Ring Theory an Ideal Opportunity to Explain Homeotic Not Least Because Many of Its Provisions” Are the Science of Middle-Earth Mutations

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On the record Fish were the inspiration for Ray Troll’s witty artworks, which adorned T-shirts here. Troll is now a celebrity among palaeontologists, and his art has moved in the 1980s. This fascination has taken him deeper into the marine world from T-shirts to museum exhibitions. Rapture of the Deep: The Art of Ray and its evolution, as shown by the detail of spawning ammonites shown Troll (University of California Press, $29.95, £18.95) showcases his work. air strike. A passing eagle, clutching a tor- Gee’s attempt to entertain and educate and chance have made nonsensical drifts of toise, had seen his head. The best way to about science using Tolkien’s fantasy to cap- huge swaths of once useful genetic informa- open a tortoise, if you are an eagle, is to drop ture the public’s attention may be just what tion.” Wouldn’t mobile phones look like it on a clean shiny surface. Exit the father of the MTV generation needs. The tour takes magic to someone from 50 years ago, and tragedy, in the only known case of killing us through ecology, evolutionary theory, wouldn’t we think it magic if they worked as two chelonians with one bird. metabolic-rate physiology, the scaling of they should? As Arthur C. Clarke pointed Though we can set the climate as we body size,biochemistry and genomics. out, any sufficiently advanced technology is choose, we need to guard the bald top of the How about a chainmail vest that can indistinguishable from magic. world.If you don’t want to be struck from the deflect the sharp blow of an orc? In the Gee is alarmed at what he sees as a decline air by an unknown unknown, give this book analysis that follows, the reader learns about of science as a college major. While we to a campaigning granny. ■ pliability, hardness, brittleness and newly lament the lack of interest in science, we Euan Nisbet is in the Department of Geology, conceived materials yet to be synthesized. too often worry about it in terms of the Royal Holloway College, University of London, How do orcs reproduce? Were they cloned profitable innovations science gives us, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK. or manufactured? Were they fallen humans, rather than the simple pleasure of knowing. or devolved elves? We expect people to take certain views of the Far from mere legend, a dragon is a chal- world as law, discouraging questioning, and lenging problem in developmental biology. asking people to take our word for it. “This With four legs and two wings, dragons are aggressive promotion of science is flawed, Ring theory an ideal opportunity to explain homeotic not least because many of its provisions” are The Science of Middle-Earth mutations. Fire-breathing dragons, the only “antithetical to the pursuit of science”. No by Henry Gee respectable kind, no doubt do a little chem- matter how fundamental we think a concept Cold Spring Press: 2004. 256 pp. $14. To be istry to create something like diethyl ether, is, we need to explain it patiently, rather published in the UK by Souvenir Press. which, slightly warmed, would probably than insisting the public take it as given. Michael A. Goldman ignite on contact with air. Excess vapours Gee chides evolutionary biologist Richard would burn off slowly as the dragon fumed Dawkins, saying that “it is a tactical error for We’re living in a society where the average between rampages. those promoting science to impose their person’s knowledge of science is so fragmen- The denizens of Middle-Earth have leg- view on others,for fear of replacing one kind tary that much of what we take for granted ends and a past of their own. Some societies of religion with another, diminishing the looks a lot like magic. Although it starts may have devolved over time, losing their very subversive, questioning quality that is out as a well-informed critique of J. R. R. best technology. Readers of Nature are now the foundation of science.” Tolkien’s work, Henry Gee’s The Science of familiar with Homo floresiensis,known as the Touring Tolkien’s fantasy world, he asks Middle-Earth rapidly moves into a lively col- Hobbit, who shared Indonesian islands with with the curiosity of a child: “How does this lection of science essays united by references humans just 18,000 years ago, and maybe work?” Aside from the fact that the world to life in Middle-Earth, an exploration of more recently. They might represent a isn’t real, the approach is fully analogous to the depths of Tolkien’s keen imagination. devolved form of Homo erectus.Gee tells us the science he is trying to portray. He pro- Tolkien’s work had a cult following that that our fairy tales could be poorly preserved poses explanations, brings in relevant data, escalated with Peter Jackson’s stunning films accounts of events and technologies we no discards a hypothesis and moves on to of The Lord of the Rings.Gee,an editor of longer remember or understand. Similarly, another. Still, the One Ring remains unex- Nature and a disciple of Tolkien’s classic, is “the slow erosion of information into repeti- plained, after several laborious pages. “To a equally at home in the modern research lab- tive idiocy resonates with what we know of scientist,the existence of the inexplicable is a oratory and in the lands of Middle-Earth. the evolution of the human genome… time challenge,and a reminder that science always

674 NATURE | VOL 432 | 9 DECEMBER 2004 | www.nature.com/nature © 2004 Nature Publishing Group christmas books has more to achieve.”More than any morsel we learn the basics of the theory of relativity of fact we’ll take home,we stand to gain from and some of its more advanced ramifica- Gee’s piercing observations about science tions, such as black holes and wormholes. Swimming beneath education for the third millennium. ■ No matter that unrestricted time travel may Michael A. Goldman is in the Department of be a pipe dream,it’s a fun topic that we can all solid seas Biology, San Francisco State University, identify with, and it involves some interest- Under Antarctic Ice: The San Francisco, California 94132-1722, USA. ing mainstream physics and astronomy that Photographs of Norbert Wu might seem dull in a more prosaic context. by Norbert Wu & Jim Mastro My favourite fantasy, which comes near University of California Press: 2004. 176 pp. the end of the book, is the idea of uploading £26.95, $39.95 Smart underwear the contents of my brain on to a super- Frozen Oceans computer, to serve both as a back-up in case by David Thomas something horrible happens to the original Natural History Museum Publishing: 2004. for time travellers and as a gateway to a universe of simulated 224 pp. £22 How to Clone the Perfect Blonde: reality, offering potentially limitless fun. Lloyd Peck Using Science to Make Your Although technically challenging, to say the Wildest Dreams Come True least, it is hard to see any obstacles of princi- The frozen ends of our planet are among the by Sue Nelson & Richard Hollingham ple to this procedure, and it raises the unset- most captivating and least known places on Quirk Books/Ebury Press: 2004. 272 pp. tling question of how I can be sure that the Earth. What takes them beyond our com- $16.95/£7.99 reality I experience is the ‘real’reality or just a prehension is ice. The Antarctic ice sheet is Paul Davies simulation. Or indeed, whether there is any kilometres thick and covers an area bigger meaningful distinction between them. than Europe. Ice also means that much of The challenge facing authors addressing The reader taking a random walk through the polar oceans are beyond our experience: politically sensitive issues such as stem-cell this speculative playground will learn some some 15–20 million square kilometres of research, cloning and robotics lies less surprising facts to help with future quiz the oceans are ice-bound. This environment with the technicalities and more with the nights. I was particularly intrigued to learn drives ocean currents, reflects large amounts emotion and prejudice surrounding these about a slime mould able to find its way of heat from the Sun, and is party to the subjects. Cloning especially revolts many through a maze, and the disembodied lam- greatest seasonal changes of any seas. people who lack the foggiest idea of what prey brain stem that can control a remote Possibly the most bizarre aspect of the is actually involved. The authors of How to robot by responding to light signals. First pack ice in the polar seas is the life that in- Clone the Perfect Blonde manage to tackle prize for inventiveness, however, must go to habits its under-surfaces, and the communi- this topic head-on and non-judgmentally the smart underwear designed to control the ties that depend on the productivity of this by adopting a mixture of fast-paced exposi- temperature of the room the wearer is in. system. Algae are eaten by protists and tion and gentle humour. That they manage As the saying goes, there is something for invertebrates, such as amphipods and krill; to do this without either patronizing the everybody here, not least for scientists at the at the top of the food web, fish make their reader or trivializing the subject is a tribute sharp end of research, who may be in danger lives on the frozen ledges and tunnels in the to their skill. And the formula works equally of taking themselves too seriously. ■ ice. Even some of the top predators, such as well with speculative and popular, but tech- Paul Davies is professor of natural philosophy at whales and seals,depend on the productivity nically difficult, topics, such as quantum the Australian Centre for Astrobiology, Macquarie of the sea ice and the ice edge.Climate-change teleportation and time travel. University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia. His predictions suggest that this is a threatened Teleportation technology has leapt from latest book is How to Build a Time Machine. landscape,with both Arctic and Antarctic sea the screenplay of Star Trek,where it was motivated primarily by the need for a cheap special effect, to the real world of quantum Star performers: seastars engineering. One of the key properties of such as Odontaster validus, quantum particles such as photons is that seen here attacking the larger they may be put into an ‘entangled’ state. Acodontaster conspicuus,

Two entangled photons, even when far thrive in Antarctic waters UNIV. CALIFORNIA PRESS apart, remain linked by what Einstein called where anchor ice scours the “spooky action-at-a-distance”. Although sea bed. entangled states cannot be used to send information faster than light, they can be used to reconstruct replicas-at-a-distance. So far, this has been restricted to single par- ticle states a kilometre or so apart, but that has not stopped some enthusiasts imagining scanning a human body, atom by atom, and reconstructing it on Mars, say. Despite the wackiness of this notion, the physics of quantum information is a hot topic, bearing on practical developments such as quantum cryptography and the race to build a code- busting quantum computer. And therein lies the value of this book.By addressing a wild and engaging speculation, the authors use it as a peg to cover much valu- able science. In the chapter on time travel