Regular readers of William Reville's science columns in The Irish Times will be heartened by the publication of Understanding The Natural World, a collection of his columns, grouped into 10 subject areas. Sections include the universe at large; the solar system and the earth; some laws of physics; the origin of life and the theory of evolution; modern genetics; medicine and disease; diet, nutrition and lifestyle; the environment; science and religion.
The book assumes little or no prior knowledge of science and is written in easily accessible prose. At end of the chapter entitled "The nature of the very small: wave or particle?" Dr Reville, a biochemist, reassures us that if we found the dual particle/wave nature thesis hard going, not to worry. "I don't really understand this stuff myself. But we are in good company - that of Albert Einstein, who said: `Fifty years of conscious brooding have brought me no nearer to the answer to the questions - What are light quanta? Nowadays, every Tom, Dick and Harry thinks he knows it but he is mistaken.' "
Meanwhile, the news about Dolly the sheep brought back memories to Dr Reville of his mother "cloning" plants in the back garden. "Had I been wearing my Superman spectacles, that allow me to see incredibly tiny things, I would have seen the whole garden was a hive of cloning activity. Bacteria were cloning themselves all over the place. I would have seen aphids busily cloning themselves by the hedge and down in the far corner, the bees and wasps were also at it. Cloning is `old hat' to mother nature."
A publication like this is competing with a huge variety of excellent popular science publications from abroad: still, an Irish-published book such as this is welcome.
Anne Byrne is an Irish Times journalist.