杏吧原创

Lives of a Biologist: Adventures in a century of extraordinary science by John Tyler Bonner, Harvard University Press, 拢16.95, ISBN 0674007638 Reviewed by Bernard Dixon

鈥淭HERE is no such thing as a biologist,鈥� said the burly sergeant inducting John Tyler Bonner into the US Army, back in the 1940s. Little did he know that the precocious Bonner had, at the age of 14, already succeeded in getting biology onto his school curriculum.

This memoir by the great celebrant of slime moulds offers a fascinating overview of a century of biology. Bonner tells of changes in biological thinking, and his own pervasive influence in the study of life cycles and morphogenesis. He takes us from 19th-century techniques and concepts through the hyper-confident period of molecular biology, and on to today鈥檚 synthesis.

Bonner had a biologist鈥檚 instincts from childhood, and a particular delight of this book is his portrayal of the experiences that released and informed them. These include identifying ducks in St James鈥檚 Park in London, observing the richness of life in the tropics, and devouring The Science of Life by H. G. Wells, Wells鈥檚 son G. P., and Julian Huxley.

Much later in life, Bonner read a letter about a paper submitted to Nature which referred to him as 鈥渢he GOM [Grand Old Man] of slime molds鈥�. Thus did he discover he was no longer a Young Turk 鈥� and that his own life cycle was turning too.