Note: This program first aired January 17, 2015.
I read a lot of books, science and nature books mostly, and
I am always on the lookout for new work that effectively translates heady
science concepts into engaging understandable material for the public. 2005’s
fabulously funny “How Animals Have Sex: A guide to the reproductive habits
of creatures great and small” by David Strorm is a great example. It’s a
small format, full color photographic book that surveys the amusing sex lives
of a wide variety of animals. The heady topic in question? That life is
incredibly diverse, and evolution has come up with an amazing array of ways for
life to go on, that is, for animals to reproduce. It answers questions you’ve
always wondered like, how do dolphins and whales mate? What about porcupines?
And then titillates the reader with fun facts about animals you may have never
heard of like Bean Weevils and Spoon Worms and Argentine Lake Ducks. I consider
How Animals Have Sex to have set a high standard for this genre.
So it was with pleasure that I purused Mara Grunbaum’s “WTF,
Evolution?! A theory of unintelligible design”, a 2014 release from Workman
Publishing. WTF, Evolution?! follows the same small format, full color
photographic design, with a sort of scrap book-y layout. The author imagines an
ongoing conversation with Evolution, and the book is full of cheeky irreverent
dialog, sharp enough to get your attention, smart enough to keep it. The
narrator’s skeptical comments and dead pan retorts are contrasted by enthusiasm
in the voice of Evolution. Each section is prefaced by a short explanation of
some facet of the mechanisms of Evolution, highlighting how adaptations have
given the world some very strange solutions to otherwise straightforward
biological problems.
The main goal of the book is to showcase the diversity of
strange adaptations that have evolved in the animal kingdom over the last 3.8
billion years on this planet. In doing so Grunbaum highlights key misconceptions about evolution, that it
has a goal in mind or some kind of intention, and that humans are the apex of
evolutionary adaptation. Evolution is precisely not directional, and has no end
goal in mind. As she says in the introduction “Like the rest of us, it’s basically
just fumbling in the dark”. Genetic engineering aside, evolution is profoundly
limited by its starting material. It can only work with the genes that are in
the gene pool. The only source of new material is mutation, which happens with
regularity yet doesn’t yield viable new genetic material all that often. Not
every mutation is adaptive, but if it doesn’t have a negative effect, it can
get taken along for the ride and persist along side genes that increase an
individual’s fitness. And that makes the fact of the incredible diversity of
animal forms (and they are almost entirely animals in this book) simultaneously
bewildering and understandable.
If you are interested in evolution, find animal diversity
fascinating, like to laugh and don’t take yourself too seriously, do yourself a
favor and pick up a copy WTF, Evolution?! At a bare minimum you will see
evolution from a new angle, and regardless of where you are standing, a new
perspective is something that benefits us all.
References:
Yes, its real: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigbutt_worm
How Animals Have Sex http://www.betterworldbooks.com/how-animals-have-sex-id-1592401910.aspx
WTF Evolution?! http://wtfevolution.tumblr.com/
