About the Author

Judith Hooper has written for The Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times Book Review, and many other publications; she is the author of The Three-Pound Universe. She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Reviews

"An extraordinary, even-handed, highly entertaining and scrupulously researched book." -- Times Literary Supplement "Hooper shows...gentleness and respect, creating a moving and compassionate portrait." -- New York Times Book Review "A riotous story of ambition and deceit...demonstrates delightfully how the theory of evolution evolved." -- Dava Sobel "A fascinating account a story of hard work, brilliant insights, and human foibles." -- Ernst Mayr, Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology, Emeritus, at Harvard University "[A] timely and intriguing tale." -- Sunday Times [London] "[Hooper] tells her story with sensitivity and grace...[a] skillful synthesis of scientific and human detail." -- Evening Standard "[C]onsiderable narrative gusto while painting vivid portaits of key players...the book is never dull." -- Scotland on Sunday "A mesmerising book...I have no doubt it will be a classic." -- Frank Ryan, author of The Forgotten Plague and Virus X "A stunning revelation of evolutionary theory and practice. Hooper contributes significantly to the history of science scholarship." -- Lynn Margulis, Distinguished University Professor of Geoscience, University of Massachussetts

Journalist Hooper offers an engaging account of H.B.D. Kettlewell's famous field experiments on the peppered moth, which were widely known as "Darwin's missing evidence," proof of natural selection in action until 1998, that is, when biologist Michael Majerus showed Kettlewell's findings to be falsified and wrong. Hooper peers into the lives of Kettlewell and his mentor and eventual adversary, the imperious and brilliant E.B. Ford, revealing the human factors that don't get written into the research papers "recriminations, intrigue, jealousy, back-stabbing and shattered dreams." Ford, a Darwinian zealot hell-bent on proving natural selection, serves as a foil for the broader questions raised here about dogmatism in science. Natural selection had the dubious distinction of being as widely accepted as it was short on evidence, and the moth experiments were greeted as a pivotal victory; indeed, despite evidence to the contrary, many scientists today still embrace Kettlewell's findings, in part because denying them opens the door to "the bogeyman of creationism." As Hooper writes, the peppered moths provided "a damned good story, a narrative so satisfying, so seductive, that no one can bear to let it go. But a story alone is no substitute for truth." Hooper's lively history also traces the extinction of old-school natural history, embodied by Kettlewell, who was very much left behind with the synthesis of Darwinism and Mendelian genetics, and who died a suicide. (Aug.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.