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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2010
How many rooms in Noah's Ark?
Noah, the first appointed steward of life on Earth, would have been proud of Robert Burns' passionate concern for a humble harvest mouse. But even Burns, living as he did in the Age of Enlightenment, could not have suspected the ominous truth of his poem's last line. We have indeed done dreary things to our splendid world. And we are coming to understand the future terrible cost of our greed and our selfishness.
I believe that the more reasonable our fears, the more potent our voice will be. So this book explores what we know about the science of species diversity.
Steward or not, no one could spend much time working on the mechanics of diversity without being fascinated by it for its own sake. You are about to invest some of your own time in such an effort, so I guess you share that fascination with me. Welcome.
What is it that concerns us? Just how miraculous (or, if you prefer, incredible) is it that Noah got all the world's species onto one boat?
A famous story circulates among biologists about an encounter between two famous intellectual foes. J.B.S. Haldane – a genius of evolutionary biology and a renowned public atheist – was seated next to the Archbishop of Canterbury at one of those formal British dinners known for their civility and sparkling conversation.
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