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SWALLOW SUMMER

Out there in the brute world, Brown (Biology/Univ. of Tulsa), a former curator of ornithology at Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History, encounters rape and pillage, parasitism and unbridled egotism—just another day in the life of the cliff swallow. Yes, Petrochelidon pyrrhonota can be a mean and insecure little bird, but it’s also gregarious, its flocks more like hordes, giving rise to cooperation and altruism. What makes swallows— enormous colonies tick, wondered Brown? Why all the rudeness amid the circumstantial advantage of their fellowship? (“The obvious conclusion is that these birds are little shits to each other.”) Then again, what’s the story with those solitaires? Here Brown recounts a field season in his and his wife’s study of the cliff swallow, an informal calendar of days that communicates the electricity in situ research can generate, as well as the down times, when weather brings a halt to the proceedings. There is a wealth of lightly imparted information in these pages: the role of ectoparasites in breeding success; the effects of predation by owls, kestrels, and grackles; the transfer of eggs from parent to surrogate. Then there are the mundane worries of having an observation site in a highway culvert and keeping assistants entertained when hurricane winds prevent them from recording bird captures. And always there are the doubts, such as the question of whether snapshot tallyings obscure wider patternings. The marvel here is that while sometimes the copious detailing can be overdone (—We load up our equipment . . . we unload . . .”), most of it conveys a real sense of fieldwork: discoveries, wasted efforts, frustrations, and the sublime moments of being at the right place at the right time. If Brown teaches his university classes with the same relaxed aplomb with which he delivers this study, then he, unlike the swarming cliff swallow, is a rare bird. (photos, not seen)

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1998

ISBN: 0-8032-6145-4

Page Count: 371

Publisher: Univ. of Nebraska

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1998

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WHY FISH DON'T EXIST

A STORY OF LOSS, LOVE, AND THE HIDDEN ORDER OF LIFE

A quirky wonder of a book.

A Peabody Award–winning NPR science reporter chronicles the life of a turn-of-the-century scientist and how her quest led to significant revelations about the meaning of order, chaos, and her own existence.

Miller began doing research on David Starr Jordan (1851-1931) to understand how he had managed to carry on after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed his work. A taxonomist who is credited with discovering “a full fifth of fish known to man in his day,” Jordan had amassed an unparalleled collection of ichthyological specimens. Gathering up all the fish he could save, Jordan sewed the nameplates that had been on the destroyed jars directly onto the fish. His perseverance intrigued the author, who also discusses the struggles she underwent after her affair with a woman ended a heterosexual relationship. Born into an upstate New York farm family, Jordan attended Cornell and then became an itinerant scholar and field researcher until he landed at Indiana University, where his first ichthyological collection was destroyed by lightning. In between this catastrophe and others involving family members’ deaths, he reconstructed his collection. Later, he was appointed as the founding president of Stanford, where he evolved into a Machiavellian figure who trampled on colleagues and sang the praises of eugenics. Miller concludes that Jordan displayed the characteristics of someone who relied on “positive illusions” to rebound from disaster and that his stand on eugenics came from a belief in “a divine hierarchy from bacteria to humans that point[ed]…toward better.” Considering recent research that negates biological hierarchies, the author then suggests that Jordan’s beloved taxonomic category—fish—does not exist. Part biography, part science report, and part meditation on how the chaos that caused Miller’s existential misery could also bring self-acceptance and a loving wife, this unique book is an ingenious celebration of diversity and the mysterious order that underlies all existence.

A quirky wonder of a book.

Pub Date: April 14, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-5011-6027-1

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Jan. 1, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020

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SEVEN BRIEF LESSONS ON PHYSICS

An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both...

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Italian theoretical physicist Rovelli (General Relativity: The Most Beautiful of Theories, 2015, etc.) shares his thoughts on the broader scientific and philosophical implications of the great revolution that has taken place over the past century.

These seven lessons, which first appeared as articles in the Sunday supplement of the Italian newspaper Sole 24 Ore, are addressed to readers with little knowledge of physics. In less than 100 pages, the author, who teaches physics in both France and the United States, cogently covers the great accomplishments of the past and the open questions still baffling physicists today. In the first lesson, he focuses on Einstein's theory of general relativity. He describes Einstein's recognition that gravity "is not diffused through space [but] is that space itself" as "a stroke of pure genius." In the second lesson, Rovelli deals with the puzzling features of quantum physics that challenge our picture of reality. In the remaining sections, the author introduces the constant fluctuations of atoms, the granular nature of space, and more. "It is hardly surprising that there are more things in heaven and earth, dear reader, than have been dreamed of in our philosophy—or in our physics,” he writes. Rovelli also discusses the issues raised in loop quantum gravity, a theory that he co-developed. These issues lead to his extraordinary claim that the passage of time is not fundamental but rather derived from the granular nature of space. The author suggests that there have been two separate pathways throughout human history: mythology and the accumulation of knowledge through observation. He believes that scientists today share the same curiosity about nature exhibited by early man.

An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both scientists and general readers.

Pub Date: March 1, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-399-18441-3

Page Count: 96

Publisher: Riverhead

Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015

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