Biograffiti

By John McLauren Burns

Book Overview

Legend has it (it may even be true) that J. B. S. Haldane, when asked by a clergyman what he could infer about God from the works of creation, responded, "He must have had an inordinate fondness for beetles." Were I asked to infer something essential about Homo sapiens from his work, I should probably reply that this zoological odd-ball required humor to lighten a life taken too seriously. How else can we explain the fact that very profession has its underground classic of humorous self-deprecation and verse? Garstang's Larval Forms has long filled this role for evolutionary biology. But, as a residual Victorian, Garstang turned out some mighty stuffy poems--and recapitulatory theory of the details of invertebrate morphology do no reside on the frontier of modern biology. But voyeurs and hedonists can now rejoice, for John Burns has produced a worthy successor, a work full of all that is modern in evolutionary biology--mathematical modeling, ecological strategies, ethological theories and, oh yes, plenty of sex.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393000311
• ISBN13: 9780393000313
• Release Date: March 1981
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 132 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A Book for Lovers of Nature and Words

After you read these delightful poems you will look at bugs and ponds and mountains in a different, brighter, light. You will increase your vocabulary too. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be 'Desert Range'- but each one is a gem.