Bookshelf

Natural History, Dec, 1999

Voyages of Discovery: Three Centuries of Natural History Exploration, by Tony Rice (Clarkson Potter, 1999; $60; 335 pp.; illus.)

This richly illustrated volume covers expeditions ranging from Sir Hans Sloane's 1687 voyage to Jamaica to the oceanographic survey aboard HMS Challenger during 1872-76, when photographic documentation was attempted for the first time.

Lucy's Legacy: Sex and Intelligence in Human Evolution, by Alison Jolly (Harvard University Press, 1999; $29.95; 416 pp.; illus.)

Primatologist and lemur specialist Jolly believes that in human evolution, the major transitions have arisen through integration and cooperation rather than through selfishness and competition. Taking this idea even further, she argues that we may become "even more important, not as individuals but as a global organism."

Jane Goodall: 40 Years at Gombe, foreword by Gilbert M. Grosvenor (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1999; $29.95; 128 pp.)

Not only has Jane Goodall contributed significantly to the understanding of chimpanzee behavior (in the longest biological field study of any single species), but she has also developed and inspired international environmental, humanitarian, and community empowerment programs.

e-topia: "urban life, Jim--but not as we know it," by William J. Mitchell (MIT Press, 1999; $22.50; 184 pp.)

Mitchell, dean of MIT's School of Architecture and Planning, proposes strategies for future spaces and places, both physical and virtual. He argues for e-topias: "cities that work smarter, not harder" and that make economic, social, and cultural sense in an electronically interconnected world.

Atlas of the Year 1000, by John Man (Harvard University Press, 1999; $26; 144 pp.; illus.)

John Man, a historian, takes readers on a tour of our world as it was on the brink of the second millennium. In forty-three separate entries rich in maps, photos, and art, he surveys the diversity of human cultures and the dynamism of cultural contacts.

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, by Richard P. Feynman (Perseus/Helix Books, 1999; $24; 270 pp.)

In one of the selections in this wide-ranging collection of thirteen articles and transcripts from little-known talks and interviews, the late Nobel laureate credits his father with instilling in him a sense of wonder and curiosity about learning. The foreword--by student, friend, and fellow physicist Freeman Dyson (who compares his admiration of Feynman to Ben Jonson's devotion to Shakespeare)--is alone worth the price of the book.

The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries From the People's Republic of China, edited by Xiaoneng Yang (National Gallery of Art/Yale University Press, 1999; $75; 584 pp.; illus.)

Based on an exhibition at Washington's National Gallery of Art, this catalog presents more than 170 masterpieces of Chinese art uncovered by archaeologists over the past twenty-five years, with works dating from 5000 B.C. to the tenth century A.D. Essays address such significant finds as Tang dynasty reliquaries and artifacts from the shamanistic culture in the Three Gorges Dam area, which will soon disappear beneath an artificial lake.

The Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, Volume 12: Herbarium of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 1999; $75; 359 pp.; illus.)

The final volume in this series, the herbarium a listing in locations, distributions, and uses for the 239 specimens brought back by the 1804-1806 expedition's chief collector, Meriwether Lewis. The complete set of journals, fully indexed and annotated by historian Moulton, represents the definitive account of this unprecedented journey of discovery in America's West.

The Story of Time, edited by Kristen Lippincott (Merrell Holberton/St. Martin's, 1999; $45; 304 pp.; illus.)

Novelist and critic Umberto Eco and art historian E.H. Gombrich are among twenty-three essayists who give us their thoughts about time. Three hundred color plates, many accompanied by long, useful explanations, portray such time-related objects as Renaissance sun dials and clepsydras (water clocks).

Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It, by Gina Kolata (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999; $24; 256 pp.)

Scientists recently rediscovered evidence in Alaska of the flu virus that devastated America, killing almost 40 million people in 1918. Science reporter Kolata looks at that epidemic, as well as at subsequent flu outbreaks, in order to address the possibility of a recurrence and to discuss what can be done to prevent one.

In Search of Deep Time: Beyond the Fossil Record to a New History of Life, by Henry Gee (Free Press, 1999; $26; 288 pp.)

Cladistics, a method of reconstructing the evolutionary relationships of organisms through patterns of shared characteristics, has revolutionized biology and paleontology during the past twenty years. In a straightforward, accessible narrative, British paleontologist-turned-science-writer Henry Gee explores cladistics and enables the reader to readily appreciate its contribution to the complex study of "deep time."