© 2005 Nature Publishing Group

NATURE|Vol 437|29 September 2005 BOOKS & ARTS

623

after the Cassini probe reached Saturn. Sobel’s great strength appears in the chapter

on Earth. Here’s a real story — the tale of theEarth emerging in human minds as a planet.Here’s Ptolemy, recognizing that timing lunareclipses from different cities would allow esti-mates of longitudes. Here’s Gilbert, discover-ing magnetism in 1600 and venturing apre-newtonian view that it might be the forcethat keeps planets in their orbits. And here’sHalley, urging that observers after his death

Roving the Solar System The Planetsby Dava SobelFourth Estate/Viking: 2005. 288 pp.£15/$24.95

William K. HartmannDava Sobel, the science reporter known forher brilliant books Longitude and Galileo’sDaughter, now gives us a beautifully writtenrumination about the planets and small bodiesof the Solar System. In The Planets she startswith Mercury and works outwards from theSun. Those who expect an overview of mod-ern planetary science will be disappointed,however. This modest-sized, pleasant book isa master raconteur’s meander through historyand astrology, and it dips into modern discov-eries only sporadically. The late Carl Sagancovered some of the same territory in severalof his books, but, perhaps because he was as an active researcher, he gave more of a sense of the mysteries, discoveries and ultimate consequence of cosmic exploration.

I’m a fan of Sobel’s historical and culturalsensibilities, and I believe in teaching the his-tory of science, but I get the feeling that some-one’s concept of a literary book about planetsgets in the way here. For example, there’s anodd patchwork scheme with each chapterbeing in a different style. The Earth chapter isvirtually all history, yet written in the presenttense: “Darwin is sailing” and so on. The Marschapter, oddly titled “Sci-fi”, is a first-personnarrative by a 4.5-billion-year-old martianmeteorite. The chapter on Uranus and Nep-tune is mostly in the form of an imaginary letter from the British astronomer CarolineHerschel to her American counterpart MariaMitchell. A final chapter dwells on a swellparty at researcher Andy Ingersoll’s house

Louis Bec, a member of the 'artificial-life art'movement, uses computer models toartificially evolve new virtual species from existing organisms. His fabulouszoomorphic forms include theMelaskunodousse shown here, which isevolved from several generic ancestors. The French biologist styles himself as theonly zoosystematician in the world.

This computer image is one of nearly 300 works described in the book Kunst aus dem Labor [Art From the Laboratory] by Ingeborg Reichle (Springer, €49). The artworks analysed by Reichle rangefrom Salvador Dali's Butterfly Landscapeto Suzanne Anker's contemporaryinstallations, which resonate so powerfullywith genetics research.

Virtual life

watch for his predicted Venus transit, in orderto triangulate the interplanetary distance scale.This beautiful chapter reminds us that sci-entists are now in the midst of a progressive

adventure, something that thepublic and most journalists fail tograsp — especially as Americanfundamentalists recycle erroneous seventeenth-century argumentsabout the age of Earth, argumentslong since settled in Europe.

My qualms returned when Ifound that many significant phys-ical concepts, such as hydrogenfusion and orbital resonances, areconsigned to the oblivion of a 14-page small-print “Details” section,along with additional mytho-logical and historical tidbits. Didsome editor win an argument thatthe delicate sensitivities of readersshould not be troubled with peskyfacts and basic principles? More-over, as a colleague pointed out,this section erroneously states that most ‘tidally bound’ moonsare in a 2:1 spin resonance, unlikeour Moon. In fact most moons,like ours, are in synchronous 1:1rotation.

I must also mention my dis-quiet when the review copy Ireceived was not a marketable

copy but an advance review copy. Books, likemany other products, are beginning to offer asobering case study of the so-called free mar-ket. The number of distributors providingbooks to stores has collapsed to just a few, andseveral are owned by the big bookstore chains.When these distributors make mass purchasesto place a book in their own stores, then abook’s readership, like an election’s outcome,ends up depending on which products aremost aggressively marketed. With the market-ing departments in control, orchestrated cam-paigns are the name of the game. Reviewers in such a situation can become part of theadvance promotional machinery. To be fair,the final hardback release arrived just as I wasabout to send in my review. Typos seemed tohave been corrected, but it confirmed that thebook ignores modern spacecraft imagery.

It is a nice book and it might be a good gift for a literately inclined or ‘artsy’ friend who is dubious about science. I was takenaback, however, that in an age of rovers onMars and landers on Titan, a book named The Planets offers the public mostly astrology,mythology, history and archival woodcuts,interesting though they may be. Somehow itreminded me of the genius of the US politicalconsultant Karl Rove, who manages to keeppeople enthused by distracting them from thereal issues. ■

William K. Hartmann is at the Planetary ScienceInstitute, 1700 East Fort Lowell Road, Suite 106,Tucson, Arizona 85719, USA.

NA

SA JP

LLO

UIS

BEC

29.9 Books MH 22/9/05 4:56 PM Page 623

Nature Publishing Group© 2005