Published in Science, Jan 1st 1999

NATURE OF SCIENCE:
A Wondrous and Poetic Spectrum

A review by Charles M. Vest*


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Unweaving the Rainbow: Science: Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder
Richard Dawkins
Houghton Mifflin, New York, 1998. 351 pp. $26. ISBN 0-395-88382-2.

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As a boy in an earlier, simpler time and place, I heard the siren call to a
life in science as I read George Gamow's One, Two, Three, Infinity. I
suspect that I am in the company of thousands of my generation so affected.
Richard Dawkins' Unweaving the Rainbow is, on one plane, a One, Two, Three,
Infinity for grownups, written in an age of computers, DNA, and incipient
advances in brain and cognitive science.

Dawkins, like Gamow, offers readers a potpourri of wondrous tidbits of
knowledge from a vast array of scientific fields. For example, there is a
species of mite "specialized to ride on the first joint of one antenna of
an army ant," and a "worm which lives exclusively under the eyelids of the
hippopotamus and feeds upon its tears." One learns why walking chickens
jerk their heads back and forth. Dawkins tells of a British magician who
hoodwinked members of a national television audience by staring eerily into
the camera and pronouncing that he would cause the watches of those
receptive to his psychic power to stop on the spot--secure in the knowledge
that, statistically, it was highly probable the watches of a few members of
such a large viewing audience would indeed stop at approximately that
moment. But I would do great disservice if I give away more tidbits, or,
much worse, if I imply that this excellent book is merely a collection of
amusing facts. It is much more than that.

Reading this volume produces the same delightful feeling as taking apart a
Russian matryoshka, the doll within a doll within a doll. Several themes
flow through it, sometimes smoothly and synergistically, sometimes a bit
awkwardly, but always interestingly. The book communicates the wonder and
fascination of science, presents the poetry within science (rather than
poetry in opposition to science), executes a few thrusts in Dawkins'
ongoing joust with Stephen Jay Gould, advances the author's view of genes
as "selfish cooperators" being selected for survival in an "environment" of
fellow genes, and reflects on the importance of co-evolution in many
different contexts.

The title, Unweaving the Rainbow, derives from Keats' claim that Newton
destroyed the poetry of the rainbow by reducing it to the prismatic colors.
Indeed, many poets, including Yeats and Blake, shared this view. Not only
did they disdain science, they found it to be destructive of the human
ability to sense and grasp the wonder and beauty of the world. This
opinion, or perhaps I should say this colossal and catastrophic
misunderstanding of science, persists to this day. Dawkins turns this
perspective inside out by devoting much of his book to advancing the
proposition that "science is poetic, ought to be poetic, has much to learn
from poets and should press good poetic imagery and metaphor into its
inspirational service."

The goal of unleashing the poetry within brings to scientist-writers a
responsibility to use poetics wisely. Thus, while Dawkins discusses a
plethora of scientific disciplines, concepts, and concerns, he also carries
on an embedded dialogue about "good" and "bad" poetry in scientific
writing. His premise is that clever metaphor and beautiful language can, in
the extreme, seduce readers to unscientific views or, more commonly, give
rise to exaggerated interpretations of scientific observations. His
strongest criticism is reserved for Stephen Jay You-Know-Who, especially in
regard to their conflicting interpretations of the "Cambrian explosion"
(1). Lacking any personal expertise to draw appropriate conclusions in this
matter, I simply sat back and enjoyed the fireworks. You will too.

Having embarked on the task of discussing the aesthetic and philosophical
argument alluded to by the title, Dawkins proceeds to scientifically
unweave the rainbow and show us where doing so has led. In a remarkably
effective manner, he traces the path from the physics of the refraction of
light by rain drops to our knowledge of the nature of the physical
universe, to our ability to perceive color, to the significance of protein
structure, and to the use and misuse of DNA evidence in the courtroom.
There are many fascinating detours along the way. This is writing about
science for a broad audience at its best.

There is comfort in this book for those who, from time to time, hear a
simple phrase or tune which then overtakes their thoughts, relentlessly
repeating itself. Such repetition is a common phenomenon and can be an
example of a "meme," a unit of cultural inheritance that replicates itself
from brain to brain. The meme is one of Dawkins' candidates for the
"software innovation" that launched the self-feeding spiral of explosive
co-evolution that inflated the human brain so far beyond those of any other
animals. His other candidates for this innovation include language, map
reading, throwing of objects, and sexual selection. Another topic discussed
in the book's final chapters is Dawkins' concept of a shared "virtual
world, constructed from elements that are, at successively higher levels,
useful for representing the real world," that we all inhabit in our brains.
These interesting and enlightening musings leave the reader with a
voracious appetite for the advances in understanding the mind, memory, and
consciousness that we all hope will unfold in the years ahead.

It has been said of Carl Sagan that he gave science as a gift to the
people. Dawkins too offers such a gift through this book, but he also
worries aloud about the manner in which we should present science to the
broader public. He warns effectively of the danger of "dumbing down"
science and expresses concern about the trend to present it as "fun, fun,
fun." These worries and the author's thoughts about them are important,
because we live in an age in which science is valued to a very large extent
for its utilitarian aspects and for the economy-driving technologies it
makes possible. Indeed, the patrons of modern science, primarily
governments, appropriately feel an obligation to show that public
investment in science produces improvements in economies and quality of
life. So, as we discuss science with the public and our patrons, we face an
inherent dilemma: We must demonstrate science's utilitarian returns, but we
know that science often thrives while advancing along circuitous pathways
toward unpredictable destinations, propelled primarily by human curiosity.
Dawkins gives us courage to articulate the latter view--and a means to
bridge the gap between ourselves and the public--by showing us how to
convey our sense of wonder, by using scientific reasoning to expose
all-too-prevalent delusions such as astrology and misapplied statistics,
and by providing a keen sense of scientific adventure.

Above all, Dawkins shows us how to discuss science by setting an absolutely
admirable example. He informs, inspires, teaches, and challenges us. He
helps us to draw out from science its poetry and its beauty. This beauty,
observed the late Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, is "that to which the human
mind responds at its deepest and most profound."

References


1.S. J. Gould, Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History
(Norton, New York, 1989); S. Conway Morris, The Crucible of Creation
(Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 1998).


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The author is president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77
Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307, USA. E-mail: [log in to unmask]