In the introduction to “Living on Earth: Forests, Corals, Consciousness, and the Making of the World,” Peter Godfrey-Smith writes: “It is a forest book.” It is a book in part about forests, he means, but it is also a book that resembles a forest — made up of branches, offshoots and asides. Godfrey-Smith, a philosopher of science at the University of Sydney and an accomplished scuba diver, is possessed of a prodigious curiosity.
His capacity for fascination is both a blessing and a minor curse. A blessing, because his delight in the natural world is infectious, and “Living on Earth” brims with intriguing and endearing novelties: “pom-pom crabs” that “carry an anemone in each claw and use them as defensive weapons” and “look a bit like cheerleaders,” a “dinosaurian” bird species that imitates the calls of other species so consummately that it fools even those it mimics. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content.
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