Of Flies, Mice and Men by Fran莽ois Jacob, Harvard University Press, 拢14.95, ISBN 0674631110
Darwin鈥檚 Spectre by Michael Rose,Princeton University Press, 拢16.95\$27.95, ISBN 0691012172
SINCE Darwin鈥檚 death, all has not been rosy in the evolutionary garden. The
theories of the Great Bearded One have been hijacked by cranks, politicians,
social reformers鈥攁nd scientists鈥攖o support racist and bigoted views.
A direct line runs from Darwin, through the founder of the eugenics
movement鈥擠arwin鈥檚 cousin, Francis Galton鈥攖o the extermination camps
of Nazi Europe.
Of course, scientists are fond of exonerating themselves from ethical
responsibility by declaring that knowledge is naked. It is, they say, only when
the cloak of prejudice is wrapped around its shoulders that it becomes corrupted
and crippled by ideology.
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In bringing us up to date with Darwin鈥檚 legacy, neither Michael Rose nor
Nobel laureate Fran莽ois Jacob shirk from this sordid history. Indeed, the
title of Rose鈥檚 book, Darwin鈥檚 Spectre, offers a hint of it. Yet it is
in Jacob鈥檚 Of Flies, Mice and Men that the cold current of contrition
flows strongest. As Jacob remarks, 鈥淭he whole truth needs to be told. Nothing
should be kept secret. This is where the responsibility of the scientist is
驳谤别补迟别蝉迟.鈥�
Yet, as both books reveal, there is much to be positive about. In its modern
guise, Darwin鈥檚 evolutionary theory has become the backbone of all the
biological sciences, from palaeontology to molecular genetics, and perhaps much
more besides. As Rose points out, 鈥�. . . for those who would know and understand
the long story of life on Earth, Darwinism is the great searchlight in the
诲补谤办苍别蝉蝉.鈥�
Rose, an evolutionary biologist best known for his pioneering studies of
ageing in fruit flies, has chosen to summarise Darwin鈥檚 life, his key ideas and
their modern-day ramifications, all in a little over 200 pages. Jacob鈥檚 approach
is altogether different. More philosophical in both tone and content, he somehow
manages to transpose the mystery of embryonic development into an allegory for
life, the Universe and everything. It鈥檚 a scholarly tome, the sort of book that
makes us feel intelligent without really understanding why.
The first part of Rose鈥檚 book verges on textbook tedium. But stick with it
and you emerge into a world of grand ideas, daring speculation and, just
occasionally, empirical data. Rose gives medical science the thumbs down. Ageing
and disease, for example, are as much evolutionary concerns as medical ones, and
Rose is wildly enthusiastic about the potential for 鈥淒arwinian medicine鈥� to
provide alternative perspectives for treatment.
Best of all is his careful discussion of the ideas surrounding evolution and
human behaviour. Evolutionary psychology, a sort of 1990s sociobiology without
the flares, is politely pooh-poohed. Instead, Rose plumps for a more flexible,
less deterministic (but, he is keen to stress, no less Darwinian) view of the
human mind.
Jacob avoids the more speculative end of the Darwinian spectrum by
concentrating on what we know rather than what we might know. What鈥檚 more, he
manages to make molecules sound interesting by marvelling at the resourcefulness
of evolution, which he calls evolutionary tinkering. Molecular genetics is
teaching us that much of the variety of the living world comes from the
rearrangement of pre-existing molecular architecture. For all its diversity,
life is the biological equivalent of Legoland.