Reviewed by William J. Sanders

In books and movies, sequels often fail to measure up to original offerings, but Neil Shubin’s new volume, The Universe Within, is a more-than-worthy companion to his acclaimed previous book, Your Inner Fish. Weaving together anecdotes of fieldwork, tales from the history of scientific discovery; principles of physics, chemistry, and biology; colorful observations and clever explanation, Shubin creates a compelling narrative that extends the notion of the earlier book — that the evolutionary journey of life over three-and-a-half billion years can be retraced in the anatomy and genetic composition of humans — even farther back, demonstrating our wider interconnections to the entire 13.7 billion-year history of our universe.

In doing so, Shubin shows that, far from being the product of a special creation, human existence is inextricably tied to the fortuitous convergence of seemingly unrelated forces and events: the explosions of distant supernovae, the effect of Jupiter on our own planet’s mass and distance from the sun and Earth’s consequent ability to retain water, and the relationship between algae, oxygen and body size of organisms. Shubin summarizes the thesis of the book succinctly: “we are but a recent link in a chain of connections as old as the heavens.”

These associations are richly explored in 10 approximately geological time-successive chapters dealing with subjects such as the Big Bang and subsequent formation of elements, coalescence of stars and planets, the natural rhythms of time on Earth, acquisition of oxygen-rich atmosphere, plate tectonics, catastrophe and extinction, and ice ages. The manner in which these subjects are brought together is reminiscent of James Burke’s 1970s television documentary series on technological development, “Connections,” with a big picture perspective of the natural world popularized in writing and on television by the astrophysicist Carl Sagan and biologist Stephen Jay Gould. The facts are not new, but their associations and implications are fascinating and ingenious, and they are presented in a way that experts and laypersons alike can appreciate.

Moreover, given the author’s impressive academic accomplishments, The Universe Within is especially notable for its self-deprecating humor and generous acknowledgement of the contributions of colleagues and scientific forebears; the accounts of fieldwork and collegial endeavor in particular draw readers in and engage them with science in ways that no dry textbook ever could.

Good stories about science are important, both because they make accessible and help legitimize the work of researchers who need public support for their endeavors, and because they remind us to be responsible stewards of our rich natural heritage. It is obvious that Shubin understands this and values the role of a teacher. Many popular books on science fail to escape the buttoned-down style of professional journals, but in The Universe Within, the style remains light even as the observations are densely packed.

Shubin suggests a musical lyricism in his description of the syncopation and harmony of Milankovitch cycles of changes in Earth’s orbit (100,000 years), tilt (40,000 years) and gyration (19,000 years) to produce extremes of global cooling. It is gratifying to read the account of how Willard Libby and Harold Urey at the University of Chicago co-opted technology involved in the construction of the atomic bomb for more peaceful purposes: using carbon and oxygen isotopes to calculate the age of extinct animals and measure the temperature of ancient environments. This work was a critical advancement in documenting ancient climatic periodicity and understanding its relationship to Milankovitch cycles.

The history of scientific thought and advancement is given ample illustration throughout the book. Although most contemporary students know little or nothing about characters with such colorful names as the paleontologist Preston Ercelle Cloud, Jr., or the physiologist Shack August Steenberg Krogh, Shubin shows how instrumental their work was for understanding the metabolic significance of oxygen production by algae for the ability of life on Earth to escape its microscopic size limits. Instances of such advances reveal the multiplicity of circumstances necessary simply for life to gain a foothold on Earth, let alone for human beings to evolve.

It is sobering to think that without a very slight advantage of matter over antimatter in the early moments of the universe, we would not be here (nor would anything else), but exhilarating to know that all of the elements heavier than iron in our bodies derived originally from the explosions of supernovae. We learn that the presence of water, its vital role in erosion and capture of carbon dioxide, and its importance in the chemical processes that permit life, are in turn tied to the order of formation and relative size of planets and their effects on Earth’s own position and size. We all might look and function very differently if Earth had a different mass. The developmental sequence of our embryological gill arches, cranial nerves and kidneys are evidence of the importance of water throughout our long serendipitous journey to become humans; these pathways and structures document that we passed through a phase of aquatic ancestry, and represent the opportunistic evolutionary remodeling of ancient morphological designs to suit our life on land.

In the end, Neil Shubin is in wonder about this long journey, that “our bodies, minds, and the ideas that flow from these minds have roots in the crust of Earth, water of the oceans, and atoms of celestial bodies.” After finishing this book, the reader will find it equally difficult to imagine taking life for granted, and may well feel a greater urgency to conserve the delicate balance of the world around us.

Dr. Sanders is an Assistant Research Scientist and Senior Research Laboratory Specialist in the Museum of Paleontology at the University of Michigan. He received an AB from the University of Chicago and an MPhil and PhD from New York University. His research is field- and specimen-based, and currently focuses on the evolution of catarrhine primates and proboscideans.