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In praise of batteries
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Life support
DAVID KJAER/NATUREPL.COM
We’ll need more evidence than this to make the case that entire ecosystems evolve
The Ptarmigan’s Dilemma: An exploration into how life organizes and supports itself by John Theberge and Mary Theberge, McClelland & Stewart, $28.95 Reviewed by Bob Holmes
FIELD ecologists make great storytellers, and John and Mary Theberge are no exception. During more than 30 years of research, the pair have cut a wide swathe: from watching grizzly bears in Alaska to recording birdsong in the North American forests to taking a census of jackals in Africa, and much in between. This book is a compilation of what they have learned about the natural world along the way.
Their tales of where they have been and what they’ve done are easily the best parts of the book, full of wit and eloquence and a deep love for the outdoors. You’ll go with the couple as they track caribou in eastern Canada during the spring melt, when the deep, wet snow and meltwater puddles require them to wear hip waders with snowshoes attached. You’ll hike with them through drifts of dead Monarch butterfly wings on the forest floor in Mexico after an unexpected frost wiped out an entire population. You’ll feel their anguish as a well-loved mountainside in Alberta is cleared to build a ski resort. These stories punctuate and add colour to what is essentially a textbook account of introductory ecology. If you have never been exposed to the subject,
this isn’t a bad way to start, as the Theberges’ anecdotes and, for the most part, avoidance of jargon help keep things from getting too dry. But for anyone with even a passing familiarity with the subject, there’s little here to surprise. That’s a bit disappointing because, as their book’s subtitle suggests, the Theberges are after bigger game. Life, they argue, is an emergent property not of individual cells but of whole ecosystems, as no organism can survive without an ecosystem that provides food, water and other necessities. If they are right, then ecosystems are even more wonderful things than most of us realise – and more deserving of our respect and protection. The idea that evolution shapes and tunes ecosystems as a whole has intuitive appeal, though most biologists would shudder at this thought. To convince the sceptics, the Theberges will need to build a stronger case than the few hints and conjectures they offer here. Though they make the claim that ecosystems are more than the sum of their parts, the opposite might be said of their book.
Power to the people The Battery: How portable power sparked a technological revolution by Henry Schlesinger, Smithsonian Books, $25.99 Reviewed by Michael Brooks
BATTERIES get a bad press. They are always flat when you need them, or too heavy and cumbersome. Rarely does anyone appreciates just how wondrous an invention the battery is: the miracle of electricity in a handy package. And talk about power. The tale of the humble battery tracks the story of the modern world. After reading Henry Schlesinger’s enthralling book you will struggle
to name an aspect of our lives in which the battery has played no part. Who knew that batteries helped establish the Reuters news agency, that nights spent in a battery room kick-started Thomas Edison’s career, or that women used to wear battery-powered chastity belts – the forerunner of the modern rape alarm? You are probably within a metre of a couple of batteries right now. If you are curious about how they got there, this engaging biography of an essential piece of technology is a great place to find out.
Nature’s GPS The Natural Navigator by Tristan Gooley, Virgin, £14.99 Reviewed by Clint Witchalls
ANOTHER week, another news story about a driver led astray by their car’s satellite navigation system. What is remarkable about these stories is not that satnavs make mistakes, but that the drivers ignored what their eyes and ears were telling them and blindly followed the advice of an automated voice, even as it guided them into a field or to the edge of a cliff. As we become ever more reliant on GPS systems, the art of navigation is being lost. Tristan Gooley wants to do something about it. The Natural Navigator is full of advice on how to read nature’s signposts: the sun, moon, stars and land. Gooley has flown and sailed, solo, across the Atlantic; in fact, he is to date the only person to have done both. But The Natural Navigator is not just for daring explorers. Even if most of us are unlikely to have to navigate a wilderness, learning to read nature can enhance a walk in a city park or a stroll along the beachfront. Read this and you will never look at the sky or a tree the same way again. 20 March 2010 | NewScientist | 47
Life support
DAVID KJAER/NATUREPL.COM
We’ll need more evidence than this to make the case that entire ecosystems evolve
The Ptarmigan’s Dilemma: An exploration into how life organizes and supports itself by John Theberge and Mary Theberge, McClelland & Stewart, $28.95 Reviewed by Bob Holmes
FIELD ecologists make great storytellers, and John and Mary Theberge are no exception. During more than 30 years of research, the pair have cut a wide swathe: from watching grizzly bears in Alaska to recording birdsong in the North American forests to taking a census of jackals in Africa, and much in between. This book is a compilation of what they have learned about the natural world along the way.
Their tales of where they have been and what they’ve done are easily the best parts of the book, full of wit and eloquence and a deep love for the outdoors. You’ll go with the couple as they track caribou in eastern Canada during the spring melt, when the deep, wet snow and meltwater puddles require them to wear hip waders with snowshoes attached. You’ll hike with them through drifts of dead Monarch butterfly wings on the forest floor in Mexico after an unexpected frost wiped out an entire population. You’ll feel their anguish as a well-loved mountainside in Alberta is cleared to build a ski resort. These stories punctuate and add colour to what is essentially a textbook account of introductory ecology. If you have never been exposed to the subject,
this isn’t a bad way to start, as the Theberges’ anecdotes and, for the most part, avoidance of jargon help keep things from getting too dry. But for anyone with even a passing familiarity with the subject, there’s little here to surprise. That’s a bit disappointing because, as their book’s subtitle suggests, the Theberges are after bigger game. Life, they argue, is an emergent property not of individual cells but of whole ecosystems, as no organism can survive without an ecosystem that provides food, water and other necessities. If they are right, then ecosystems are even more wonderful things than most of us realise – and more deserving of our respect and protection. The idea that evolution shapes and tunes ecosystems as a whole has intuitive appeal, though most biologists would shudder at this thought. To convince the sceptics, the Theberges will need to build a stronger case than the few hints and conjectures they offer here. Though they make the claim that ecosystems are more than the sum of their parts, the opposite might be said of their book.
Power to the people The Battery: How portable power sparked a technological revolution by Henry Schlesinger, Smithsonian Books, $25.99 Reviewed by Michael Brooks
BATTERIES get a bad press. They are always flat when you need them, or too heavy and cumbersome. Rarely does anyone appreciates just how wondrous an invention the battery is: the miracle of electricity in a handy package. And talk about power. The tale of the humble battery tracks the story of the modern world. After reading Henry Schlesinger’s enthralling book you will struggle
to name an aspect of our lives in which the battery has played no part. Who knew that batteries helped establish the Reuters news agency, that nights spent in a battery room kick-started Thomas Edison’s career, or that women used to wear battery-powered chastity belts – the forerunner of the modern rape alarm? You are probably within a metre of a couple of batteries right now. If you are curious about how they got there, this engaging biography of an essential piece of technology is a great place to find out.
Nature’s GPS The Natural Navigator by Tristan Gooley, Virgin, £14.99 Reviewed by Clint Witchalls
ANOTHER week, another news story about a driver led astray by their car’s satellite navigation system. What is remarkable about these stories is not that satnavs make mistakes, but that the drivers ignored what their eyes and ears were telling them and blindly followed the advice of an automated voice, even as it guided them into a field or to the edge of a cliff. As we become ever more reliant on GPS systems, the art of navigation is being lost. Tristan Gooley wants to do something about it. The Natural Navigator is full of advice on how to read nature’s signposts: the sun, moon, stars and land. Gooley has flown and sailed, solo, across the Atlantic; in fact, he is to date the only person to have done both. But The Natural Navigator is not just for daring explorers. Even if most of us are unlikely to have to navigate a wilderness, learning to read nature can enhance a walk in a city park or a stroll along the beachfront. Read this and you will never look at the sky or a tree the same way again. 20 March 2010 | NewScientist | 47