Symphony in tree minor
A scientist meditates on the sound and beauty of the forest.
Unless you already have an ear for natural soundscapes, there is a good chance you will discover a whole new orchestra by reading THE SONGS OF TREES: Stories from Nature’s
Great Connectors (Black Inc, $40), the second book by American scientist-cum-poet David George Haskell. His first, The Forest Unseen, won acclaim for its eloquent writing and Zen-like close observation. This volume is an even deeper meditation, focusing on the aural experiences of getting to know trees and their goings-on.
Haskell focuses on a dozen trees, revisiting each of them to slowly unravel their stories – their ancient ecologies, deep histories and complex relationships with other parts of the natural world, including us. From an Amazonian ceibo tree, which serves as a place of connection for indigenous people confronted with encroaching oil exploration interests, to an olive tree at the Damascus Gates in Jerusalem, which tells of ancient water wars and modern conflicts of belonging, Haskell tunes into arboreal soundscapes to look for links and networks.
He has a deeply respectful voice as a nature writer. It requires some effort to slow down enough to fully immerse yourself in his storytelling, but once you do, you’ll find yourself captivated by an unexpected symphony.
Reading EVOLUTION’S BITE: A STORY OF TEETH, DIET AND HUMAN ORIGINS ( Princeton
University Press, $38) reminded me of Aunty, who now rests in peace again at Wairau Bar, one of the earliest settlements in New Zealand. It is from deposits on her teeth that scientists could tell that her diet during childhood was very different from what she ate later in life – and that, therefore, she was likely to be among the first generation of people to set foot on these islands. Peter Ungar is a palaeoanthropologist at the University of Arkansas, and in this book he traces the evolutionary knowledge scientists have gleaned from teeth. Like living fossils, teeth carry “food prints” from the past, and combined with studies of environmental change, they have helped scientists to pin down why people migrated and how they transitioned from foragers to farmers. It’s fascinating to take a dental perspective on evolution but hard going to read beyond the introduction of the idea.
Men are naturally more competitive and promiscuous and women are hard-wired to collaborate and nurture – simply because these qualities have been rewarded with higher reproductive success in our hunter-gatherer past or, if you take a purely biological approach, women invest more resources into each egg while men churn out sperm with minimal effort.
Such explanations of contemporary gender inequalities can appear as unquestionable evolutionary logic, but in TESTOSTERONE REX: Unmaking the Myths of Our Gendered Minds (Icon Books, $32.99), science historian Cordelia Fine debunks such thinking as nothing more than a caricature of stereotypes.
Fine takes readers on a tour through the history of research that came to suggest our quest to pass on our genetic inheritance to the next generation has led to the evolution of gender differences in not just our bodies but also our brains and behaviour. Then she proceeds to slay myth after myth to illustrate how far science has moved on – and demonstrates that Testosterone Rex is a creature on its last legs.
The best thing about it? Fine’s dry humour makes you laugh out loud.
Like living fossils, teeth carry “food prints” from the past … and they have helped scientists to pin down why people migrated.