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Review: Galileo Goes to Jail, edited by Ronald L. Numbers
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Set the record straight Galileo Goes to Jail edited by Ronald L. Numbers, Harvard University Press, $27.95/£20.95 Reviewed by Amanda Gefter
FOR evidence of religion’s centuriesold hostility toward science, Galileo is the go-to guy. His belief in a Copernican universe led to his imprisonment and torture at the hands of the church, or so the story often goes. But is it true? In his contribution to Galileo Goes to Jail, Maurice Finocchiaro explains that while Galileo was interrogated, forced to recant and sentenced to house arrest, he was never (with the unlikely but possible exception of three undocumented days) jailed or subjected to torture. This is just one of 25 myths about science and religion tackled in the scholarly and well-researched collection put together by Ronald Numbers. In nearly every case the myths are not so much busted as deflated. Each story is littered with grey areas and is always more complicated than it seems. For instance, there’s the myth that Darwin underwent a deathbed conversion back to Christianity. James Moore traces this to a 1915 article in the Baptist magazine Watchman-Examiner by Elizabeth Cotton, who went by the pen name Lady Hope. She claimed to have witnessed Darwin’s conversion. “Although much of it was fictitious, the original story cannot be dismissed as pure invention,” Moore says, because it contained several plausible descriptions of Darwin’s home and life. Either Cotton had actually visited his home, or else she had collected enough tidbits from the Darwins’ domestic staff to render her story plausible. The fact that Darwin was buried in Westminster Abbey suggests that, despite his likely persistent lack of faith, he remained on good terms
with the church until the end. Other myths explored in the book include Einstein’s confusing brand of atheism and Descartes’ misunderstood role in the establishment of mind/body dualism. In another entry, Robert Richards deftly dispels the claim that Darwin was to blame for the Nazis’ warped take on biology. The book helps to clear up misconceptions on both sides of the science/religion debate that pertain to history and sociology. In the end, though, they are irrelevant to the fundamental conflict between science and religion: the question of what constitutes truth and how we can access it. These ontological and epistemological tensions will persist, regardless of what history has to say. This book won’t get us closer to solving the conflict, but it can help us get our facts straight as we battle on.
Is anybody out there? Life in Space: Astrobiology for everyone by Lucas John Mix, Harvard University Press, $29.95/£22.95 Reviewed by Lewis Dartnell
THE search for life beyond Earth has philosophical and religious implications which science books often skirt around. Lucas John Mix, a biologist and Episcopalian priest, tackles these issues head-on. Though too detailed at times, Life in Space is a broadly researched and refreshingly personal account of astrobiology. Mix shows how our understanding of where and how to look for extraterrestrial life is biased by the fact that we have only a single example of life to go by. We are further biased, he says, by the idiosyncrasies of our perception, such as the colours we see. Our own biology – and, at higher levels, our philosophical or religious beliefs – fundamentally influence our science, a crucial point that is rarely appreciated.
Life on the small side How We Live and Why We Die: The secret lives of cells by Lewis Wolpert, Faber and Faber, £14.99 Reviewed by Graham Lawton
THE publishing world is awash with books about basics – if what you are after is a basic understanding of the smaller end of biology, this could be just the book for you. In 200 or so short pages, Lewis Wolpert breezes through all we know about cell biology. There aren’t many surprises, but Wolpert is an engaging host with an eye for a clever analogy. Perhaps the biggest thrill to be had is when he lays bare the awe-inspiring intricacy of the living cell, though he left me hungering for an explanation of how it all works. Wolpert is well known for taking swipes at the enemies of progress and this book is no exception, but his attacks lack nuance and seem out of place in what is otherwise a nicely written, if didactic, popular science book in the tradition of Steven Rose’s classic The Chemistry of Life.
Tip the babysitter Mothers and Others: The evolutionary origins of mutual understanding by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, Harvard University Press, $29.95/£19.95 Reviewed by Alison Motluk
NOWHERE is the uniquely human cocktail of cooperation, tolerance, mindreading and empathy more on display than when we are shoehorned together into a crowded airplane. We smile politely at people who bump into us, offer sympathetic
nods to mothers of wailing babies, and offer our untouched dessert to the stranger in the adjacent seat. After inviting us to reflect on this behaviour, Sarah Blaffer Hrdy points out just how odd it is. If we were travelling with a planeload of chimps, she says, “any one of us would be lucky to disembark with all 10 fingers and toes still attached, with the baby still breathing and unmaimed”. In this compelling and wide-ranging book, Hrdy sets out to explain the mystery of how humans evolved into cooperative apes. The demands of raising our slow-growing and energetically expensive offspring led to cooperative child-rearing, she argues, which was key to our survival.
Animal IQs The Smartest Animals on the Planet by Sally Boysen, Firefly Books, $35 Reviewed by Ewen Callaway
SCIENTISTS who study animal intelligence walk a fine line: they must resist the temptation to anthropomorphise animals while analysing behaviour through the lens of common descent. In this coffee table compendium, primatologist Sally Boysen mostly hits the mark. She rightly focuses on the impressive abilities of our primate cousins, from their cultural transmission of tool use to their ability to count. We also learn how bees broadcast the locations of flowers through choreographed dance and how vampire bats share their blood meals even with non-relatives. While Boysen leans towards generous interpretations of animal intelligence, such as the ability of some species to recognise their reflection in a mirror, she is quick to point out negative or contentious findings. 4 April 2009 | NewScientist | 45
Set the record straight Galileo Goes to Jail edited by Ronald L. Numbers, Harvard University Press, $27.95/£20.95 Reviewed by Amanda Gefter
FOR evidence of religion’s centuriesold hostility toward science, Galileo is the go-to guy. His belief in a Copernican universe led to his imprisonment and torture at the hands of the church, or so the story often goes. But is it true? In his contribution to Galileo Goes to Jail, Maurice Finocchiaro explains that while Galileo was interrogated, forced to recant and sentenced to house arrest, he was never (with the unlikely but possible exception of three undocumented days) jailed or subjected to torture. This is just one of 25 myths about science and religion tackled in the scholarly and well-researched collection put together by Ronald Numbers. In nearly every case the myths are not so much busted as deflated. Each story is littered with grey areas and is always more complicated than it seems. For instance, there’s the myth that Darwin underwent a deathbed conversion back to Christianity. James Moore traces this to a 1915 article in the Baptist magazine Watchman-Examiner by Elizabeth Cotton, who went by the pen name Lady Hope. She claimed to have witnessed Darwin’s conversion. “Although much of it was fictitious, the original story cannot be dismissed as pure invention,” Moore says, because it contained several plausible descriptions of Darwin’s home and life. Either Cotton had actually visited his home, or else she had collected enough tidbits from the Darwins’ domestic staff to render her story plausible. The fact that Darwin was buried in Westminster Abbey suggests that, despite his likely persistent lack of faith, he remained on good terms
with the church until the end. Other myths explored in the book include Einstein’s confusing brand of atheism and Descartes’ misunderstood role in the establishment of mind/body dualism. In another entry, Robert Richards deftly dispels the claim that Darwin was to blame for the Nazis’ warped take on biology. The book helps to clear up misconceptions on both sides of the science/religion debate that pertain to history and sociology. In the end, though, they are irrelevant to the fundamental conflict between science and religion: the question of what constitutes truth and how we can access it. These ontological and epistemological tensions will persist, regardless of what history has to say. This book won’t get us closer to solving the conflict, but it can help us get our facts straight as we battle on.
Is anybody out there? Life in Space: Astrobiology for everyone by Lucas John Mix, Harvard University Press, $29.95/£22.95 Reviewed by Lewis Dartnell
THE search for life beyond Earth has philosophical and religious implications which science books often skirt around. Lucas John Mix, a biologist and Episcopalian priest, tackles these issues head-on. Though too detailed at times, Life in Space is a broadly researched and refreshingly personal account of astrobiology. Mix shows how our understanding of where and how to look for extraterrestrial life is biased by the fact that we have only a single example of life to go by. We are further biased, he says, by the idiosyncrasies of our perception, such as the colours we see. Our own biology – and, at higher levels, our philosophical or religious beliefs – fundamentally influence our science, a crucial point that is rarely appreciated.
Life on the small side How We Live and Why We Die: The secret lives of cells by Lewis Wolpert, Faber and Faber, £14.99 Reviewed by Graham Lawton
THE publishing world is awash with books about basics – if what you are after is a basic understanding of the smaller end of biology, this could be just the book for you. In 200 or so short pages, Lewis Wolpert breezes through all we know about cell biology. There aren’t many surprises, but Wolpert is an engaging host with an eye for a clever analogy. Perhaps the biggest thrill to be had is when he lays bare the awe-inspiring intricacy of the living cell, though he left me hungering for an explanation of how it all works. Wolpert is well known for taking swipes at the enemies of progress and this book is no exception, but his attacks lack nuance and seem out of place in what is otherwise a nicely written, if didactic, popular science book in the tradition of Steven Rose’s classic The Chemistry of Life.
Tip the babysitter Mothers and Others: The evolutionary origins of mutual understanding by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, Harvard University Press, $29.95/£19.95 Reviewed by Alison Motluk
NOWHERE is the uniquely human cocktail of cooperation, tolerance, mindreading and empathy more on display than when we are shoehorned together into a crowded airplane. We smile politely at people who bump into us, offer sympathetic
nods to mothers of wailing babies, and offer our untouched dessert to the stranger in the adjacent seat. After inviting us to reflect on this behaviour, Sarah Blaffer Hrdy points out just how odd it is. If we were travelling with a planeload of chimps, she says, “any one of us would be lucky to disembark with all 10 fingers and toes still attached, with the baby still breathing and unmaimed”. In this compelling and wide-ranging book, Hrdy sets out to explain the mystery of how humans evolved into cooperative apes. The demands of raising our slow-growing and energetically expensive offspring led to cooperative child-rearing, she argues, which was key to our survival.
Animal IQs The Smartest Animals on the Planet by Sally Boysen, Firefly Books, $35 Reviewed by Ewen Callaway
SCIENTISTS who study animal intelligence walk a fine line: they must resist the temptation to anthropomorphise animals while analysing behaviour through the lens of common descent. In this coffee table compendium, primatologist Sally Boysen mostly hits the mark. She rightly focuses on the impressive abilities of our primate cousins, from their cultural transmission of tool use to their ability to count. We also learn how bees broadcast the locations of flowers through choreographed dance and how vampire bats share their blood meals even with non-relatives. While Boysen leans towards generous interpretations of animal intelligence, such as the ability of some species to recognise their reflection in a mirror, she is quick to point out negative or contentious findings. 4 April 2009 | NewScientist | 45