There’s a stereotype of the eccentric old university professor that is familiar to us all. Many of us have known such characters. You know, the one whose life seems completely wrapped around a chosen field of research, who will talk endlessly about the subject. These professors certainly know the subject, and their lectures can certainly be entertaining and engaging, but typically they go on and on and on in endless detail, often punctuated by long asides.
Mike Hansell of the University of Glasgow seems to fit the stereotype to a T. His new book, Built by Animals: The Natural History of Animal Architecture, is a long and passionate lecture on the what, how, who, and why of animals that build structures and the structures that they build. There’s a lot of fascinating detail here about a diverse set of creatures, ranging from leafcutter ants and mud dauber wasps to Cliff Swallows and Bowerbirds. Along the way there are discussions of the binomial taxonomic nomenclature system, diatribes on the history of science (“Let us start by getting a couple of things clear. Charles Darwin was not the originator of the idea that living organisms evolved over generations …”), the ventilation system of a mud shrimp burrow, and diagrams of the chemical structures of amino acids. Hansell tells us about tool-using organisms, explains spider webs in detail, ponders whether esthetical considerations exist in the animal world, describes experiments where theories about ant behaviors were tested, and (my favorite story) explains the work that led to a scientific paper titled, “Wombats Detected from Space.”
All in all, it’s a thousand little stories and half as many asides all presented with dizzying but inconsistent detail. This is not a casual Saturday night read. This is not a book that will be embraced by the masses. It’s hard to remember the main point at times after following an aside far beyond what’s necessary. It took me a long time to work my way through the book, and it’s not a very long book. Yet this volume does have its charm.
I always loved those eccentric and long-winded professors, especially if I wasn’t in need of a lofty grade in the class. I find Hansell’s observations to be remarkably detailed, his thoughts to be very sharp, and his stories, by and large, delightful. It’s fun to let the venerable man tell us of his passions, pouring out his scientist’s soul to any and all who will listen. He must be one heck of a story-teller face-to-face. But I’ll bet it’s hard to get him to stop before a few hours have passed.
Grab a copy of Built by Animals if you want to meet Mike Hansell. Pick out the parts about certain creatures if you’re intrigued with the topic – and it certainly is an interesting subject. Lots of animals build structures that we could never duplicate, and how they create these structures is certainly worth knowing.
Hansell, Mike. Built by Animals: The Natural History of Animal Architecture. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2007. 257 pages, $29.95 hardcover. ISBN-13: 9780199205561; ISBN-10: 0199205566.