{"id":9539,"date":"2013-10-25T10:00:34","date_gmt":"2013-10-25T09:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/?p=9539"},"modified":"2013-10-25T10:50:44","modified_gmt":"2013-10-25T09:50:44","slug":"alices-analysis-the-book-of-barely-imagined-beings-by-caspar-henderson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/2013\/10\/25\/alices-analysis-the-book-of-barely-imagined-beings-by-caspar-henderson","title":{"rendered":"Alice\u2019s Analysis: The Book of Barely Imagined Beings by Caspar Henderson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the coming<\/em><\/strong> mont<\/em><\/strong>hs,<\/em><\/strong> Nature\u2019s Head of Press, Alice Henchley, will be reading and reviewing the books shortlisted for the 2013 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books, at a rate of one every week.\u00a0 The winner will be announced at a\u00a0public event at the Royal Society<\/span><\/a>\u00a0on the 25th<\/sup>\u00a0November 2013 during which shortlisted authors will discuss their books with host Dara O Briain.\u00a0 Prior to the announcement, \u00a0we’re running a competition on\u00a0Of Schemes and Memes t<\/em><\/strong>o win a set of the shortlisted books \u2013 all you have to do is predict the winning book and enter our\u00a0prize draw<\/span><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Book of Barely Imagined Beings by Caspar Henderson<\/strong><\/p>\n

When you first open the beautifully illustrated tome The Book of Barely Imagined Beings<\/i>, you might think that it is a simple A to Z of the weird and wonderful creatures.\u00a0 But this would be a gross misrepresentation of the ambition of the author Caspar Henderson and the wealth of disciplines covered therein. Whilst the book does catalogue some extraordinary beasts (just as the bestiaries of the Middle Ages did), it’s also a vehicle to engage the reader in physiology, evolutionary biology, behaviour and psychology, history of science and palaeontology, all written with a graceful literary style.<\/p>\n

\"bookofbarelyimaginedbeingsjacket\"<\/a>The book is split into alphabetized chapters, each of which features a creature, so A is the cute-looking axolotl, an amphibian that is surely the inspiration for countless cartoons, and Z is the zebrafish, a creature commonly studied in scientific research.\u00a0 However, that is where the structure begins and ends.\u00a0 Some chapters focus entirely on the named creature, for example the leatherback turtle (and who wouldn\u2019t want an entire chapter devoted to that charming animal).\u00a0 Others veer wildly off their original subject.\u00a0 The majority of the chapter on the Gonodactylus<\/i> is dedicated to the evolution of different visual systems, including our own.\u00a0 This is, I conclude, no bad thing, given that the Gonodactylus<\/i> is an unpleasant little mantis shrimp described as \u201cthe perfect killing machine\u201d.<\/p>\n

The diversity of the subjects covered adds much to the book.\u00a0 Nothing is predictable: every chapter is different and peppered with personal anecdotes and historical incidents.\u00a0 It\u2019s a book that doesn\u2019t force science upon you, but rather leads you gently into some unpredictable and entirely fascinating areas.\u00a0 Henderson isn\u2019t afraid to express his own opinion either and his sense of humour pervades the book.\u00a0 His description of an army spokesperson denying the use of \u201cman-eating badgers\u201d particularly tickled me.<\/p>\n

I am predisposed to liking this book. The natural world has always fascinated me and I spent the last year of my long-forgotten degree in natural sciences in the zoology department.\u00a0 But had that not been the case, I would still extol its virtues.\u00a0 It is a glorious celebration of our extraordinary world, presented in a gorgeous volume and exuding wit and charm.<\/p>\n

You can read Stuart Pimm\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>Nature<\/i><\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>Books and Arts review of<\/strong>\u00a0<\/b>The Book of Barely Imagined Beings <\/i><\/strong>here<\/a>. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"alice\"<\/a>Alice Henchley has been Head of Press at Nature since the start of 2013.\u00a0 Prior to that she worked at the Royal Society and the Zoological Society of London, communicating everything from population policy<\/a> to conservation of the world\u2019s most extraordinary animals<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the coming months, Nature\u2019s Head of Press, Alice Henchley, will be reading and reviewing the books shortlisted for the 2013 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books, at a rate of one every two weeks.\u00a0 The winner will be announced at a\u00a0public event at the Royal Society\u00a0on the 25th\u00a0November 2013 during which shortlisted authors will discuss their books with host Dara O Briain.\u00a0 Prior to the announcement, \u00a0we\u2019re running a competition on\u00a0Of Schemes and Memes to win a set of the shortlisted books \u2013 all you have to do is predict the winning book and enter our\u00a0prize draw.  Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":185,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/185"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9539\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/ofschemesandmemes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}