Gould & Purcell, 2000, Crossing Over

This book is a collection of photographs and essays that seem to be more literary than scientific in nature. Rather than try to summarize, I will give you a ‘flavor’ of its contents. In the introduction, Gould says, “...although each of these essays features some odd little corner of the natural world... I would venture to state... that these essays treat the two great themes of philosophy through the ages: ontology, or the nature of reality, and epistemology, or how the human mind obtains its knowledge of reality” (p. 13).

One of the essays is about how we perceive individuality and what it means to be biologically individual. The four page essay covers Ibsen, Darwin, cloning, and conjoined twins. Mixing literary theatre references with the history of science as well as current scientific phenomena, Gould makes a the point that clones are as much individuals as identical or even conjoined twins, and that the fear and concern over Dolly is perhaps not necessary. The essay goes with pictures of ang and chang, and a two-headed sheep.

Another essay is about misunderstandings in the fossil record. Gould tells two stories of how scientists misidentified fossils and were later corrected. The story includes a lovely photograph of a bird of paradise and photos of the misidentified fossil of a giant water salamander. This essay alludes to constructivism, but , as the book is not tailored to scholars, it presents the information in a subdued way.

I think this book is an attempt to do just what Lehrer is talking about, and bring artists into the world of science; however, Gould is acting more as an artist or poet than a scientist. I’m not sure what I think of the book, other than that it is interesting. I like that it doesn’t fit a genre, and needs to be dealt with in a different way.