杏吧原创

OH, what a lovely book to read, let alone to be asked to review. It was utterly compulsive 鈥� I couldn鈥檛 put it down until I had finished. It almost seems a pity to use any words except Natalie Angier鈥檚 own in The Beauty and the Beast: New Views on the Nature of Life. I want to let her speak for herself and for those whose ideas and expertise she has so brilliantly crafted into this collage, a shining example of up-to-the-minute scientific endeavour.

Angier interviews Victoria Elizabeth Foe, who describes her work thus: 鈥淭his is biology鈥檚 golden age. It鈥檚 analogous to cathedral building of a thousand years ago. We are building and building this great edifice. Some of us are building arches, some are painting murals, some are carving in stone. I feel enormously privileged to be alive now and part of it.鈥� This is the world of the 1990s as seen by a biologist who is charting the pulse of development in the embryos of fruit flies with nothing more sophisticated than a microscope and a sketch pad.

The more you turn the pages the more you sympathise with Foe鈥檚 view of biology and crave to be a part of the biological scene, as busy as a bee. But then Angier takes us to another side of biology, proceeding to demolish the myths about the natural world that we hold so dear.

She tells us clearly that we cannot anthropomorphise other creatures, or impose our moral systems on them. For example: 鈥淎nimals across the phylogenetic spectrum will thumb a proboscis at biblical injunctions to labour and proceed to engage in any number of inactive activities.鈥� To our minds, the hummingbird is the epitome of constant activity, but Angier reveals 鈥渉ummingbirds spend 80 per cent of the day motionless on a twig 鈥� conserving energy 鈥� and at night they sleep鈥�. Another natural myth shatters with her account of those legendary symbols of eternal love, the trumpeter swans. They engage in adultery, cuckoldry and gang rape. 鈥淏lame鈥� for what we see as immorality is inappropriate.

She also discusses the relationship between emotions, behaviour and hormones, describing oxytocin as 鈥渁 satisfactional hormone, nature鈥檚 way of ushering in joy鈥�. A fantastic account, especially when she explains that 100 laughs are equivalent in aerobic terms to 10 minutes鈥� rowing. There鈥檚 a point to this for a male 鈥� get fit so that 鈥渇emale choice: that Eve-olutionary force鈥� may not pass you by. Perfect symmetry appears to be the answer to attracting mates. But not for all: if you were one of the biggest, meanest, longest-lived, most sensitive, most maternal, least fraternal, quickest and most luminous creatures among the arachnids 鈥� a scorpion fluorescing under ultraviolet 鈥� you might opt for lopsided pincers.

Among other gems, Angier reveals that pit vipers are gallant and venomous; dolphins are not quite such nice guys as their antics may lead us to believe; and all unsightly fat is not life threatening. And those 鈥渋ndividuals who have a tendency to suicide may be likened to taut strings on a beautiful violin. If bowed too hard the string will snap鈥�.

Angier doesn鈥檛 believe there is a good way to die. 鈥淒eath to me is a wasteful obscenity. You spend your life mastering tasks, cultivating knowledge and opinions, gradually getting the hang of living in your skin and skull, when it all must be disposed of to make way for the latest models coming up from behind. Nature is a spoilt brat who needs a perpetual supply of new toys.鈥� So how can you die well when death is such an imposition? Please read the book, you may find out.

For me, only the last chapter, 鈥淎 Grandmother鈥檚 Fear鈥�, seemed out of place. That was until I read the whole again in reverse order. How I wish that I was still an active player in this The Golden Age of Biology.