autumn books The evolutionist’s tale A journey back through our evolution with a growing band of ancestors. ILLUSTRATIONS BY CHRISTIAN DARKIN ILLUSTRATIONS The Ancestor’s Tale: A Pilgrimage gorillas, then other primates, and so on ognize some tales from his earlier books, to the Dawn of Life through the fusion with early mammals, most are new and absorbing. The grasshop- by Richard Dawkins sponges, plants, Eubacteria and ultimately per’s tale, for example, uses geographic vari- Weidenfeld & Nicholson (UK)/Houghton the Ur-species, probably a naked molecule ation within orthopteran species to inspire Mifflin (US): 2004. 528 pp. £25/$28 of RNA. This narrative is engagingly written a remarkably sensible treatment of human Jerry A. Coyne and attractively illustrated with reconstruc- racial variation, a topic whose political over- tions of the concestors, colourful phylo- tones usually drive biologists to panicked Richard Dawkins’ success as a popularizer genies, and photographs of bizarre living circumlocution. The peacock introduces us of science lies in his remarkable ability to species. The book is also remarkably up to to sexual selection,the flounder to evolution- convey complex, subtle and technical issues date and, despite its size, nearly error-free. ary imperfection, and the rotifer to the dis- without dumbing them down or patroniz- Especially notable are Dawkins’ treatments advantage of reproducing sexually. A lot of ing the reader. It also helps that he writes of human evolution and the origin of life, arcane but engrossing biology lies buried in beautifully and, as is evident from the titles the best accounts of these topics I’ve seen in these tales: we learn, for example, why some of his books (think of The Selfish Gene or a crowded literature. electric fish swim without undulation (such The Blind Watchmaker), has an exceptional Second, lacking more familiar meta- movement would distort the electric fields gift for using metaphor to capture and solid- phors, Dawkins adopts a literary conceit, that aid navigation and prey detection), and ify abstract ideas. Until now, Dawkins has modelling the book on Geoffrey Chaucer’s why anteaters are the only animals that do dealt with concepts — most notably natural The Canterbury Tales.This parallel itself not digest their food with hydrochloric acid selection — for it is in the explication of takes two forms. Dawkins views species as (formic acid from ants does the job nicely). ideas that he excels. In The Ancestor’s Tale, pilgrims marching into the past, joining Occasionally, however, the combination however, he leaves his familiar literary niche. each other genetically on a 3-billion-year of history and pilgrims’ tales fails to cohere, Instead of ideas, he traffics here in facts: the journey to evolution’s Canterbury: the first and both elements sometimes have a whiff of history of life on Earth. Facts, however, don’t “replicator”. In addition, he fleshes out his the textbook. Several digressions, such as the need metaphors. How does Dawkins handle phylogeny with 58 sidebars: chaucerian exhaustive explanations of log–log plots, this new direction in his work? “pilgrim’s tales” told by extant species, each radiometric dating and molecular clocks,are Perhaps conscious that his arrival in describing a biological concept or method. simply too long and complicated.These stor- ‘fact-land’ must differ from that of previous How well does this literary parallel work? ies are familiar to scientific readers, but are travellers (two other Richards — Fortey The answer is mixed. The reverse-history likely to fatigue rather than inspire the laity. and Southwood — have recently published tactic is useful, emphasizing as it does our It is not that this material is dull — Dawkins splendid overviews of life’s history for the common ancestry with other groups, but it could make a field guide lively reading — but general reader), Dawkins uses a pair of gim- is somewhat anthropocentric, following that it sometimes lacks the intellectual spark micks to enliven his parade of information. only one thread — ours — in the tapestry of that fired his previous works. First, he writes his history in reverse. life. The pilgrims’ tales, on the other hand, In view of the book’s breadth and the Beginning with modern humans and mov- represent a return to terra firma for Dawkins, author’s strong opinions on many issues,any ing backwards in time, he describes our as they deal largely with ideas. These stories biologist can find something to criticize. My lineage as we successively join — a geneticist are clearly the centrepiece of the book, not main gripe is Dawkins’s strong emphasis — would say coalesce — with the common only for the reader, but seemingly for apparently influenced by the work of Geof- ancestors of other species.Human evolution Dawkins himself. (One can almost sense his frey Miller — on sexual selection as a likely has involved 40 such joints, each occupied relief as he interrupts his dutiful account of engine for the evolution of important by what Dawkins calls a “concestor”, and amphibian evolution to explain the evolu- human traits, including a large brain and each is the subject of a single chapter. He tionary significance of “ring species” in bipedal gait. Dawkins suggests, for instance, begins,of course,with our common ancestor salamanders and seagulls.) that ancestral females favoured males who with chimps, followed by the concestor with Although Dawkins aficionados will rec- were smarter and adopted an attractive NATURE | VOL 431 | 21 OCTOBER 2004 | www.nature.com/nature 903 © 2004 Nature Publishing Group autumn books vertical posture. But unless such traits Dawkins’ works. Given the author’s talents, Dawkins, with language at its most lambent improve the fitness of both males and females however, this may be akin to judging Corio- and elegant,used simply to express profound (in which case natural selection alone can lanus Shakespeare’s least compelling play. truths:“The fact that life evolved out of nearly do the job), sexual selection will produce Thankfully, Dawkins returns to top form in nothing … is a fact so staggering that I would differences between the sexes, as it probably the final chapter,a philosophical overview of be mad to attempt words to do it justice.And did with human body size. Why, then, don’t the extraordinary events he’s just recounted. even that is not the end of the matter. Not we see knuckle-walking women with chim- Here he grapples with questions of whether only did evolution happen: it eventually panzee-sized brains? Although we may never evolution would produce similar creatures if led to beings capable of comprehending the know why humans became erect and brainy, it began anew (a qualified yes), and whether process, and even of comprehending the sexual selection seems among the least evolution itself promotes “evolvability”, process by which they comprehend it.” ■ plausible of many alternative theories. making species even more likely to respond Jerry A. Coyne is in the Department of Ecology Despite its considerable merits, The to future selection (another qualified yes). and Evolution, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ancestor’s Tale seems the least compelling of His final sentences are quintessential Illinois 60637, USA. First steps in science Curious Minds: How a Child Becomes a Scientist edited by John Brockman Pantheon: 2004. 256 pp. $23.95, £16.99 Paul L. Harris John Brockman asked 27 distinguished sci- entists from diverse fields, including physics, psychology, biology, mathematics and robotics, to write a short biographical sketch, describing their childhood and what got them hooked on science. The hetero- geneity of the essays they wrote serves as an antidote to easy speculation about there being any essential precursors to scientific accomplishment. Is a scientifically oriented family impor- tant? It looks that way at first as you read through the opening piece by psychologist Nick Humphrey. One of his early memories — vividly described — is of being taken by his grandfather on Boxing Day to dissect a frog in the empty, silent anatomy depart- ment of University College, London. The grandfather, as it happens, has a Nobel prize in physiology,and is just one family figure in a distinguished panoply. Humphrey candidly writes: “What I gained from this childhood environment was a sense of intellectual en- titlement — a right to ask questions, to pry, of the computer scientist Jaron Lanier. His interest in some branch of the natural world: to provoke, to go where I pleased in pursuit mother died when he was nine and he was insects, stars, fossils or electricity. Some con- of knowledge.” raised by an indigent father with an interest tributors do display such a passion.Computer That sense of intellectual entitlement is in psychic phenomena.For a while they lived scientist Rodney Brooks, for example, was echoed by cognitive scientist Alison Gopnik. in tents in southern New Mexico before already fascinated by electric circuits at the She writes of her parents’ devotion to their moving into a fragile geodesic dome age of seven.And Lynn Margulis, a biologist, children’s intellectual lives,not with a view to designed by his father. Such an eccentric writes of lying on her belly to watch ant “enrichment” or “achievement”, but with a upbringing might nurture intellectual inde- colonies. Yet there are disconcerting excep- gift for making such intellectual activity “the pendence, but it’s a long way from the sci- tions. Another biologist, Richard Dawkins, accepted,