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Review: Shapes by Philip Ball
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CSI wildlife
DAVID MCLAIN/AURORA/GETTY
A small band of forensic scientists are taking on wildlife smugglers
Animal Investigators: How the world’s first wildlife forensics lab is solving crimes and saving endangered species by Laurel A. Neme, Scribner, $25 Reviewed by Henry Nicholls
ILLEGAL wildlife trafficking is worth an estimated $20 billion a year. That makes it the third most lucrative criminal activity, coming in just behind drug and human trafficking and, incredibly, ahead of arms smuggling. This is a stark reminder (as if we needed one) that there are people out there intent on getting rich irrespective of the cost to others with whom they share this fragile planet. Animal Investigators documents this black market in unflinching and often depressing detail. But the book is more than just a journey into the criminal underworld, a litany of dismal statistics or a roll-call of cowardly,
The US Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Lab looks into wildlife crime
greedy intermediaries. Instead, Laurel A. Neme centres her book on a more inspiring place: the US Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Lab in Ashland, Oregon, the world’s only laboratory dedicated to solving crimes against wildlife. This year marks its 20th anniversary, in which time it has dealt with some 10,000 cases. In Animal Investigators, Neme recounts three of these: Alaskan walruses slaughtered for their ivory tusks, black bears killed for gall bladders prized in Chinese medicine, and rare tropical birds hunted for feathers to make traditional Amazonian artefacts. Although self-contained, the three tales combine to reveal the lengths to which the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) must go to secure a conviction. It takes a lot of scientific ingenuity, for example, to confirm that highly processed animal parts came
from an endangered species, or to prove that a dealer has not wriggled through one of the many legal loopholes available to them. Neme walks the reader through the logic of each case, distilling the scientific method with clarity. Remarkably, she also manages to communicate how the science itself works, with step-by-step accounts of the lab work involved, including a brave six-page description of high-pressure liquid chromatography. That such passages work is testimony to her engaging narrative style. Animal Investigators shows the many ways FWS agents build up a case, including forging undercover relationships with dealers, conducting sting operations and gathering evidence for analysis back in the lab. Although the book’s focus on the FWS means it will have most appeal in the US, Neme does touch on the global nature of this problem. It is all too easy to ignore the terrifying scale and cruelty involved in animal trafficking, which is why this is a book everyone should read. By concentrating on the exciting CSI-style investigations of the FWS, Neme has found a compelling way to air this inconvenient truth. “Bears can’t protest. And dead birds can’t complain,” she writes. “It’s up to us to sustain their ability to speak.”
Star siblings The Georgian Star by Michael D. Lemonick, W. W. Norton & Co, $23.95/£17.99 Reviewed by Emily Winterburn
IN THIS very readable biography of 18th-century astronomer siblings William and Caroline Herschel, Michael Lemonick attempts to pin down just what their greatest achievements were. The answer varies among biographers, but
Lemonick makes a convincing case for William’s theoretical work on the evolution of stars as his greatest legacy, rather than his showier discovery of Uranus in 1781. Caroline, meanwhile, is praised for her role as William’s assistant. Lemonick argues that modern astronomy’s methods of surveying, cataloguing and developing theories from evidence all originated with the Herschels and that for this we owe them thanks. While the book does not assume much prior scientific knowledge, it focuses on the science rather than the social or cultural aspects of the Herschels’ lives.
Natural wonder Shapes: Nature’s patterns: A tapestry in three parts by Philip Ball, Oxford University Press, £14.99/$29.95 Reviewed by Mark Buchanan
OURS is a world of patterns, both living and nonliving, from the rippling dunes of the Sahara to the butterflies’ kaleidoscopic wings and the infinite detail of a fractured surface. Philip Ball’s Shapes is the first volume in a trilogy exploring the natural laws that create these varied forms. Packed with inspiring images of natural patterns, including the perfect hexagons of the bees’ honeycomb and the angelfish’s stripes, Shapes answers questions such as what makes seawater foam like the frothy head of a beer? And why do snowflakes have such intricate structure, all strikingly symmetric and similar, yet no two ever identical? Ball makes it clear that all of these seemingly complex patterns arise quite naturally through the operation of surprisingly simple rules and that there is no need for the guiding intelligence of any “Master Patterner”. 28 March 2009 | NewScientist | 45
CSI wildlife
DAVID MCLAIN/AURORA/GETTY
A small band of forensic scientists are taking on wildlife smugglers
Animal Investigators: How the world’s first wildlife forensics lab is solving crimes and saving endangered species by Laurel A. Neme, Scribner, $25 Reviewed by Henry Nicholls
ILLEGAL wildlife trafficking is worth an estimated $20 billion a year. That makes it the third most lucrative criminal activity, coming in just behind drug and human trafficking and, incredibly, ahead of arms smuggling. This is a stark reminder (as if we needed one) that there are people out there intent on getting rich irrespective of the cost to others with whom they share this fragile planet. Animal Investigators documents this black market in unflinching and often depressing detail. But the book is more than just a journey into the criminal underworld, a litany of dismal statistics or a roll-call of cowardly,
The US Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Lab looks into wildlife crime
greedy intermediaries. Instead, Laurel A. Neme centres her book on a more inspiring place: the US Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Lab in Ashland, Oregon, the world’s only laboratory dedicated to solving crimes against wildlife. This year marks its 20th anniversary, in which time it has dealt with some 10,000 cases. In Animal Investigators, Neme recounts three of these: Alaskan walruses slaughtered for their ivory tusks, black bears killed for gall bladders prized in Chinese medicine, and rare tropical birds hunted for feathers to make traditional Amazonian artefacts. Although self-contained, the three tales combine to reveal the lengths to which the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) must go to secure a conviction. It takes a lot of scientific ingenuity, for example, to confirm that highly processed animal parts came
from an endangered species, or to prove that a dealer has not wriggled through one of the many legal loopholes available to them. Neme walks the reader through the logic of each case, distilling the scientific method with clarity. Remarkably, she also manages to communicate how the science itself works, with step-by-step accounts of the lab work involved, including a brave six-page description of high-pressure liquid chromatography. That such passages work is testimony to her engaging narrative style. Animal Investigators shows the many ways FWS agents build up a case, including forging undercover relationships with dealers, conducting sting operations and gathering evidence for analysis back in the lab. Although the book’s focus on the FWS means it will have most appeal in the US, Neme does touch on the global nature of this problem. It is all too easy to ignore the terrifying scale and cruelty involved in animal trafficking, which is why this is a book everyone should read. By concentrating on the exciting CSI-style investigations of the FWS, Neme has found a compelling way to air this inconvenient truth. “Bears can’t protest. And dead birds can’t complain,” she writes. “It’s up to us to sustain their ability to speak.”
Star siblings The Georgian Star by Michael D. Lemonick, W. W. Norton & Co, $23.95/£17.99 Reviewed by Emily Winterburn
IN THIS very readable biography of 18th-century astronomer siblings William and Caroline Herschel, Michael Lemonick attempts to pin down just what their greatest achievements were. The answer varies among biographers, but
Lemonick makes a convincing case for William’s theoretical work on the evolution of stars as his greatest legacy, rather than his showier discovery of Uranus in 1781. Caroline, meanwhile, is praised for her role as William’s assistant. Lemonick argues that modern astronomy’s methods of surveying, cataloguing and developing theories from evidence all originated with the Herschels and that for this we owe them thanks. While the book does not assume much prior scientific knowledge, it focuses on the science rather than the social or cultural aspects of the Herschels’ lives.
Natural wonder Shapes: Nature’s patterns: A tapestry in three parts by Philip Ball, Oxford University Press, £14.99/$29.95 Reviewed by Mark Buchanan
OURS is a world of patterns, both living and nonliving, from the rippling dunes of the Sahara to the butterflies’ kaleidoscopic wings and the infinite detail of a fractured surface. Philip Ball’s Shapes is the first volume in a trilogy exploring the natural laws that create these varied forms. Packed with inspiring images of natural patterns, including the perfect hexagons of the bees’ honeycomb and the angelfish’s stripes, Shapes answers questions such as what makes seawater foam like the frothy head of a beer? And why do snowflakes have such intricate structure, all strikingly symmetric and similar, yet no two ever identical? Ball makes it clear that all of these seemingly complex patterns arise quite naturally through the operation of surprisingly simple rules and that there is no need for the guiding intelligence of any “Master Patterner”. 28 March 2009 | NewScientist | 45