The Universe Within (33 page)

The role of climate change in the origin and early
evolution of humans and their closest relatives is evaluated in National Research Council and Committee on the Earth System Context for Homin
in Evolution,
Understanding Climate’s Influence on Human Evolution
(Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2010),
http://www.nap.edu/​catalog.php?record_id=12825#toc
. This volume contains an extensive set of references on the climate reconstruction. See also T. E. Cerling et al., “Woody Cover and Hominin Environments in the Past 6 Million Years,”
Nature
476 (2011): 51–56.

The
hominid fossils from Chad are described in M. Brunet, “A New Hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad, Central Africa,”
Nature
418 (2002): 145–51; and M. Brunet et al., “New Material of the Earliest Hominid from the Upper Miocene of Chad,”
Nature
434 (2005): 752–55. A recent analysis of
bipedalism in early Kenyan finds is in B. Richmond et al., “
Orrorin tugenensis
Femoral Morphology and the Evolution of Hominin Bipedalism,”
Science
319, no. 5870 (2008): 1662–65. General books on the hominin fossil record include Ann Gibbons,
The First Human
(New York: Doubleday, 2006); and Donald C. Johanson and Kate Wong,
Lucy’s Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins
(New York: Harmony Books, 2009).

Robert Merton’s insights into invention are in R. K. Merton, “Singletons and
Multiples in Scientific Discovery: A Chapter in the Sociology of Science,”
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society
105, no. 5 (1961): 470–86; and R. K. Merton, “Priorities in Scientific Discovery: A Chapter in the Sociology of Science,”
American Sociological Review
22, no. 6 (1957): 635–59.

Stigler’s law is in
Stephen Stigler, “Stigler’s Law of Eponymy,” in
Science and Social Structure: A Festschrift for Robert K. Merton
, ed. Thomas F. Gieryn (New York: New York Academy of Sciences, 1980), 147–58.

For an account of how plants have influenced the history of life, see David Beerling,
The Emerald Planet: How Plants Changed Earth’s History
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007); and William C. Burger,
Flowers: How They Changed the World
(Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2006).

Steven Stearns’s work on recent selection in humans is in S. C. Stearns et al., “Measuring Selection in Contemporary Human Populations,”
Nature Reviews Genetics
11 (2010): 611–22.

My inspiration to enter science derived from growing up watching Apollo space missions on TV, visiting natural history museums, and reading writers such as Carl Sagan and Jacob Bronowski. And, as I grew, my parents, Seymour and Gloria Shubin, supported each hobby of the week—from rock collections and colonial pottery to telescopes and meteorites—no questions asked. They nurtured a child’s curiosity, allowing it to transform into that of an adult scientist.

Sadly, my friend and mentor, Professor Farish A. Jenkins, Jr., passed away just as this book was going to press. He found wonder in the process of discovery and, accordingly, it is only befitting that this narrative is bookended by stories with him.

Kalliopi Monoyios, who created all the original art for the book, is everything you could want in a scientific illustrator: a student of the natural world who has a keen eye, sharp critical sense, and compelling aesthetic vision. Kapi helped transduce complex ideas and text into simple visuals. I had the privilege of having her in my lab for the past eleven years: she has now fledged to form her own freelance studio (
www.kalliopimonoyios.com
) and can be followed on her blog (
blogs.scientificamerican.com/symbiartic
).

I am fortunate to have worked in the field with remarkable people: Farish A. Jenkins Jr., Bill Amaral, Paul Olsen, Ted Daeschler, Jason Downs, Chuck Schaff. One of the joys of writing this book was reliving moments we shared in Greenland, Morocco, Canada, and Ellesmere Island.

Members of my lab past and present have been influential to and patient with my writing: Randy Dahn, Marcus Davis, Adam Franssen, Nadia Fröbisch, Andrew Gehrke, Andrew Gillis, Christian Kammerer, Justin Lemberg, Kapi Monoyios, Joyce Pieretti, Igor Schneider, Becky Shearman, Natalia Taft, and John Westlund.

For insights, comments, and responses to pesky queries, I thank Bill Amaral, James Bullock, Robin Canup, Sean Carroll, Michael Coates, Anna Di Renzio, John Flynn, David Gozal, Lance Grande, David Jablonski, Susan Kidwell, Andy Knoll, Michael LaBarbera, Dan Lieberman, Daniel Margoliash, Paul Olsen, Kevin Righter, Callum Ross, David Rowley, Paul Sereno, Michael Turner, Mark Webster, and Mike Young. Elena Skosey-Lalonde assisted with the fact-checking during summer breaks from the University of Chicago Laboratory
Schools. Fred Ciesla patiently answered questions about the origin of planets many mornings after dropping our daughters off at kindergarden. Nate Dominy kindly shared stories and details of his work in Uganda. Lawrence Krauss graciously commented on the big bang and stellar formation, thereby saving me from embarrassing mistakes. Seymour Shubin, Michele Seidl, Kalliopi Monoyios, Andrew Gehrke, Joyce Pieretti, and John Westlund read and commented on drafts of the text. Thanks to all. The errors that remain are, of course, my own.

A number of the themes in the book were derived from interactions I had with students. Freshmen at the University of Montana, the University of Pennsylvania, and Skidmore College not only provided wonderful audiences but also offered questions that inspired me as I was writing this book. The same is true of students at a number of high schools, including those at Adlai E. Stevenson High School, Downers Grove North, the Francis W. Parker School, and the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. I explored a number of the book’s ideas in my own non-majors course at the University of Chicago.

My agents, Katinka Matson, John Brockman, Max Brockman, and Russell Weinberger, have been a continual source of support. Dan Frank and Marty Asher formed a powerful editorial team, helping me frame the book during rough drafts and polish it during later ones. Production, assembly, and copyediting derived from the often heroic efforts of Jill Verrillo and Ellen Feldman with the help of Ingrid Sterner, Teresa Gardstein, and Jenna Bagnini. The entire team at Pantheon has been a joy to work with.

My wife, Michele, kept things going at home during weekend writing escapes; tolerated many a date night discussing the Harvard Computers, Marie Tharp, and zircons; and read innumerable drafts of chapters, including those that ended on the literary equivalent of the cutting-room floor. Her endurance, intelligence, and love made this project possible. Michele and our children, Hannah and Nathaniel, are my deep connections to the universe I celebrate every day.

Unless otherwise noted, all illustrations are by Kalliopi Monoyios.