Biology can be funny--especially through the eyes of Matt Simon, science writer for Wired magazine. The Wasp That Brainwashed the Caterpillar: Evolution's Most Unbelievable Solutions to Life's Biggest Problems is Simon's gleeful ode to weird science.
Provocatively titled chapters group evolutionary problems and solutions into wry categories, with various animals and their adaptations featured in each. A sampling: "Turns Out Getting Eaten Is Bad for Survival" and "You Absolutely Must Get Laid." In the latter, Simon writes, "Think finding love in a bar is hard? Try finding it in the desolation of the deep sea." The solution for anglerfish involves the males burrowing parasite-like into the females, their bodies fusing and thus syncing the fish's hormones, ensuring that the males release sperm when the females release eggs.
Like nature itself, Simon's descriptions often repel and fascinate. The hagfish's solution to escaping sharks entails choking attackers, "filling their gills with copious amounts of snot." There is also the fungus that zombifies ants, which Simon repeatedly assures readers he is not making up.
He includes notes on humans, too. He celebrates significant scientists throughout history, including one woman whom Simon laments that science has forgotten: natural historian Maria Merian, who studied bugs in Surinam in 1699. Simon also tells a memorable anecdote about modern marine biologists who, when deep sea diving, play Angry Birds on waterproof iPads during slow ascents to avoid the bends. Closing the book with reflections on the scientists combatting humans' impact on our shared planet, Simon reflects with optimism and appreciation on the significance of their work. --Katie Weed, freelance writer and reviewer