Social Selection

摘要

The Lives of Ants has an unusual ontogeny. The first author, Laurent Keller, is an exceptionally talented evolutionary biologist (at the University of Lausanne); the second, Elisabeth Gordon, is a French journalist, and the product of their union has been translated from francais to anglais by a third party. Unfortunately, this menage a trois has produced a book uncertain of its target. That is a pity, as it seems such a sound idea: to team a pioneering scientist with a professional wordsmith to the benefit of all. Indeed, writing has been described as the painful physiological process of "turning blood into ink." So, employ a surrogate to takernthe strain. But beware: This book, arguably as a result, does not work perfectly either as popular science or as a biology text.