Princeton University Press

Book review – Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will

9-minute read
keywords: evolutionary biology, neurobiology, philosophy

Despite millennia of arguments, the question of whether we have free will or not remains unresolved. Last year October, two neurobiologists stepped into the fray, giving me the chance to dip my toes into the free-will debate. I just reviewed Robert Sapolsky’s Determined which presented a case against. Though successfully showing that we have less of it than we think, I remain unconvinced by his total rejection of free will. For the second half of this two-part review, I turn to Kevin J. Mitchell’s Free Agents which, also starting from neurobiology, presents a tightly argued and compelling case in favour.

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Book review – Dinosaur Behavior: An Illustrated Guide

6-minute read
keywords: paleontology

Reconstructing how dinosaurs behaved from just their fossilised bones might seem like science fiction but is very much science fact. Join me for a double review of two recent illustrated books. I will next review An Illustrated Guide to Dinosaur Feeding Biology but first up is Dinosaur Behavior: An Illustrated Guide. Here, veteran palaeontology professor Michael J. Benton joins forces with palaeoartist Bob Nicholls to do what it says on the tin: write a richly illustrated introductory book on dinosaur behaviour that is well-suited for novices.

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Book review – Radical by Nature: The Revolutionary Life of Alfred Russel Wallace

10-minute read
keywords: evolutionary biology, history of science

The year 2023 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Victorian naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace. Best remembered as the father of biogeography, and only relatively recently pulled out of Darwin’s shadow as co-discoverer of the principle of natural selection, he was an all-round fascinating person. I have long wanted to read more about him. Evolutionary biologist, entomologist, and Darwin and Wallace scholar James T. Costa gives an in-depth, intimate, and updated story of his life. This first of three reviews will prepare me for a descent down the rabbit hole on how two scholars independently hit on the mechanism driving evolution.

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Book review – Remnants of Ancient Life: The New Science of Old Fossils

8-minute read
keywords: paleontology

This is the second of a two-part review about ancient biomolecules; think of them as the other fossil evidence. Having just reviewed Jones’s Ancient DNA which gave an intellectual history of this young scientific discipline, I now turn to Dale E. Greenwalt’s book Remnants of Ancient Life. Beyond DNA, his book discusses what we can learn about extinct life forms from traces of other molecules, such as proteins, pigments, and metals.

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Book review – The Mind of a Bee

9-minute read
keywords: entomology, ethology, neurobiology

It is tough being a social insect. When people are not trying to exterminate you, they might marvel at the collectives you form, but does anybody think much of you, the individual? Leave it to Lars Chittka, a professor in sensory and behavioural ecology, to change your views. The Mind of a Bee is a richly illustrated, information-dense book that explores a large body of scientific research, both old and new. Chittka’s book was followed not a year later by Stephen Buchmann’s What a Bee Knows. This, then, is the first of a two-part dive into the tiny brains of bees and the remarkably advanced behaviours that they show.

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Book review – On Gaia: A Critical Investigation of the Relationship between Life and Earth

10-minute read
keywords: earth sciences, ecology

The scientist, environmentalist, and futurist James Lovelock is probably best remembered for the Gaia hypothesis: the notion that the Earth is a giant self-regulating system that maintains conditions suitable for life on the planet. It has gained a certain respectability in academic circles over the decades, but how justified is this? In my previous reviews of Lovelock’s original 1979 book Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth and the 1995 follow-up The Ages of Gaia, I was critical of various assumptions and claims expressed therein. At the same time, I am aware that other, more knowledgeable people have worked on this idea for years, so what do I know? In On Gaia, Earth system scientist Toby Tyrrell gives a thorough and dispassionate overview of the scientific evidence and whether it supports Gaia. This, then, is the third of a four-part review series that explores the Gaia hypothesis in greater detail (see also part 1, part 2, and part 4).

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Book review – A Dog’s World: Imagining the Lives of Dogs in a World without Humans

7-minute read
keywords: ethology, evolutionary biology, zoology

At first blush, the question behind A Dog’s World could have been lifted straight from the pages of What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by xkcd creator Randall Munroe. What would happen to our dogs if we disappeared overnight? Far from being mere whimsy or idle academic speculation, A Dog’s World is a serious attempt to scientifically answer this thought experiment. There is also a strong ethical component to it as the authors apply their ideas to the here and now: how can we create better lives for dogs today?

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Book review – Viruses: A Natural History

7-minute read
keywords: popular science, virology

Viruses are possibly even more maligned than bacteria, spoken of exclusively in terms of disease. Here, virologist Marilyn J. Roossinck ranges far beyond human pathogens to convince you how narrow that picture is. She instead reveals them as enigmatic entities that are intimately entwined with the entirety of Earth’s biosphere, exploiting and enabling it in equal measure. Backed by numerous infographics, the book alternates between chapters on basic principles of virology and brief portraits of noteworthy viruses. The result is an entry-level introduction to virology that fascinated me more than I expected.

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7-minute read
keywords: popular science, virology

Viruses are possibly even more maligned than bacteria, spoken of exclusively in terms of disease. Here, virologist Marilyn J. Roossinck ranges far beyond human pathogens to convince you how narrow that picture is. She instead reveals them as enigmatic entities that are intimately entwined with the entirety of Earth’s biosphere, exploiting and enabling it in equal measure. Backed by numerous infographics, the book alternates between chapters on basic principles of virology and brief portraits of noteworthy viruses. The result is an entry-level introduction to virology that fascinated me more than I expected.

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Book review – The Princeton Field Guide to Mesozoic Sea Reptiles

6-minute read
keywords: evolutionary biology, paleontology

This is the second of a two-part dive into the world of extinct marine reptiles, following on from my review of Darren Naish’s new book Ancient Sea Reptiles. These two books were in the making simultaneously, with The Princeton Field Guide to Mesozoic Sea Reptiles by independent palaeontologist and palaeoartist Gregory S. Paul making it into print four months before Naish’s book. If a field guide to extinct creatures sounds unusual, think of it as an illustrated guide for the palaeo-enthusiast that revolves around Paul’s signature skeletal reconstructions.

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Book review – Parasites: The Inside Story

7-minute read
keywords: parasitology, popular science

For many people, parasites top the list of nature’s most unwanted creatures. For biologists, however, they offer a window into the ecology and evolution of their hosts, while a full understanding of an ecosystem needs to take its parasite fauna into account. Parasites: The Inside Story offers an engrossing and well-illustrated introduction to some of these processes. However, the brevity of the chapters and the input from three authors does turn this into a bit of a medley that might leave readers wanting more.

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