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Civilization And The Limpet
Written during a long sea voyage from England through the Mediterranean, Civilization and the Limpet unveils many fascinating phenomena of undersea life. Wells captures with exquisite detail how limpets, like bees, navigate by the stars; how the brainless sea urchin makes a myriad of critical survival decisions every day; how “deserted islands” teem with an incredible abundance of animal life; and why deep-diving whales never get the bends. Elegant and finely crafted, Civilization and the Limpet will enlighten, amuse, and awe anyone interested in the natural world.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 9, 2017
I have been utterly captivated by “Civilization and the Limpet” by Martin Wells. It’s a book about the author’s thoughts and experiences studying invertebrates and it's not a typical science book - it’s very conversational and quite funny at times. Limpets are just one of the creatures discussed in the book and guess what?! All limpets start off male. They turn female at a certain age. CRAZY, RIGHT?! (It’s called “Protandrous hermaphroditism” in case anyone cares.)
There's a ton of interesting info and quotes in this highly engaging book:
"The blue-ringed octopus produces a spittle containing a material called tetrodotoxin, which is one of the deadliest nerve poisons known." (p. 46)
"Middle C, with a wavelength of five and a half meters underwater, would do fine for locating a submarine, but it is not so hot for finding herrings. High frequency equals shorter wavelength equals better resolution, but it increases attenuation, and decreases the range. Echo intensity drops as the distance squared. A large object at a distance can yield an echo of similar intensity to that or a small object close by.” (p. 109)
“Physicists hold that, other things being equal, random events will ensure that chaos eventually triumphs. Events inevitably run downhill into heat, and heat dissipates. The universe is doomed to depart with a scarcely audible whisper.” (p. 155)
“We survivors are more complex than we used to be, still evolving in an environment dedicated to our extermination.” (p. 158)
“By great good luck, we hit on the octopus at a time in the mid-50’s when people were searching for animals less complex than mammals, when attempts to establish the relation between learning and the changes in nerve structure believed to be associated with learning had run into something of a morass. …. A brain does so many things, and learning is just one of them. But if the same patterns turn up in parts of unrelated brains each known to be necessary for learning… there was at least a hope. Besides, the American air force wanted to know how to build tiny computers capable of recognizing patterns and homing in on them (the future cruise missile), and that was just what octopuses were good at. So the American taxpayer paid the bills. (p. 162)
“… they (octopuses) are colorblind, but able to recognize the plane of polarization of light (which we cannot); and they live in a geometrically odd world in which a sphere is a flat surface and a rod is a cube.” (p. 163)
Because I was fascinated by the concept of octopus research driving cold-war-era military innovation, I tried to look up more about those experiments from the 50s, but I got side-tracked by how the octopus has also influenced modern military strategy (a la the Petraeus Doctrine, which mandated decentralized decision making in the field, as well as other things) and counterinsurgent tactics (see the book “Learning From the Octopus: How Secrets from Nature Can Help Us Fight Terrorist Attacks, Natural Disasters, and Disease”).
The book inspired me to write two songs, one of which is called "The Cost of Behavior," which is a chapter title in the book. The second song "Cephalopod" was inspired by Wells' discussion of his adventures with cephalopods, especially with the octopus in particular.
The author's thoughts on how science is art is a wonderful end to the book, as well as to this review.
"Nobody claims that the arts have to be useful. It is sufficient that they make life more interesting. The notion that science should necessarily be useful is one of the great con jobs of the second half of the twentieth century, perpetrated by governments that realise that science can sometimes prove outrageously expensive."
"Animals, like any other exhibition -- and this one is generally for free -- become interesting in proportion to what you already know about the subject, and a part of the job of any zoologist is to help this process along. The fact that he may be getting more fun out of making his contribution than any of his audience is not a reason for supposing his research to be selfish, an ivory-tower activity unrelated to the work, wealth, and happiness of the rest of mankind. A writer, a painter, or a musician is in a very similar position. Some of their products are quite as inaccessible, explorations at least initially of interest only to a few fellow members in the trade. We tolerate, even subsidise, their activities because we believe that they increase the range of experience available to other people. Science is like that, too." (p. 198)
There's a ton of interesting info and quotes in this highly engaging book:
"The blue-ringed octopus produces a spittle containing a material called tetrodotoxin, which is one of the deadliest nerve poisons known." (p. 46)
"Middle C, with a wavelength of five and a half meters underwater, would do fine for locating a submarine, but it is not so hot for finding herrings. High frequency equals shorter wavelength equals better resolution, but it increases attenuation, and decreases the range. Echo intensity drops as the distance squared. A large object at a distance can yield an echo of similar intensity to that or a small object close by.” (p. 109)
“Physicists hold that, other things being equal, random events will ensure that chaos eventually triumphs. Events inevitably run downhill into heat, and heat dissipates. The universe is doomed to depart with a scarcely audible whisper.” (p. 155)
“We survivors are more complex than we used to be, still evolving in an environment dedicated to our extermination.” (p. 158)
“By great good luck, we hit on the octopus at a time in the mid-50’s when people were searching for animals less complex than mammals, when attempts to establish the relation between learning and the changes in nerve structure believed to be associated with learning had run into something of a morass. …. A brain does so many things, and learning is just one of them. But if the same patterns turn up in parts of unrelated brains each known to be necessary for learning… there was at least a hope. Besides, the American air force wanted to know how to build tiny computers capable of recognizing patterns and homing in on them (the future cruise missile), and that was just what octopuses were good at. So the American taxpayer paid the bills. (p. 162)
“… they (octopuses) are colorblind, but able to recognize the plane of polarization of light (which we cannot); and they live in a geometrically odd world in which a sphere is a flat surface and a rod is a cube.” (p. 163)
Because I was fascinated by the concept of octopus research driving cold-war-era military innovation, I tried to look up more about those experiments from the 50s, but I got side-tracked by how the octopus has also influenced modern military strategy (a la the Petraeus Doctrine, which mandated decentralized decision making in the field, as well as other things) and counterinsurgent tactics (see the book “Learning From the Octopus: How Secrets from Nature Can Help Us Fight Terrorist Attacks, Natural Disasters, and Disease”).
The book inspired me to write two songs, one of which is called "The Cost of Behavior," which is a chapter title in the book. The second song "Cephalopod" was inspired by Wells' discussion of his adventures with cephalopods, especially with the octopus in particular.
The author's thoughts on how science is art is a wonderful end to the book, as well as to this review.
"Nobody claims that the arts have to be useful. It is sufficient that they make life more interesting. The notion that science should necessarily be useful is one of the great con jobs of the second half of the twentieth century, perpetrated by governments that realise that science can sometimes prove outrageously expensive."
"Animals, like any other exhibition -- and this one is generally for free -- become interesting in proportion to what you already know about the subject, and a part of the job of any zoologist is to help this process along. The fact that he may be getting more fun out of making his contribution than any of his audience is not a reason for supposing his research to be selfish, an ivory-tower activity unrelated to the work, wealth, and happiness of the rest of mankind. A writer, a painter, or a musician is in a very similar position. Some of their products are quite as inaccessible, explorations at least initially of interest only to a few fellow members in the trade. We tolerate, even subsidise, their activities because we believe that they increase the range of experience available to other people. Science is like that, too." (p. 198)
March 29, 2013
This book is written in this man's 70 plus years of life, and if it is not worth reading the work of a person that has had 70 plus years of experience I don't know that is.
I found it rather intriguing that another individual cared for other things besides people as much as I do. Though his is life, and mine is form. Though I love life for it represents a form.
Further there were good positions on seeking to study things besides ourselves in part they shed answers to our own mysteries, and they allow us to find the technology of life that would benefit us and harness it for as much, or as little as we would like.
Though I respect some of his positions and formulations as to life and it's value to other life, and life and it's rights to another species. I still think his view is rather shallow. That may be that I see a change between creatures with very high conscious and awareness and those that do not have such skills or gifts.
We are uniquely in the position to help or kill all living species on this planet, as the universe is in that same position with the universe.
Their are many arguments in the text that need to be explored though so that we might have a tomorrow not just a today.
I found it rather intriguing that another individual cared for other things besides people as much as I do. Though his is life, and mine is form. Though I love life for it represents a form.
Further there were good positions on seeking to study things besides ourselves in part they shed answers to our own mysteries, and they allow us to find the technology of life that would benefit us and harness it for as much, or as little as we would like.
Though I respect some of his positions and formulations as to life and it's value to other life, and life and it's rights to another species. I still think his view is rather shallow. That may be that I see a change between creatures with very high conscious and awareness and those that do not have such skills or gifts.
We are uniquely in the position to help or kill all living species on this planet, as the universe is in that same position with the universe.
Their are many arguments in the text that need to be explored though so that we might have a tomorrow not just a today.
September 23, 2022
Loved this little book! Each (short) chapter is an interesting essay about a marine organism (ex: sea urchins) or another aspect of marine biology (ex: buoyancy). The personal stories and subtle humor made it a really fun read.
May 2, 2016
In terms of essay-chapters dealing with natural history, not as good as Monbiot's Feral. In terms of engaging deeply with the subject (cephalopoda), not as good as Hoare's Leviathan (cetacea). Very interesting at times, but never gripped me. See below for key factoids:
- The only part of a sea urchin that you can eat is its genitals
- Octopuses can taste with their tentacles, but can't tell the difference between a sphere and a cube
- Bees can give directions but aligning their bodies and shaking their butts
- Some fish create so much heat with their muscles that they effectively become warm blooded
- Sharks have lots of urea in their bodies and they love it. If you put a shark heart in a bucket of sea water, it will stop beating and then start again if you pee on it
- Since 1977 the stock of mackerel off the west coast of the UK has decreased from 3 million to 300,000 tonnes
- Cephalopoda, aside from the usual smokescreen, can also entangle the ink in a ball of mucus to distract a predator
- The only part of a sea urchin that you can eat is its genitals
- Octopuses can taste with their tentacles, but can't tell the difference between a sphere and a cube
- Bees can give directions but aligning their bodies and shaking their butts
- Some fish create so much heat with their muscles that they effectively become warm blooded
- Sharks have lots of urea in their bodies and they love it. If you put a shark heart in a bucket of sea water, it will stop beating and then start again if you pee on it
- Since 1977 the stock of mackerel off the west coast of the UK has decreased from 3 million to 300,000 tonnes
- Cephalopoda, aside from the usual smokescreen, can also entangle the ink in a ball of mucus to distract a predator
July 14, 2012
Good collection of essays from a marine biologist, mostly on marine creatures (his specialty are octopuses and squids) but also on general biology such as heat regulation in animals, and a little bit of autobiography thrown with highlights on his career as a field biologist and university lecturer. I liked his outlook on nature and respect for other lifeforms, something I too can identify with and sadly missing in the majority of humans and society at large - hence the continued destruction of biodiversity today. Even if Wells may not have had a significant impact on conservation, at least he led his life to the fullest by all accounts, doing something he is passionate about, and being paid to play as he puts it.
August 15, 2010
Beautiful and interesting book about the science of things that 90% of people don't care about. All the science of a literature review, but with a writing style that makes it impossible to put down. How do limpets navigate? How do tuna control their body temperature? What other random facts have people devoted their lives to researching? It may be my inner biology nerd, but I love this book.
February 13, 2012
A book of brief essays about interesting critters by the biologist grandson of H.G. Wells. It will change the way you think about existence, remarkable in that all it sets out to do is describe how other things live. Particularly memorable is the essay "How Hot Is a Fish?"
February 25, 2009
I am waiting for it to arrive.
December 12, 2008
A long-time favorite, as important to my social development as the first music cassette I ever owned (Queen's 'A Night at the Opera').
February 26, 2010
The most poetically beautiful, and one of the most enlightening science books I've read. I keep giving my copy away so others can enjoy.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews