SCIENCE science.org 3 DECEMBER 2021 • VOL 374 ISSUE 6572 1195plunging into the depths to sample a sea
volcano for her master’s thesis.
The book continues apace across South
and Central America through a selection of
close encounters with hazards, ranging from
sewers and glacial moraines to drug traffick-
ers and ending at her epiphany: election to
the Explorers Club. It is in these hallowed
halls that she decides to run for Congress in- “I did it because that is what explorers
do, after all,” she writes in the book’s closing
pages. “We enter the unknown, seeking to il-
luminate the darkness and charting a course
for all those who wish to find a way.”
Ms. Adventure: My Wild Explorations in Science, Lava,
and Life, Jess Phoenix, Timber Press, 2021, 272 pp.Great Adaptations
Reviewed by Laura M. Zahn^14Earth teems with life-forms, including many
distinctive creatures few of us will ever see in
the wild, let alone study in the course of our
careers. Vanderbilt biologist Kenneth Cata-
nia’s book Great Adaptations recounts tales
from the author’s studies in animal biology
across a menagerie of organisms, from star-
nosed moles to tentacled snakes.
This engrossing read walks readers
through Catania’s life as a scientist. Key dis-
coveries are juxtaposed with lessons about
the scientific method, and QR codes sprin-
kled throughout the book link to short, en-
grossing movies highlighting some of the
author’s fascinating work. We learn, for ex-
ample, that worms head to the soil’s surface
when encountering noises that likely are sim-
ilar to those made by moles digging; a fact
exploited by human “worm grunters,” who
collect them for fishing bait.
Catania does a good job of making it clear
when his studies are not conclusive. He ac-
knowledges, for example, that a macabre test
he designs to assess cockroach “free will”
is more for show than a true test of roach
preference. And although he does not walk
readers through his failures and disappoint-
ments, he makes it clear that there have been
many dead ends and that his discoveries are
sometime due to serendipity. His story also
offers plenty of encouragement to those who
may wish to follow a similar career trajectory.
Throughout the text, Catania reiterates
how important it is to test our prior assump-
tions. Concluding that “one underappreci-ated key to making discoveries is keeping an
open mind and not having too many precon-
ceptions,” he proves himself a font of useful
knowledge that is applicable to one’s broader
life as well as to one’s scientific endeavors.Great Adaptations: Star-Nosed Moles, Electric Eels,
and Other Tales of Evolution’s Mysteries Solved,
Kenneth Catania, Princeton University Press, 2020, 224 pp.The Loneliest
Polar Bear
Reviewed by Pamela J. Hines^15Polar bears draw crowds at zoos. But how
do they get there? What happens behind the
scenes? Kale Williams takes on these ques-
tions and more with his wide-ranging and
well-researched book The Loneliest Polar
Bear. The book tells the story of Nora, a po-
lar bear cub abandoned by her mother soon
after birth at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio.
A team of zookeepers, who came to be
known as the “Nora Moms,” waited before
deciding that Nora’s survival was up to
them. They invented an infant feeding for-
mula based on what is known of polar bear
diets in the wild, adjusted the temperatureof the den from cozy to chilly as Nora grew
into her fur, and introduced Nora to other
polar bears, which have more social interac-
tion, even in the wild, than one might think.
Along the way, Williams introduces read-
ers to some of the Arctic research teams
that scan the horizons for polar bears. We
also learn about the small Alaskan village
of Wales, where, in 1988, an Inupiat hunter
fell into the den of Nora’s grandmother, star-
tling both bear and hunter and ending in
the bear’s death. (Although this is not how
kills usually go, subsistence hunting has long
sustained Indigenous communities.) The two
cubs discovered in the den were rescued and
transferred to a zoo in Anchorage: one went
on to become Nora’s father.
Today, both humans and polar bears in
the Arctic struggle with the effects of cli-
mate change, as access to hunts diminishes
and ice-sustained ranges shrink. Nora’s story
gives readers a glimpse into the science and
history of both climate research and the
various roles played by zoos, as well as how
both polar bear and Native communities are
struggling to navigate our changing world. jThe Loneliest Polar Bear: A True Story of Survival and
Peril on the Edge of a Warming World, Kale Williams,
Crown, 2021, 288 pp.
10.1126/science.abn08661The reviewer is a deputy editor at Science. Email: [email protected] The reviewer is a publications assistant at Science. Email: [email protected] The reviewer is a managing editor
at the Science journals. Email: [email protected] The reviewer is an associate editor at Science. Email: [email protected] The reviewer is an associate editor and news writer at
Science. Email: [email protected] The reviewer is a lead content production editor at Science. Email: [email protected] The reviewer is the Letters editor at Science. Email: [email protected]
The reviewer is a senior editor at Science. Email: [email protected] The reviewer is an associate editor at Science. Email: [email protected] 1 The reviewer is a news writer at Science.
Email: [email protected] 11The reviewer is a senior editor at Science. Email: [email protected] 1The reviewer is a senior editor at Science. Email: [email protected] 1The reviewer is a
senior editor at Science. Email: [email protected] 1The reviewer is a senior editor at Science. Email: [email protected] 1The reviewer is a senior editor at Science. Email: [email protected]Light-emitting diodes,
powered by an eel’s high-
voltage attack, illuminate
a fake alligator head.PHOTO: KENNETH CATANIA