March 2022, ScientificAmerican.com 81IN BRIEFmwalker973/Getty Images
Animal Revolution
by Ron Broglio.
University of Minnesota Press, 2022 ($88)In a chapter appropriately entitled
“Manifesto,” English professor Ron
Broglio begins his book of speculative
nonfiction by proclaiming that the
animal revolution, while it “will not be
televised, mediated, or co-opted by our representa-
tion systems,” is nonetheless afoot. The following
chapters present a compelling argument that pairs
“untold incidents of animals in revolt” with theoreti-
cal frameworks that reveal their revolutionary
power: Kantian subjectivism explicates the hordes
of jellyfish that choke nuclear reactors, Derridean
radical hospitality unpacks the sheep that com-
mando roll over cattle grates. Broglio calls for all
comrades to join the revolution. — Dana Dunhamexpects them to, at times making her
question everything she already knows.
After all, the study of avian olfaction
is not straightforward. Birds daily cover
their feathers in a substance called preen
oil taken from a gland at the base of their
tail. This oil contains odorous compounds—
in the case of the dark-eyed junco, it
smells like leaf litter and soil. Studying
how this odor arises and its purpose in
bird behavior combines the chemistry
of smelly compounds, the biology of bac-
teria and even the genetics of human im-
mune systems. In turn, scientists study
this topic with a funhouse of experiments
that involve capturing juncos in the Appa-
lachians, sequencing DNA and surveying
human women after they smell men’sworn T-shirts. Most of these experiments,
in Whittaker’s view, have yielded as many
questions as answers.
Though not a birder herself, Whittaker
presents a new lens for bird lovers to view
common species, and she had me wonder-
ing what some of my favorite birds smell
like. But the book’s greatest success is
how it depicts the reality of doing science.
Experiments are difficult and do not always
return clean answers. Scientists carry
biases that can influence their results; for
example, focusing on the stereotypically
flashier male birds instead of the females
can lead researchers to overlook impor-
tant details. It takes a diverse group of per-
spectives—and the humility to reconsider
our biases—to truly understand our world.The Kaiju Preservation Society
by John Scalzi. Tor, 2022 ($26.99)John Scalzi’s stand-alone adventure
novel is a fun throwback to Michael
Crichton’s 1990s sci-fi thrillers. When
the first COVID wave hits New York
City, a food-delivery driver named
Jamie Gray joins a team of scientists at a secret facil-
ity in Greenland, where they travel to an alternative
version of Earth populated by mountain-sized crea-
tures called Kaiju, like those familiar from Japanese
films. But other people with less scientific goals have
found their way there as well. In an author’s note,
Scal zi describes the book as a “pop song,” and he’s
right—there are no cerebral messages about animal
rights or nuclear proliferation. Written with the brisk
pace of a screenplay, it’s as quippy as a Marvel movie
and as awe-inspiring as Jurassic Park. — Adam MorganJourney of the Mind:
How Thinking Emerged from Chaos
by Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam.
W. W. Norton, 2022 ($30)Questions of consciousness often
veer into philosophical territory
that cannot be resolved, let alone
approached by science. Journey of
the Mind is a more unusual take. The
co-authors’ backgrounds in computational neuro-
science and machine learning inform their premise
that behaviors can be broken down into modules
of sensors and doers in the same way proteins are
made of peptides and amino acids. The stars of the
book are its illustrated diagrams of minds, begin-
ning with “Archie” the haloarcheon and progressing
to “Captain Buzz” the fruit fly and eventually to
frogs, monkeys and humans. — Maggie BrennerNONFICTIONSecrets of
Bird Scent
A delightfully mean-
dering account of
a scientist’s curiositiesBy Ryan MandelbaumVultures and albatrosses find food using
scent cues. Scent influences the mating
behaviors of dark-eyed juncos. But when a
scientist offhandedly told Danielle J. Whit-
taker that “birds can’t smell,” she discov-
ered that most ornithology textbooks rarely
mention avian olfaction and that this mis-
conception was a common one. The real-
ization changed the course of her life.
Unexpected changes are a regular
occurrence for Whittaker, who has
“never been particularly good at long-
term planning.” In The Secret Perfume
of Birds, Whittaker humorously recounts
her own journey from office worker to
primatology Ph.D. student to postdoc
studying bird behavior to Roller-Derby-
ing managing director of a National Sci-
ence Foundation Science and Technology
Center. One constant throughout the
book is that things rarely happen as sheThe Secret
Perfume
of Birds:
Uncovering
the Science
of Avian Scent
by Danielle J.
Whittaker.
Johns Hopkins
University Press,
2022 ($27.95)