomic structure”, “Mass-energy”, physicist: Solomey is meticulous in appor- comfort at this ‘cheat’ was removed when “Electric charge”. Solomey, instead, skates tioning credit for the various discoveries, physicists detected the particle directly. That over the basics in chapter one, getting all the and he describes scores of experiments in detection paved the way for neutrino astron- way to Fermi’s four-point theory of beta detail. He also discusses many of the experi- omy, which was just beginning in 1966. decay. Then in chapter two he plunges ments that got it wrong, or were not sensitive In the 30 years since Asimov’s book, a revo- straight into one of the more speculative enough to be definitive. Surely two or three lution in fundamental physics has taken place. topics in the book, “Cosmology and the neu- of these would have been enough to make In the Standard Model of particle physics, trino mass”. Perhaps Solomey thought a long the point that science is a messy process? three types of neutrino, three types of electron introduction would bore the reader. Stephen Battersby is an assistant editor at Nature.

Nansen: The Explorer as Hero by Roland Huntford Duckworth: 1997. Pp.598. £25

Derek Fordham “Strange there is always sadness on depar- 8 ture. It is as if I cannot after all bear to leave this bleak waste of ice, glacier, cold and toil.” Fridtjof Nansen’s sentiments when he returned in 1896 from his journey across the Arctic Ocean reveal something of the restless melancholic nature of this outstanding explorer and statesman, the subject of Roland Huntford’s latest work in a series that has so far included Roald Amundsen, Robert Scott and Ernest Shackleton. Nansen had already made the first crossing of Greenland in 1888, and began his rise from being a moderately successful career scientist, researching into the central nervous system, to becoming one of the great innovators who changed the face of polar exploration. He was at his best when he elected to strike across Greenland from the virtually unknown east coast, thereby elimi- nating any temptation to turn back, with “Death or the west coast” as his motto. Suspended between snow and sky in the unknown white heart of Greenland, his expedition marked a revolution in the concept of exploration. The Victorian romantic ideal of enduring suffering as accomplish- ment was superseded by what Nansen called merely “a ski trip”. In Norway he was borne along on a wave of national fervour, and within 18 months he had married, under- taken several lecture tours, written The First Crossing of Greenland, and begun to plan his next expedition. The North Pole was the next objective, and Nansen stood a reigning concept on its head by planning to deliberately freeze a specially designed boat, the Fram, into the ice north of Siberia and then be carried by the transpolar drift over the North Pole. He felt he would thus “take note of the forces of nature and work with them”. This was a dangerous and lengthy project, and Huntford meticulously shows how Nansen’s turbulent, unpredictable nature Nansen and his wife Eva, pictured soon after their marriage, not in the Arctic but in a studio pose. seriously threatened harmony on board Fram, but was balanced by the steadfastness raising, hazardous journey of nearly 400 west where they thought Spitsbergen and of Otto Sverdrup, his companion from miles across the shifting, breaking ice of the salvation lay. Greenland and the ship’s master. They were Arctic Ocean towards Franz Josef Land, the Dogs were heard, a man was seen, and characters defined by the distinction position of which had not yet been precisely Nansen met Frederick Jackson, leader of between personality and leadership. Nansen established. the North Pole expedition sponsored by was the man with drive, Sverdrup with the With no idea where they were when they the English newspaper magnate Albert talent for command. found land, Nansen and Johansen built a Harmsworth, in an Arctic version of the When it became clear that Fram would windowless stone hut in which a hibernatory encounter between Stanley and Livingstone. not drift over the North Pole, Nansen and third polar winter was spent, still sharing the Against all odds, Nansen had turned defeat Hjalmar Johansen left the ice-locked vessel at same sleeping-bag and still not on first-name into victory. Since leaving Fram, he and latitude 84˚ 14፱, having established a new terms. In the spring of 1896 some basic Johansen had travelled 700 miles across the farthest-north record, and began a hair- instinct drove them south rather than to the polar ice and had met Jackson just before NATURE | VOL 391 | 8 JANUARY 1998 Nature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 1998 137 book reviews

ent persuasion. The authors have created a scientific–literary genre, as well as a new subfield of psychology. Academics in other specializations are advised to leaf through at least one of these volumes before going to lunch at the faculty club. Would it not be mildly embarrassing to be found ignorant of evolutionary psychology? Evolution in Mind is as good a point of entry as any, indeed it has been written pre-8 cisely for this purpose. Plotkin is a leading exponent of the philosophical school known as ‘evolutionary epistemology’ (that is, the evolution of knowledge) and has proved in the past, in more scholarly works, to be the kind of experimental psychologist who feels perfectly at ease conversing with the giants of philosophy. His new work is terse and engag- ing, avoiding not only details and technicali- ties but also sensationalism and flippancy. It is, in a way, a concise encyclopaedia of psychology — if by psychology one means In the summer of 1894, Nansen’s vessel Fram is still heading north, destined to fall short of the pole. the natural science of the mind, with a strong emphasis on the word natural. attempting the crossing to Spitsbergen could, when he chose, inspire them. Having According to Plotkin, the theory of evo- which they might well not have survived. made an Arctic journey without equal, he lution is the Atlantis of psychology. After the Regarding his farthest-north record as opened the age of modern polar exploration death of William James, a whole Darwinian under threat, Nansen was anxious to capital- and inspired his successors. He was the stuff continent has been lost for psychology, and ize on it as quickly as possible, and lecture tour of Columbus, Magellan and the Vikings of has to be made to resurface. The evolution- followed lecture tour. His absences, following old. His tragedy was that he was born out of ary geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky used his three years in the Arctic, did nothing to place and out of time. to say that nothing in biology makes sense re-establish relations with his wife. Nansen emerges, as have so many of the except in the light of evolution. Plotkin Then in 1900 came the news he had great explorers, as a very complex character. modifies this motto slightly, claiming that dreaded, that the Italian explorer Amadeo He was much more than the “explorer as “in psychology nothing makes complete had reached 86˚ 33፱north. Nansen’s farthest- hero” of the subtitle. Of Nansen it could sense except in the light of evolution” (his north record had stood for only five years. He surely be more accurately said “the elements emphasis). By judiciously grafting selfish- suffered a further blow when Amundsen so mixed in him that nature might stand up gene theory, game theory, behavioural ecol- reached the South Pole — the objective to all the world and say, ‘This was a man!’ ”. ogy and neural networks onto mainstream Amundsen had set himself — for, despite the Derek Fordham is at 66 Ashburnham Grove, cognitive science, he provides a fine intro- acclaim Nansen received, he had not reached Greenwich, London SE10 8UJ, UK. ductory textbook not only to evolutionary his own objective, the North Pole. At the age psychology but also to modern psychology of 40 he needed a role. in general. He left the world of his Arctic triumphs I, for one, siding more with structurally and, in between various romantic affairs, Mental devices oriented modularity theorists such as Noam entered a tumbling kaleidoscope of diplo- Evolution in Mind Chomsky and Jerry Fodor (who hold that macy and statesmanship of ever-increasing by Henry Plotkin our cognitive abilities are products of innate complexity. Norwegian independence, the Allen Lane: 1997. Pp. 276. £25 organs of mind, and whose work the book League of Nations food and refugee relief Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini brilliantly expounds), disagree with Plotkin and repatriation of prisoners of war all fell on only two crucial points. First, because the into the hands of this great Viking statesman. The name of the game in cognitive science modularity of mind seems to be not only Despite all the international machinations today is evolutionary psychology. In addi- true, but also arguably (as Plotkin stresses) associated with this work, and the accompa- tion to Henry Plotkin’s new book, recent the most important discovery of modern nying encounters with Lenin, Trotsky and years have seen the publication of many cognitive science, there is no justification for Stalin, Nansen’s integrity and stature accomplished popularizations of the field, his alignment with authors who for some enabled him to achieve much and brought including Steven Pinker’s How the Mind reason desire to go ‘beyond’ modularity, him the Nobel peace prize in 1922. Works, Terrence Deacon’s The Symbolic even at the price of smuggling back useless A few years before his death in 1930 he was Species, Michael Gazzaniga’s Nature's Mind, remnants of the defeated theory of ‘general elected rector of St Andrew’s University in Daniel Dennett’s Darwin’s Dangerous Idea intelligence’. Scotland. In his inaugural address he fondly and Kinds of Minds, and Richard Dawkins’ Second, we are still waiting for an reminisced about his Arctic days and quoted Climbing Mount Improbable. These authors example of genuine psychological explana- Henrik Ibsen’s dictum “that man is strongest cite one another frequently, being close allies tion that descends easily from evolutionary who stands alone”. Huntford brings vividly to and, in some cases, personal friends. The list insights but would remain inaccessible to life the enigma of a man who stood alone in so is by no means exhaustive, and ignores pro- mainstream structural–computational cog- many ways as a giant among men but was fessional papers in the specialized journals. nitive science. Leda Cosmides and John unsure enough of himself to describe his Most of these books are well crafted, often Tooby, two largely unsung heroes of nature as “a chaos of disharmony”. crisp, at times peppy, and occasionally Plotkin’s book, have tried hard to account Nansen was not a leader of men but he infuriating to cognitive scientists of a differ- for our strange and spontaneous conditional 138 Nature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 1998 NATURE | VOL 391 | 8 JANUARY 1998 book reviews

Jupiter missiles within a matter of months. ogy with the ground-breaking research of Robert Kennedy insisted to Dobrynin that Allen and Beatrix Gardner and their newly this assurance should remain secret and that, Ape people acquired chimpanzee, Washoe. if the Soviet Union made it public, the assur- Next of Kin: What Chimpanzees The Gardners began a research pro- ance would be withdrawn. President Have Taught Me About Who We Are gramme designed to reveal the linguistic Kennedy was thus able to earn a reputation by Roger Fouts with Stephen Tukel Mills potential of chimpanzees, specifically the for toughness while showing flexibility and a Morrow: 1997. Pp. 420. $25 ability to learn words in American sign lan- willingness to compromise. The agreement Marc D. Hauser guage (ASL) and to string them together into on the Jupiters remained secret for many novel, syntactically structured sentences. years — although the missiles were removed The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein Fouts’s apprenticeship involved caring for in 1963. argued that even if lions could speak we Washoe, treating her like a human child — President Kennedy did not believe that wouldn’t understand them. The psycholo- albeit a deaf child who needed to learn ASL Khrushchev wanted war, any more than he gist David Premack mused that even if chick- rather than spoken language. The job turned did himself. He believed that Khrushchev ens had syntax, they’d have nothing interest- into a life-long passion and led to a fervent wanted to redress the nuclear balance to put ing to say. But what if both these arguments interest in the care and well-being of captive pressure on the Western powers in Berlin. In are wrong, leaving the possibility that, like the animals. recent years the most common interpreta- fictitious veterinarian Dr Doolittle, we can In the late 1960s and early 1970s, several tion has been that Khrushchev wanted to talk to animals and learn interesting things research programmes sparked a renewed defend Cuba against a US attack. about their lives? And if we could, whose lives interest in human nature and the attributes Aleksandr Fursenko and Timothy Naftali would be worth learning about? If you were a that had long been touted as uniquely do not resolve this issue in their book. The psychologist interested in the human mind human. Jane Goodall’s studies of chim- way they set up their account gives pride of and its evolutionary history, you would, panzees in the Gombe Reserve were begin- place to the defence of Cuba, but they also without doubt, be driven towards our closest ning to mature, uncovering evidence of tool provide evidence to show Khrushchev’s con- living relative: the chimpanzee. use, hunting, murder and social politics. cern about the way in which the Soviet delay Roger Fouts is a psychologist. Next of Kin, Peter Marler and others working on the nat- in deploying strategic missiles hampered his written with Stephen Tukel Mills, is Fouts’s ural communication of animals were uncov- foreign policy. personal account of what it is like to work ering exciting parallels to human speech and Fursenko and Naftali bring new evidence with, talk to and defend the lives and rights of language. And a group of psychologists, from Russian archives to bear on the crisis. captive chimpanzees. It is an adventure story including the Gardners, were attempting to They show that relations between the Soviet rife with sadness and horror, excitement and determine whether apes and dolphins could Union and Castro’s regime were close and intrigue. It begins with his childhood experi- acquire human-like language and demon- complex before the crisis. They argue that ences with animals, his dreams of becoming strate human-like thought. Khrushchev was in charge of Soviet policy a child psychologist and, finally, his involve- In contrast to studies in the wild, work during this period, and that whatever was ment as a graduate in experimental psychol- with these animals took on a cult-like fol- erratic about Soviet policy sprang not from political struggles inside the Kremlin but Is this the from Khrushchev’s own personality. They also indicate that Robert Kennedy’s origin of art? conversation with Dobrynin about the Jupiters was not decisive in resolving the cri- Is art a human invention or sis, because Khrushchev had already decided an instinct shared with other to agree to withdrawal of the Soviet missiles animals? The work of from Cuba before he learned of Kennedy’s primate painters this century assurance that the Jupiters would be with- has been analysed, debated, drawn from Turkey. shown in galleries and sold Although they provide a great deal of new for high prices. Joni the information, Fursenko and Naftali do not chimpanzee, seen here with say enough about the sources they have used. the Russian scientist Nadjeta They have been able to consult documents in Kohts in 1913, was the first to the Russian Presidential Archive, to which be seriously studied. A later access is very restricted. But they do not chimp called Washoe (see the reveal what collections they could consult. review above) apparently They quote few documents at length, even claimed in sign language that though they evidently used minutes of Polit- she liked red best because it buro meetings. One reason why these ques- was beautiful. Is this all just tions matter is that if the authors had access creative play? The ethologist only to collections dealing specifically with Desmond Morris, who Cuba, that would lead to an emphasis on the contributes a foreword to defence of Cuba as a motive for Khrushchev’s Monkey Painting by Thierry actions. Interesting though the new Soviet Lenain (Reaktion Books, sources are, they do not compare in quality £14.95/$24.95) believes that with the Kennedy tapes. This suggests that apes are expressing a we still have more to learn about the Cuban primitive aesthetic sense. missile crisis. Read this intriguing account, David Holloway is at the School of Humanities and look at the pictures and Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California decide for yourself. 94305-2070, USA.

246 Nature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 1997 NATURE | VOL 390 | 20 NOVEMBER 1997 book reviews lowing, with ape fan clubs, newsletters, prime-time television spots and so on. Many New in paperback of the researchers invested years of time and energy — as well as emotional attachment — Memory Distortion: How Minds, Brains Time’s Arrow and Archimedes’ Point: in their studies. Indeed, their subjects were and Societies Reconstruct the Past New Directions for the Physics of Time sometimes treated not so much as targets of edited by Daniel L. Schacter by Huw Price scientific investigation but rather as family Harvard University Press, $17.95, £11.95 Oxford University Press, £9.99 members. It is this paradox that lies at the “Provides an outstanding multidisciplinary “An attempt to grapple with the... problems of heart of Fouts’s story. perspective on memory accuracy”, Martin A. the arrow of time with a high degree of analytical At the start of Next of Kin, Fouts mentions Conway, Nature 380, 214 (1996). care”, John D. Barrow, Nature 383, 228 (1996). the ethical problem of raising a human child in a chimpanzee family. But then, as if the Atmosphere, Climate, and Change Stars as Laboratories for ethical concerns evaporate, he swiftly turns by Thomas E. Graedel and Paul J. Crutzen Fundamental Physics: The to the fascination of raising a chimpanzee in W. H. Freeman/Scientific American Library, Astrophysics of Neutrinos, Axions, a human family, and his own childhood $19.95, £15.95 and Other Weakly Interacting “experiments” with cross-fostering duck- “A wonderful introduction to the intricacies of a Particles lings to domestic cats. After spending years modern science relevant to serious questions by Georg G. Raffelt experimenting with Washoe and several confronting humankind”, P. Brimblecombe, Chicago University Press, $42, £33.50 other chimpanzees, though, he suddenly Nature 375, 202 (1995). “An extensive and expert review… a detailed realizes he has done something unethical. compendium of results for the serious student”, Driven only by his intellectual curiosity, he The Most Beautiful Molecule: The Michael L. Cherry, Nature 384, 128 (1996). has failed to consider what such experiences Discovery of the Buckyball would be like for a chimpanzee held captive by Hugh Aldersey-Williams The Most Beautiful Molecule: The without maternal nurture, sex, play, social Wiley, $16.95 Discovery of the Buckyball politics and so on. Fouts retreats from “Very well-written and rewarding... an excellent by Hugh Aldersey-Williams science and plunges into alcoholism account”, Philip Ball, Nature 372, 514 (1994). Wiley, $16.95 He eventually emerges from his depres- “Very well-written and rewarding... an excellent sion with a renewed sense of energy, guided Science at the Bar: Law, Science, and account”, Philip Ball, Nature 372, 514 (1994). by a desire to uncover, and ultimately abol- Technology in America ish, what he perceives as an international dis- by Sheila Jasanoff Bright Paradise: Victorian Scientific aster: highly inappropriate housing facilities Harvard University Press, $17.95, £11.95 Travellers for primates. The rest of the book tells of “This is a perceptive and elegantly written book by Peter Raby Fouts’s fight for the care and well-being of on how science and law interact both to produce Princeton University Press, $14.95 primates in captivity, of his continued strug- knowledge and to resolve conflict”, George J. “Extremely readable”, D. E. Allen, Nature 383, gle with research and of the findings that Annas, Nature 379, 501 (1996). 491 (1996). emerged from his studies. Sociopolitical saga apart, there are vari- and empirical inaccuracies. Fouts thinks that the throat, forming the adult-like configura- ous scientific nuggets dispersed throughout human language is primarily a cultural phe- tion. The visual and auditory modalities are the book. The reader is treated to observa- nomenon. Given all the evidence of dedicated used for communication in early develop- tions of chimpanzees teaching their young linguistic brain areas, universal grammar, ment. When words are strung into sentences, bits of ASL, deceiving Fouts for a Coke, sign- highly constrained sequences of language it is not because of a mature vocal tract, but ing about the grief of losing a baby, using development and so on, one simply cannot because of a computational mechanism suf- mirrors to put on make-up and clothes, and ignore the importance of biology. He argues ficiently developed to allow recombination. signing among themselves about the day’s in favour of human languages emerging from Further, Fouts’s view that all primate events. One cannot help but be amazed by all a gestural form, a claim soundly rejected by vocalizations (that is, those produced natu- of this. Yet Fouts is out of touch with several many authors, including Steven Pinker, rally as part of the species-typical repertoire) areas he discusses, and apparently forgets Derek Bickerton and Philip Lieberman. If are processed by the emotional areas of the that his research rests on that of others. For gestural languages were dominant, why brain is also incorrect, as demonstrated by example, we find no mention of Premack’s don’t we see any remnants today? Why has no recent neurophysiological studies on rhesus work with chimpanzees. Uniquely for his culture ever taken a gestural form of lan- macaques showing involvement of the audi- time, Premack focused on the conceptual guage as its first and dominant form of com- tory cortex. abilities of animals rather than their capacity munication? Why aren’t gestural signals The book is therefore both fascinating to acquire the formal structure of language; it dominant to vocal signals in most non- and infuriating. Fascinating because it tells was in this guise that Premack mocked the human primates? of the trials and tribulations of trying to imaginary syntax-carrying chicken. Fouts claims that the dominant form of communicate with another species. Infuri- And, as it turns out, this is precisely where communication for human infants is ating because the distinction between evi- work on captive apes and other animals has through facial expressions and hand ges- dence and impression are blurred, and moved, due in part to the critical blows dealt tures, rather than vocal signals, because because profound philosophical and psy- by linguists, psycholinguists and philoso- human infants are born with a chimpanzee- chological problems are often dealt with phers to studies of ape semantics and syntax. like vocal tract that does not become fully superficially. In the acknowledgments, Fouts Tetsuro Matsuzawa is also not mentioned adult-like until about two to three years of showers “thank-yous, hugs, and pant-hoots and Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, one of the lead- age, when words are strung together into . . . to the five people who inspired [the] book: ers in this field, receives a one-sentence nod. sentences. None of this is correct. Infants cry Washoe, Loulis, Moja, Tatu, and Dar”. And yet, like Premack, both have generated from birth and soon after begin to make People? How interesting. fantastic findings about the conceptual abili- communicative gurgles, raspberries and Marc D. Hauser is in the Departments of ties of chimpanzees and bonobos. laughing sounds. Babbling emerges at just Psychology and Anthropology, Harvard University, Next of Kin is also replete with conceptual about the age that the larynx descends into Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.

NATURE | VOL 390 | 20 NOVEMBER 1997 Nature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 1997 247 book reviews atheoretical diagnostic language — is thus given further support. While denying that they are ‘anti- psychiatry’, Kutchins and Kirk do deplore the proliferation of psychiatric labelling, facili- tated by DSM’s ever-lengthening diagnostic list. Nowadays many groups, and not just psychiatrists, patently have an interest in translating everyday behaviours into psychiatric diseases — worry for example becomes “generalized anxiety disorder”. In this medicalization process, the wretched and the powerless are all too easily further victimized by labels that carry a last- ing stigma. One solution, of course, would be for the public acceptance, without shame, of mental disorder. But that would be crying for the moon. This is a serious and well-documented study, which casts serious doubt on the touted scientific status of DSM categories. It is also readable, although Kutchins and Kirk’s preoccupation with the day-to-day minutiae of the politics of naming may dispose some psychiatrists to see in this a case of ancient obsessional disorder. It is certainly sobering to discover just how the terms we take for truth have come into currency. Roy Porter is at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 183 Euston Road, London Body language NW1 2BE, UK. email: [email protected] Facial features of the sanguine, phlegmatic, (Oxford University Press, £18.99, $25). Vyse melancholic and choleric personality types argues that scientific analysis of differences in (clockwise from top left), taken from Johann personality traits — such as sensitivity to Lavater’s Essays on Physiognomy (1789). They coincidence, fear of failure, a need for control — Where has the billion are reproduced in Believing in Magic: The can help us to understand why superstition and trillion gone? Psychology of Superstition by Stuart A. Vyse belief in the paranormal are so prevalent today. The Conscious Universe: The nent parapsychologist. He did controlled field theory does seem to be natural in order Scientific Truth of Psychic card-guessing experiments resembling those to understand how the activities of numer- Phenomena of Rhine. At the suggestion of Whateley Car- ous neurons in a brain somehow summate. by Dean I. Radin ington, Soal examined his records, looking Perhaps psi depends on Ȣ [the Schrödinger HarperEdge: 1997. Pp. 320. $25. for ‘hits’ one ahead and one behind the guess wave function].” I. J. Good of the ‘current’ card. In one series of experi- Leaving psi aside, there are much more ments, the tail probability, or P value (the serious and technical speculations about the My friend Christopher R. Evans worked for a probability that, by chance, the outcome relationship between consciousness and time with the well-known parapsychologist would be at least as ‘extreme’ as the observed quantum fields by Stuart Hameroff and J. B. Rhine, but became a sceptic. In 1974 I outcome), was 10ǁ35 for the ‘one-aheads’, Roger Penrose, related to microtubules — invited Evans to Blacksburg, Virginia, to give thus seeming to prove the existence of pre- extremely small skeletal elements in neu- a lecture on extra-sensory perception (ESP), cognitive telepathy. rons. One could say that microtubules and picked him up at Roanoke airport. He But evidence accumulated, culminating update Descartes’ pineal gland. Penrose had travelled from London in a Boeing 727. in the ingenious detective work of Betty does not, however, mention ESP in his work The licence number of my car happened to Markwick in 1978, showing that Soal’s stud- on consciousness. be CRE 727. The probability of that ies were very probably fraudulent. Dean Taken at its face value, some of the evi- coincidence was about 1/263 ǂ 1,000 ≈ Radin, author of The Conscious Universe, dence from controlled experiments is con- 1/17,000,000. avoids mentioning Soal. clusive. But we have to allow for fraud and I have experienced three even more Radin is firmly convinced that paranor- the ‘file-drawer’ effect. Take the first of these. remarkable coincidences, one of which mal events happen. His conviction is based Even many ‘normal’ scientists have cheated, changed the course of my life. But I doubt mainly on evidence from controlled experi- as recorded by Alexander Kohn in False whether these coincidences were paranor- ments but is influenced also by the ‘non- Prophets: Fraud and Error in Science and mal because there are more than 5 million local’ phenomena of quantum mechanics. Medicine (Barnes and Noble, 1986). To that minutes a decade. Some people must have Quantum mechanics has affected many collection may be added the psychologists experienced chance coincidences with prob- people’s metaphysical speculations about who lie to their subjects and call the lying abilities of about 10ǁ14. So controlled, not consciousness and ESP. For example, some ‘experimental dissimulation’. anecdotal, observations are needed. 50 years ago, in a conversation with the Parapsychologists and psychics have In England, for about 20 years starting in prominent physicist Léon Rosenfeld about more incentive to cheat because, if their 1939, S. G. Soal was by far the most promi- subjective experiences, I said: “A [quantum] research results are uninteresting, they have