Library Journal
Science writer Holmes (Suburban Safari, The Secret Life of Dust), who is also a daughter of a biologist, has never come across a biological fact sheet for the species Homo sapiens. In her new book, she creates and applies this fact sheet to herself and all other humans to show how we fit within the animal kingdom. With humor and clarity, she explores the facts, fictions, and hopes about the species Homo sapiens. Each of the 11 chapters is devoted to one topic (the brain, perception, diet, communication, etc.), beginning with a short page or two of general description on the chapter's topic as applied to humans, while the remainder of the chapter delves into the topic from a scientific, cultural, and anthropological view. Holmes comfortably uses herself as the example for the topic, and the personalization works well. In reading the fact sheet about the species Homo sapiens we can each see how very much like other animals we are and at the same time how very different. Highly recommended for all science collections.
Michael D. Cramer, Schwarz BioSciences, RTP, NC
Kirkus, November 1, 2008
A pellucid spin through the contours of the human brain and the folds of the human body.
Holmes (Suburban Safari: A Year on the Lawn, 2005, etc.) is a skilled practitioner of the rocks-for-jocks school of science writing. Thus it is that she ventures observations such as, "Noise is a disturbance among air molecules," and "The orangutan eats for five hours a day. Dust mites eat skin around the clock, without cease." All that basic science has a point, though, providing the basis for Holmes's deeper subject of explaining why humans are different from the other denizens of creation, for better or worse. As she appends to her battery of prandial statistics, our species has the evolutionary advantage-maybe-of being able to rip open a package, zap it and consume it in a few minutes, thereby freeing ourselves to do great things such as plan trips to the moon and plot the extinction of other species. The careful reader will learn scads of facts to attend to all kinds of questions they may not have known they had. Why is it that anorexics don't ovulate? It's because "nature abhors waste," including the waste of an egg to a malnourished environment. Do creatures other than humans lie? Sure-a spider who bounces in her web when threatened does so to send the message that she's many times bigger than she really is. Do animals get divorced? Yes, but they don't have to pay lawyers to do so. As the author notes, "Flamingo couples almost always split up; masked booby marriages last about half of the time; about 10 percent of mute swan unions dissolve." Holmes happily details what distinguishes us from them, which turns out to be both less and more than one might have thought.
Careful science meets good writing-a pleasure for fans of Lewis Thomas, Natalie Angier and other interpreters of scientific fact.
