Under The Microscope

ALMOST LIKE A WHALE -- THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES UPDATED, by Steve Jones, Doubleday, 402pp, $65.

Reviewed by Veronika Meduna

Steve Jones himself has described his book as the least original, and in one sense it is. It deals with evolution strictly under the same chapter headings Charles Darwin used in his groundbreaking The Origin of Species almost 150 years ago. At the same time, Jones's book is a timely masterstroke. It transports one of science's milestone publications -- and the ghost of its creator -- into modern biomolecular times. Almost like a Whale is Jones's radical rewrite of Darwin's classic, celebrating the naturalist's original ideas but reinforcing them through the many facts since revealed by contemporary genetics.

In 1859, Darwin did for biology what Galileo had done for astronomy more than two centuries earlier: he put down his thoughts about how Nature works, embedded in the scientific knowledge of the time. Both thinkers' ideas may seem almost obvious today, but in their time they upset current theories and forever changed our concept of the world. While Darwin was full of doubts when he wrote -- and rewrote -- the Origin, he nevertheless set one of those crucial landmarks which bring facets of knowledge together like pieces of a mosaic to create the big picture.

Darwin's ideas have stood the test of time but his facts were those of the 19th century, and they left many gaps in his argument for evolution as a sequence of successful mistakes. Enter Jones and his vast overview of modern biochemistry, molecular biology and genetics. While Darwin argues with no more than evidential proof that, for example, domestication produces a more diverse range of varieties of creatures and crop plants than Nature, Jones creates the genetic picture of the farm as the miniature version of evolution. He draws the gene lines from the wolf to the Irish wolfhound, and from there to the hundreds of breeds from malamutes to the corgi.

Darwin also dedicated a chapter to Nature's curious invention of deliberate sterility. In bee hives and anthills, thousands of society members are infertile, and instead of reproducing themselves take on slave jobs to help raise the young of their queen. This was one of the points Darwin found difficult to explain as part of his argument for procreation -- i.e. the passing on of one's possibly advantageous traits -- as a driving force behind evolution.

What seems like evolutionary suicide makes more sense once seen through the genetic magnifying glass. Jones explains that, due to the bees' peculiar genetic make-up, hive sisters are genetically more closely related than mothers to their daughters and it therefore makes more evolutionary sense to be a caring aunt.

Jones's book is brimming with such examples, as he tackles the gaps Darwin could not fill without the understanding of genetics. It is also filled with humour (as opposed to Darwin's Victorian seriousness), which makes it a pleasure to read even for those whose concept of Darwin's work does not go beyond the frequently abused notion of the survival of the fittest.

While Jones sticks to Darwin's layout of chapters throughout the book, he takes it one step further wherever he includes the human species in his discussions. Darwin stopped short of that in the original, most likely because his time was not ready to acknowledge apes as our ancestors.

Unfortunately, Jones makes few remarks about the various attempts at applying Darwin's theory to social sciences and psychology. Even his preface steers clear of the many controversies the Origin sparked, but then he clearly sets out his goals as the biological update of a classic work and an homage to a thinker he considers the most influential of our time.

Veronika Meduna is a freelance journalist with an interest in science stories.