BEYOND PRIMATES

Coffey presents a collection of short essays that discuss Charles Darwin’s life and legacy, as well as the latest developments in the field of evolutionary theory.

In more than a dozen essays, the author, a science journalist, explores the sometimes quirky terrain of contemporary evolutionary theory (maybe the partial deafness of naked mole-rats provides a survival advantage?) in light of the foundational work of Charles Darwin. The issues broached here raise questions about the continued applicability of Darwin’s findings while also acknowledging the extraordinary impact his theory continues to assert over scientific investigation. For example, Darwin was wrong when he hypothesized that winged insects on the island of Madeira were swept away by high winds, resulting in a larger population of wingless bugs, but not entirely so; the current hypothesis is that the high winds exerted a pressure on the insects to “invest energetically in the machinery of reproduction” rather than in the development of flight, which would be of little advantage in the windy climate. Coffey offers a wide range of similar discussions, all lucidly presented with a touch of light humor—at one point, she wonders if the preference of some male spiders to mate with a female who will likely devour them is evidence supporting Freud’s theory of the death drive, a fateful instinct for obliteration. The author suggests that Darwin hyperbolically overstated the cognitive complexity of animals in response to life’s traumas, including his own struggles with illness. However, she presents no compelling evidence for this theory, and overlooks Darwin’s own misgivings about the comprehensiveness of his scientific worldview. This is the principal flaw in Coffey’s book, and in her appraisal of Darwin in particular: a lack of scholarly rigor and philosophical depth. Still, her peripatetic tour of all things Darwinian is a delightful one and enjoyably instructive.

A companionable assemblage of essays on evolution, breezily fascinating.