December 2004 - Materials Science Institute - University of Oregon

REVIEWS
(The Selfish Gene, The
Blind Watchmaker, A Devil’s
Chaplain, among others),
gives us an eloquent
treatise on evolution, neglecting
neither the latest
developments nor his own provocative
views. As the title suggests, Chaucer’s Canterbury
Tales provides the model for the
book’s conceit—a pilgrimage back through
four billion years of life on earth. We join with
other organisms at rendezvous points where
we fi nd common ancestors, until we arrive at
the “grand ancestor of all surviving life.” As
Dawkins explains: “Backward chronology in
search of ancestors really can sensibly aim
towards a single distant target . . . and we
can’t help converging upon it no matter
where we start—elephant or eagle, swift or
salmonella, wellingtonia or woman....
Instead of treating evolution as aimed
toward us, we choose modern Homo sapiens
as our arbitrary, but forgivably preferred,
starting point for a reverse chronology....
Following Chaucer’s lead, my pilgrims, which
are all the different species of living creatures,
will have the opportunity to tell tales
along the way to their Canterbury, which is
the origin of life. It is these tales that form
the main substance of this book.”
RHUMB LINES AND MAP WARS: A SOCIAL
HISTORY OF THE MERCATOR PROJECTION
by Mark Monmonier. University of Chicago
Press, Chicago, 2004 ($25)
“Any attempt to show how map
projections work must include
their rhetorical role, which
involves goals markedly different
from traditional cartographic
tasks like describing
boundaries, exploring patterns,
and getting around. This
rhetorical prowess, rooted as much in the
map’s symbols and generalizations as in its
projection, makes the map vulnerable to
diverse ideological interpretations. Thus the
Mercator map can be viewed as an icon of
Western imperialism while the [Arno] Peters
map can connote fairness and support for
Third World concerns.” Monmonier, professor
of geography at Syracuse University’s Maxwell
School of Citizenship and Public Affairs,
builds on this foundation a rewarding study
of mapmaking and the uses of maps. His
prime example of the rhetorical role of maps
is the “map war” of 30 years ago over whether
the familiar Mercator projection, with its
inescapable distortion of the size of countries,
is Eurocentric and diminishes the signifi
cance of Third World nations. “Although a
potential for bias [in maps] exists,” Monmonier
writes, “broad assumptions of conscious
or subliminal malevolence trivialize commonsense
notions of bias and agenda. In my
experience, the bias of ignorance, the bias of
sloppiness, and the bias of tradition, individually
or collectively, are far more prevalent
than the bias of political ideology.”
The books reviewed are available for
purchase through www.sciam.com
www.sciam.com SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 115
COPYRIGHT 2004 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.