— The Chronicles of Evolution and other fascinating new writing

NON- FICTION Sydney Brenner’s 10- on-10: The Chronicles of Evolution SHUZHEN SIM and BENJAMIN SEET (eds)

IN THE RENAISSANCE it was possible to be at the forefront of nearly every field of study, from philosophy to astronomy, if one was lucky enough to have the brains, time and money to do so. All were nascent, having comparatively small stores of knowledge.

In the early 21st century, this is no longer conceivable. It is barely possible for experts in the most niche sub-subdisciplines to keep up with the torrent of publications on their topic alone. We are scattered, knowing much about specific things, and little beyond.

So, it is a wonderful reminder of what’s really going on in the world when someone drags our attention away from the minutiae to the big picture. Sydney Brenner’s 10-on-10: The Chronicles of Evolution tells a tale of such grandeur that it is mapped on a logarithmic scale of years before the present: the story of humans, and life, from the Big Bang to the Anthropocene.

The book is the result of a lecture series conceived by Brenner, the Nobel laureate who is currently based in Singapore as scientific advisor to the chairman at the Agency of Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and an adjunct professor at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technology University.

Brenner is a giant of his field of molecular biology who, among many accomplishments, won the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for pioneering the use of the nematode worm Caenorhabitis elegans as a model organism. This is now ubiquitous as a tool to understand animal and human biology in labs worldwide.

In 2016 Brenner established the Evolution Club in Singapore to “discuss evolution in all its variety and complexity”. The plan was to present 10 seminars over 10 months that would cover 10 billion years: hence the logarithmic scale. Sydney Brenner’s 10-on-10: The Chronicles of Evolution, documents those seminars in 23 chapters.

It begins where the universe did – with the Big Bang – and it is fitting (given that half the book is devoted to questions of human evolution) that this chapter is written by John D Barrow, the English cosmologist and mathematician who, with the almost infamous Frank Tipler, has championed the notion of a “anthropic cosmological principle”.

This principle basically states that the universe, against all odds and in the most unlikely manner, is finetuned in such a way that intelligent observers (us) exist within it. Barrow, however, goes further to suggest that the universe has these unlikely qualities because intelligent carbon-based lifeforms are necessary in some way.

This teleological position is popular with the religious elements within the scientific community and it is there in the background of Barrow’s chapter. In this context, however, it seems charming rather than philosophically problematic, as it focusses his tale of the beginning (and the end) of the universe squarely on life and its place in the cosmos, thus binding it neatly to the other chapters.

From there, things become much less controversial. Hyman Hartman outlines how clay may have helped in the development and evolution of the genetic code itself and Jack W Szostak describes our best understanding of abiogenesis: how lifeless chemistry gave rise to living beings.

We are treated to a tour of the development of cellular complexity, of how multicellular life arose, and subsequently of the rise of vertebrates. We see life dragging itself ashore to colonise the terrestrial world and the subsequent advent of mammals. This part of the book is gloriously

enamoured of the Big Picture. Each chapter tells a tale of epic moments in the evolution of life and especially those that led to us. These events are so big that sometimes we lose sight of them for all the minor details; you might know full well that at some point organisms gained spines, but it is unlikely that you know the up-to-date story of this, or where to find it. And this is what The Chronicles of Evolution does so well: it puts those stories at your fingertips and beds them down in context.

The rest of the book is more directly concerned with human evolution. Francis Thackeray sketches our understanding of hominin evolution, and Svante Pääbo, the doyen of all things Neanderthal, tells us of their genetic legacy in modern day humans. We learn of the origin of our large brains and how they facilitated our intelligence and human languages.

From there the book moves into questions of cultural evolution, technology and information and finally to the philosophical consideration of the very process of evolution that generated us. This part of the book is more restricted in scope and more centred on us, but nonetheless marks important milestones in the human story.

The book is superbly visual, with beautiful imagery and thoughtful infographics throughout. The hard cover edition even has a dust jacket that folds out to reveal a poster-sized whimsical illustration of the history of life.

Although there are things to quibble over here and there, The

Chronicles of Evolution is an absolute delight, and for those weary of the hyper-specialisation of the modern scientific enterprise, it comes as a lovely reminder of the larger narrative that holds all the details together.