- Email: [email protected]
An Unnatural Selection of Essays on Evolution
TREE 2249 No. of Pages 2
Book Review
An Unnatural Selection of Essays on Evolution Caitlin R. Kight1,*,@
If you were to survey a selection of biologists representing the full breadth and depth of the discipline and ask them to describe how evolution shapes our lives, you would likely get an array of responses as diverse as the individuals providing them. It would be no easy task to sift through these many ideas to select just a couple dozen representing the most essential, interesting, and exciting. This was the challenge faced by Jonathan B. Losos and Richard E. Lenski, editors of How Evolution Shapes Our Lives: Essays on Biology and Society. As alluded to on the back cover of the book, it is essentially a more portable, easily digestible, and, in many ways, layperson-friendly version of the Princeton
Guide to Evolution [1]. That text is described on the Princeton University Press website as being ‘an essential volume for undergraduate and graduate students, scientists in related fields, and anyone else with a serious interest in evolution’ (see http://press.princeton.edu/ titles/10100.html). This is a difficult audience to pitch to because of the potential for vast differences in baseline knowledge. Indeed, some of the authors discuss evolution in broad and sometimes theoretical terms – providing a high-level conceptual framework – while others are more focused and offer specific examples – fleshing out the theoretical skeleton with detailed real-world case studies. Both are informative, but it can be jarring to switch between the two. The book covers too much well-trodden ground for it to be appropriate for most professional biologists. The fact that its (largely unnecessary) glossaries include such fundamental terms as adaptation and parasite seems to acknowledge the likelihood of less-expert readers. That said, while the writing is generally suitable for a well-educated lay audience, some chapters have certain characteristics – such as equations and terms from evolutionary mathematical models – that prevent the book from having the kind of accessible, popular science feel that makes even the most complex content accessible in works by writers such as David Quammen, E. O. Wilson, and Richard Dawkins. Perhaps the most fitting audience is biology students, for whom this book might serve as a decent primer on evolution. If budding scientists are, indeed, the intended readers, it is a particular shame that there are not more direct citations (although there are brief Further Reading sections at the end of each chapter) or visuals (which are illuminating where provided but sadly lacking for explaining less-familiar concepts such as directed evolution or microbial forensics); both features are fundamental components of scientific writing, and their paucity here is noticeable.
No matter for whom the book is written, it has a dissatisfying lack of an overarching narrative providing a sensible progression from one chapter to another; this makes the book feel much like an afterthought to the larger Princeton Guide – an easy way to repurpose a handful of its chapters. The first two chapters of How Evolution Shapes Our Lives are beautifully written by the editors, and provide a wonderful sense of momentum towards, and anticipation of, the remainder of the volume. After this, however, the logic of the story disappears. Although the title of the book asks about evolution in the current tense (How does evolution shape our lives?), some chapters take a historical view (How did evolution shape our lives?), while others look to the future (How will evolution shape our lives?). Chapters are not organised according to which of these questions they ask, so there is no sense of continuity or layering of multiple answers to create a single holistic response to each query. Despite the intrinsic importance of the final word in the full title, society, there is never an explicit definition of this term or an exploration of how or why this concept was used to decide which themes should be covered in the book. Furthermore, many of the authors only obliquely address the connections between their subject matter, evolution, and human society; there is no outright explanation of how each chapter ties in to others in the collection. This may explain why the chapters often feel disconnected, redundant, or sometimes even in competition with each other. Furthermore, while some sections feel like niche or even tangential explorations of how evolution shapes our lives, some prominent (and timely) ideas seem glaringly absent. For instance, there is a chapter on adaptation of wildlife in response to climate change, but no discussion of how human activities such as urbanisation may be facilitating evolution and driving speciation [2]. Among the
Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Month Year, Vol. xx, No. yy
1
TREE 2249 No. of Pages 2
examinations of how humans manipulate their environment, there is no exploration of how some ancient human land management techniques may have increased biodiversity and ecosystem health [3]. Even just a few extra sentences or citations could have provided a more satisfying, well-rounded treatment of these issues. As suggested earlier, exhaustively exploring how evolution shapes our lives is an almost impossible thing to do if you have only a single volume meant to cover the breadth of biology. It is a worthy goal that perhaps could have been better realised as a book written by a single author or coauthors, rather than an edited collection. Alternatively, it could have used a framing device to better
2
tie all the chapters together; for instance, dipped in and out of, rather than read it could have navigated the reader cover to cover. through a day in the life of a typical human who encounters and observes How Evolution Shapes Our Lives: Essays on Biology evolution in a variety of ways ranging and Society by Jonathan B. Losos and Richard E. from the food that is eaten to the ill- Lenski. Princeton University Press, 2016. US$39.50/ £32.95, pbk, ISBN: 9780691170398; US$65.00/£54.95, nesses that are suffered to the science hbk, ISBN: 9780691171876 (416 pp.) news that is read online. 1 All that said, How Evolution Shapes Our Lives is not an unrewarding read; some chapters, most notably Robert Pennock’s ‘Evolution and Computing’, Eugenie Scott’s ‘Creationism and Intelligent Design’, Carl Zimmer’s ‘Evolution and the Media’, and Alan R. Templeton’s ‘Evolution and Notions of Human Race’, are both engaging and insightful. As a whole, however, the book does not quite gel. Perhaps, then, it is a collection best
Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Month Year, Vol. xx, No. yy
University of Exeter, Hatherly Laboratories, Prince of Wales Road, Exeter, EX4 4PS, UK @ Twitter: @specialagentCK *Correspondence: [email protected] (C.R. Kight). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2017.05.001
References 1. Losos, J.B. et al. (2017) The Princeton Guide to Evolution, Princeton University Press 2. Bull, J.W. and Maron, M. (2016) How humans drive speciation as well as extinction. Proc. Biol. Sci. 283, http://dx.doi. org/10.1098/rspb.2016.0600 3. Anderson, M.K. (2005) Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California’s Natural Resources, University of California Press
Book Review
An Unnatural Selection of Essays on Evolution Caitlin R. Kight1,*,@
If you were to survey a selection of biologists representing the full breadth and depth of the discipline and ask them to describe how evolution shapes our lives, you would likely get an array of responses as diverse as the individuals providing them. It would be no easy task to sift through these many ideas to select just a couple dozen representing the most essential, interesting, and exciting. This was the challenge faced by Jonathan B. Losos and Richard E. Lenski, editors of How Evolution Shapes Our Lives: Essays on Biology and Society. As alluded to on the back cover of the book, it is essentially a more portable, easily digestible, and, in many ways, layperson-friendly version of the Princeton
Guide to Evolution [1]. That text is described on the Princeton University Press website as being ‘an essential volume for undergraduate and graduate students, scientists in related fields, and anyone else with a serious interest in evolution’ (see http://press.princeton.edu/ titles/10100.html). This is a difficult audience to pitch to because of the potential for vast differences in baseline knowledge. Indeed, some of the authors discuss evolution in broad and sometimes theoretical terms – providing a high-level conceptual framework – while others are more focused and offer specific examples – fleshing out the theoretical skeleton with detailed real-world case studies. Both are informative, but it can be jarring to switch between the two. The book covers too much well-trodden ground for it to be appropriate for most professional biologists. The fact that its (largely unnecessary) glossaries include such fundamental terms as adaptation and parasite seems to acknowledge the likelihood of less-expert readers. That said, while the writing is generally suitable for a well-educated lay audience, some chapters have certain characteristics – such as equations and terms from evolutionary mathematical models – that prevent the book from having the kind of accessible, popular science feel that makes even the most complex content accessible in works by writers such as David Quammen, E. O. Wilson, and Richard Dawkins. Perhaps the most fitting audience is biology students, for whom this book might serve as a decent primer on evolution. If budding scientists are, indeed, the intended readers, it is a particular shame that there are not more direct citations (although there are brief Further Reading sections at the end of each chapter) or visuals (which are illuminating where provided but sadly lacking for explaining less-familiar concepts such as directed evolution or microbial forensics); both features are fundamental components of scientific writing, and their paucity here is noticeable.
No matter for whom the book is written, it has a dissatisfying lack of an overarching narrative providing a sensible progression from one chapter to another; this makes the book feel much like an afterthought to the larger Princeton Guide – an easy way to repurpose a handful of its chapters. The first two chapters of How Evolution Shapes Our Lives are beautifully written by the editors, and provide a wonderful sense of momentum towards, and anticipation of, the remainder of the volume. After this, however, the logic of the story disappears. Although the title of the book asks about evolution in the current tense (How does evolution shape our lives?), some chapters take a historical view (How did evolution shape our lives?), while others look to the future (How will evolution shape our lives?). Chapters are not organised according to which of these questions they ask, so there is no sense of continuity or layering of multiple answers to create a single holistic response to each query. Despite the intrinsic importance of the final word in the full title, society, there is never an explicit definition of this term or an exploration of how or why this concept was used to decide which themes should be covered in the book. Furthermore, many of the authors only obliquely address the connections between their subject matter, evolution, and human society; there is no outright explanation of how each chapter ties in to others in the collection. This may explain why the chapters often feel disconnected, redundant, or sometimes even in competition with each other. Furthermore, while some sections feel like niche or even tangential explorations of how evolution shapes our lives, some prominent (and timely) ideas seem glaringly absent. For instance, there is a chapter on adaptation of wildlife in response to climate change, but no discussion of how human activities such as urbanisation may be facilitating evolution and driving speciation [2]. Among the
Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Month Year, Vol. xx, No. yy
1
TREE 2249 No. of Pages 2
examinations of how humans manipulate their environment, there is no exploration of how some ancient human land management techniques may have increased biodiversity and ecosystem health [3]. Even just a few extra sentences or citations could have provided a more satisfying, well-rounded treatment of these issues. As suggested earlier, exhaustively exploring how evolution shapes our lives is an almost impossible thing to do if you have only a single volume meant to cover the breadth of biology. It is a worthy goal that perhaps could have been better realised as a book written by a single author or coauthors, rather than an edited collection. Alternatively, it could have used a framing device to better
2
tie all the chapters together; for instance, dipped in and out of, rather than read it could have navigated the reader cover to cover. through a day in the life of a typical human who encounters and observes How Evolution Shapes Our Lives: Essays on Biology evolution in a variety of ways ranging and Society by Jonathan B. Losos and Richard E. from the food that is eaten to the ill- Lenski. Princeton University Press, 2016. US$39.50/ £32.95, pbk, ISBN: 9780691170398; US$65.00/£54.95, nesses that are suffered to the science hbk, ISBN: 9780691171876 (416 pp.) news that is read online. 1 All that said, How Evolution Shapes Our Lives is not an unrewarding read; some chapters, most notably Robert Pennock’s ‘Evolution and Computing’, Eugenie Scott’s ‘Creationism and Intelligent Design’, Carl Zimmer’s ‘Evolution and the Media’, and Alan R. Templeton’s ‘Evolution and Notions of Human Race’, are both engaging and insightful. As a whole, however, the book does not quite gel. Perhaps, then, it is a collection best
Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Month Year, Vol. xx, No. yy
University of Exeter, Hatherly Laboratories, Prince of Wales Road, Exeter, EX4 4PS, UK @ Twitter: @specialagentCK *Correspondence: [email protected] (C.R. Kight). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2017.05.001
References 1. Losos, J.B. et al. (2017) The Princeton Guide to Evolution, Princeton University Press 2. Bull, J.W. and Maron, M. (2016) How humans drive speciation as well as extinction. Proc. Biol. Sci. 283, http://dx.doi. org/10.1098/rspb.2016.0600 3. Anderson, M.K. (2005) Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California’s Natural Resources, University of California Press