This book is dedicated to my late parents, Seymour and Gloria Shubin, for fostering a love of the natural world, a curiosity about how it works, and the importance of telling a good story. For my previous work, my father, a fiction writer who did not find science easily digestible, served as my target audience. If he enjoyed the narrative and appreciated the science, then I knew I was doing things right. His presence remains on every page here.
This is the third book I have done with Kalliopi Monoyios as illustrator. She brings a passion for science and a keen eye for visual storytelling; this book was no exception. She read drafts, pursued permissions, and was invaluable in finding chinks in my storytelling and science. Kapi is online at www.kalliopimonoyios.com and Instagram at kalliopi.monoyios.
Several people generously shared stories of their science, personal history, or ideas. These include Cedric Feschotte, Bob Hill, Mary-Claire King, Nicole King, Chris Lowe, Vinny Lynch, Nipam Patel, Jason Shepherd, and David Wake. John Novembre, Michele Seidl, and Kalliopi Monoyios read portions or drafts and offered important comments. Any misinterpretation of personal stories or errors in the science are, of course, my own.
Members of my laboratory endured absences from the lab for the past three years. I’m grateful to current and past lab members: Noritaka Adachi, Melvin Bonilla, Andrew Gehrke, Katie Mika, Mirna Marinic, Tesuya Nakamura, Atreyo Pal, Joyce Pieretti, Igor Schneider, Gayani Senevirathne, Tom Stewart, and Julius Tabin for pushing and inspiring me by their own examples to do ever better science. I am fortunate to have scientific collaborators who catalyze both my science and the ways I communicate it. These include members of my recent polar field teams as well as those who’ve collaborated with me or coached me on molecular biology: Sean Carroll, Ted Daeschler, Marcus Davis, John Long, Adam Maloof, Tim Senden, José-Luis Gomez Skarmeta, and Cliff Tabin.
Nothing ever begins when you think it does. In one way or another, these ideas have been in my mind since my years in graduate school at Harvard, and later at Berkeley, when I had the chance to interact with people whose ideas and approaches profoundly affected my worldview. These include Pere Alberch, Stephen Jay Gould, Ernst Mayr, and David Wake. Fellow graduate students from those days had an enormous impact on me, including Annie Burke, Edwin Gilland, and Greg Mayer. My thinking was crystallized by discussions and collegial debates with all of these individuals.
Much of this book was written while I was serving on the leadership of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts (MBL). The MBL is a special place to learn about and do science, drawing a remarkable community of resident and visiting scientists in the life sciences each year. Writing chapters of this book in the MBL’s Lillie Library connected me to previous denizens who formed the basis for several chapters: Julia Platt, O. C. Whitman, T. H.Morgan, and Émile Zuckerkandl. The Wellfleet, Eastham, Orleans, and Truro libraries served as quiet and refreshing venues in which to write each summer.
My agents, Katinka Matson, Max Brockman, and Russell Weinberger, were a continual source of support, shepherding this project along. Dan Frank has edited three books of mine, and each one has been a master class in learning the art of writing and publication. Dan encouraged me, prodded me to improve, and was patient with me throughout the process. My British editor, Sam Carter, has been a wonderful source of encouragement. Dan Frank’s assistant, Vanessa Rae Haughton, cheerfully guided the project from manuscript to book. The remarkable production and copyediting teams at Pantheon—Roméo Enriquez, Ellen Feldman, Janet Biehl, Chuck Thompson, and Laura Starrett—were nothing short of heroic in their work. Thanks to Anna Knighton for her text design, and to Perry De La Vega, who turned the book’s themes into a wonderful cover. Michiko Clark and the publicity team at Pantheon have been a joy to work with.
My family has lived with this project for almost five years, enduring absences and endless discussions of fossils, DNA, and the history of life. My wife, Michele Seidl, and children, Nathaniel and Hannah, were always by my side on a path that was much like evolution itself: full of twists, turns, surprises, and, of course, wonder.