Evolution of a Mind Eugenie C

BOOKS & ARTS COMMENT

BIOLOGY Evolution of a mind Eugenie C. Scott revels in the first volume of Richard Dawkins’s frank new memoir.

ichard Dawkins is one of the world’s confesses, an indifferent student, but a few book put the young An Appetite for best-known scientists — largely teachers managed to stimulate an interest in Dawkins on that Wonder: The because of his tireless promotion science. It is clear that he did not come into short list of scientists Making of a Rof evolution and, more recently, atheism, his own intellectually until he was admitted who are able to make Scientist RICHARD DAWKINS through a succession of best-sellers, videos — by the skin of his teeth — into the Uni- complicated scientific Bantam: 2013. and public appearances. In An Appetite versity of Oxford. There, at Balliol College, ideas understandable for Wonder, the first part of a two-volume Dawkins was lucky enough to be tutored and exciting without oversimplifying them. memoir, Dawkins presents his life up to the by the great ethologist Nikolaas ‘Niko’ Tin- Dawkins is a polarizing figure, both publication of The Selfish Gene (Oxford widely praised and widely criticized. University Press, 1976), the popular- Supporters as well as detractors may science blockbuster that kick-started his be surprised at the honest depiction career as a spokesperson for evolution- of an individual who comes across as ary biology. both less saintly and less diabolical than As befits someone whose life’s work media caricatures may have led them has focused on the cumulative changes to expect. He loves poetry, and readily through time that we call evolution, confesses to choking up when reading Dawkins wants to share the forces and sentimental verse such as Hilaire Belloc’s factors in his life that have shaped the 1910 To the Balliol Men Still in Africa. person he has become. A bookish child, He reflects with chagrin on his lack of TERRY SMITH/TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY SMITH/TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY TERRY he neglected many opportunities pro- concern about the rampant bullying that vided by his nature-loving parents to took place at his schools, and his support explore and be inspired by the natural of what he now considers the bullying of world. Given that he was born in Nairobi some Berkeley faculty members by radi- and spent his early years in what is now cal professors and students during the Malawi, it seems curious that the natural Vietnam War protests. Of the Berkeley abundance around him did not kindle experience, he notes, “I was still young, that spark. He does speak of developing but not all that young. Should have a fondness for animals, but more through known better.” He readily confesses that reading children’s books such as Hugh scientific habits were slow in coming. It Lofting’s Doctor Dolittle series, noting, is a very honest book. “I learned late to love watching wild Charles Darwin wrote his autobi- creatures, and I have never been such an ography for his family; for whom is outdoor person as either my father or my Dawkins’s written? I found the enumera- grandfather.” tion of ancestors in early chapters a bit The African interlude came about of a slog. The middle chapters describ- because Dawkins’s father, Clinton John ing his childhood in Africa and school Dawkins, followed family tradition by days in England should be of interest working in the British foreign service. to all. The latter chapters, dealing with Dawkins presents his father, who was Richard Dawkins studying mating calls in crickets in 1976. his mathematical modelling of evolu- a forester, as independent, resourceful, tion, might appeal more to scientists. inventive and willing to take big risks. When bergen, and became fascinated by animal Dawkins’s atheist fans are not all necessarily a distant relative unexpectedly bequeathed behaviour. in that camp, and might find the graphs and to John Dawkins the country estate Over The latter part of the book traces Dawk- diagrams of behaviour patterns daunting. Norton Park in Oxfordshire, UK, he moved ins’s intellectual path from Oxford to his However, throughout and as usual, Dawk- the family back to England, renounced his assistant professorship in zoology at the ins’s writing is graceful, sparkling with anec- government pension and turned the land University of California, Berkeley (where dotes and wit. Those of us who struggle in into a working farm. Richard, then eight, was he was swept up in the movement against our writing will be comforted to read the soon packed off to boarding school. the Vietnam War), and his return to Oxford words: “Pretty much every sentence I write The picture Dawkins paints of his schools as a young scientist. It describes his transi- is revised, fiddled with, re-ordered, crossed is, if not quite Dickensian, pretty awful: little tion from a quantitatively oriented com- out and re-worked.” In other words, the boys lining up naked for cold morning baths, puter-programming experimentalist who elegant, functional design of his writing is shivering in unheated rooms, choking down modelled chick behaviour to the more theo- accomplished through variation and selec- bad-tasting food, retically oriented scientist we know today. tion. Why am I not surprised? ■ NATURE.COM enduring corporal pun- I doubt if more than 1 in 10,000 readers of For a celebration of ishment and bullying, The Selfish Gene ever read his earlier experi- Eugenie Scott is executive director of the The Selfish Gene, and not always receiv- mental work. (I hadn’t, either.) Inspired by National Center for Science Education in see: ing a sterling educa- the 1970s ferment over group and individ- Oakland, California. go.nature.com/383s7y tion. Dawkins was, he ual selection, kin selection and the like, that e-mail: [email protected]