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NATURE|Vol 454|31 July 2008 SUMMER BOOKS OPINION man invited his father’s brother-in-law, symmetrical poem that can be read vertically his brother’s father-in-law, his father-in- and horizontally. law’s brother, and his brother-in-law’s Lewis Carroll in Numberland is not a conven- father. Others were in the form of fal- tional biography. Robin Wilson has winnowed lacies to debunk. Dodgson once asked Dodgson’s prodigious output into a first-rate a 14-year-old boy to find the flaw in his scrapbook of proofs and puzzles. Sadly, his tone proof that 2 + 2 = 5, which Wilson is often fawning and flat — not up to the stand- reveals to be a stealthy divi- ard of mathematical storytelling he set in his sion by zero. A few problems previous book, Four Colours Suffice (Allen Lane, hinged simply on a pun. 2002), on the history of the conjecture that four Later in life, Dodgson colours can fill any map without any bordering taught symbolic logic with countries sharing a colour. By immersing us in a board game that used Dodgson’s correspondence, however, Wilson red and grey counters on a conjures the spirit of a man who delighted in set of nested squares, which paradox yet insisted on precision, who held he believed superseded the fiercely to the ancients while straining to under- overlapping circles champi- stand the world around him, and who wanted oned by British logician John most of all to stump everyone he knew. Writ- an algorithm that could give the date of every Venn. In Dodgson’s Game of Logic, published ing for work or pleasure, for children or adults, Easter Sunday until 2499. under his pen name to gain a wider audience, Wilson shows that Dodgson turned the most Sooner or later every child who knew Dodg- one can see some of the punctilious lunacy of sober of problems into child’s play. son would receive a brain teaser. Published in the Mad Hatter. Following chains of inference “Some perhaps may blame me for mixing collections with titles such as A Tangled Tale and he called ‘sillygisms’, he led readers from rea- together things grave and gay,” he wrote as Pillow Problems Thought Out During Sleepless sonable premises to conclusions such as “Babies Lewis Carroll in an insert to his nonsense poem Nights, many of these word problems required cannot manage crocodiles”, “No banker fails to The Hunting of the Snark. But, he continued, “I the dutiful application of algebra, trigonometry shun hyaenas” and “No bird in this aviary lives do not believe God means us thus to divide life or geometry. Some needed mere patience and on mince-pies”. These examples are perhaps less into two halves.” ■ common sense. One devious puzzle asked how interesting as logic than as the stirrings of a sys- Jascha Hoffman is a writer based in New York. many guests would come to a dinner party if a tematic kind of literature, also apparent in his e-mail: [email protected] schools. He is also a popular speaker, offering The creationist controversy the public a grass-roots defence of good sci- ence education. Miller’s new book Only a Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle candidates are discussing whether Earth is Theory is a tour of creationist misconceptions for America’s Soul really 6,000 years old as some Bible scholars about evolution, such as the one referred to by Kenneth R. Miller say, or whether they believe in evolution. in the book’s subtitle — a creationist pre- Viking: 2008. 256 pp. $25.95 Science and evolution have an advocate in dicted an inevitable victory in the Dover trial Kenneth Miller, one of North America’s emi- because evolution is “only a theory”. The book The United States has a big problem: although nent knights-errant, a scientist who is active is also a celebration of the power of evolution- we maintain a strong scientific establishment, in defending evolutionary theory in the con- ary theory to explain our existence. competitive with the rest of the world in many flict between evolution and creationism. He Miller is a fine writer who sharply addresses fields, we also have some of the most back- has been at the centre of many recent debates the details of the arguments about intelligent wards proponents of superstitious nonsense about science education, most prominently design creationism. When tackling old chest- in both our electorate and at the highest lev- testifying against intelligent design crea- nuts such as the “only a theory” complaint, els of politics. It is an embarrassment to host tionism in Pennsylvania’s Dover trial, which or Michael Behe’s argument for a maximum laboratories that are at the forefront of scientific decided that intelligent design was a religious limit for the number of genetic mutations, or research in the same country where presidential concept that should not be taught in public William Dembski’s rehash of William Paley’s Riddled with Life: Friendly Worms, Undermining Science: Suppression and Ladybug Sex, and the Parasites That Distortion in the Bush Administration Make Us Who We Are by Seth Shulman by Marlene Zuk (Univ. California Press, $16.95, £9.95) (Harvest, $14, £8.99) Shulman explores how US politicians and scientists An evolutionary biologist enthusiastically argues have misrepresented science to push their own that parasites are a driving force behind evolution agendas. “A concise, straightforward case history of and that their effects still mould us today. Parasites the politicization of science, ideal for courses on the have shaped us physically and culturally, and affect history, philosophy, sociology and ethics of science,” our minds on a daily basis. wrote John Horgan (Nature 445, 365–366; 2007). 581 OPINION SUMMER BOOKS NATURE|Vol 454|31 July 2008 watchmaker argument for complexity, Miller Only a Theory deals poorly with one law on teaching Darwinian evolutionary theory; discusses the contemporary biological expla- central aspect of this battle: why this problem is the only twists come from new creationist nations while refuting the errors. so much greater in the United States than else- authorities that enter the fray. An equivalent Miller is sympathetic to the creationists’ per- where. Miller’s rationalizations are sometimes US variant of Miller’s British anecdote is that spective but opposes them uncompromisingly. painful to read. Europe’s relative freedom from the enemies of science need only dispatch The book does not try to place the blame for the scourge of creationism is explained with a Dembski or Behe from the Discovery Institute creationism on ignorance, stupid- condescending anecdote: a British colleague in Seattle, Washington, to stir up more doc- ity or malice, but suggests that the offers that any outbreak of such nonsense is trinaire creationism among school boards and ideas are rooted in traditions rapidly quashed by “dispatch[ing] a couple of in elections and churches. To call US citizens and values that biologists share. dons from Oxford or Cambridge” to overawe more independent-minded than European He admires the clever rhetori- the locals with their prestigious degrees, to citizens flatters the creationists too much and cal trick of appropriating the term which the populace will defer. The popu- demeans Europeans. ‘design’ for creationism, thereby imply- larity of creationism in the United If Miller is on shaky ground in his expla- ing that scientists favour the opposite States is ascribed to independence nations of the origins of creationism, he is and believe that human life is meaningless and rebelliousness rather rock-solid on where the creationists want to and without purpose. He recognizes that than religiosity, which, take us: “To the intelligent design movement, the concept of intelligent design creation- as someone who has the rationalism of the Age of Enlightenment, ism taps effectively into human desires and dealt with many which gave rise to science as we know it, is the prejudices. Miller does not confuse sympathy creationists, I find true enemy ... science will be first redefined, for the intent of creationists with sympathy for disingenuous. The and then the ‘bankrupt ideologies’ of scientific its effects. The conflict has wider consequences hallmark of almost rationalism can be overthrown once and for all.” than the teaching of one discipline in US pub- any creationist Although his own religious leanings blind him lic schools — the creationists aim to revise argument is the to conflict between faith and science, they also what science means, discarding tireless bleating of give him insight into both sides of the struggle. rationalism, natural- the same points we Only a Theory is a useful overview of a perilous ism, materialism and have rebutted since political attack on the nature of science. ■ other Enlightenment the trial of teacher PZ Myers is associate professor of biology at values to incorporate John Scopes in the University of Minnesota Morris, 600 East the supernatural and Tennessee in 4th Street, Morris, Minnesota 56267, USA, and loosen the rigour of 1925, which author of the blog Pharyngula. all sciences. tested the e-mail: [email protected] implications, yet incapable of destroying the Fictional quantum conspiracy beautiful mathematical proofs outright, Alp- ert’s fictionalized Einstein decides to bury the Final Theory: A Novel sorts of fears. Whereas most people can con- information until mankind has outgrown its by Mark Alpert ceptualize tangible sciences such as biology, warlike ways. He duly entrusts various pieces of Simon & Schuster: 2008. 368 pp. the quantum world is, by its very nature, largely the puzzle to a select group of young protégés. £12.99, $24 ungraspable and seems to simmer with deadlier Many years later word leaks out, and soon the force.

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