Somewhere in Mammoth Hunt (HarperCollins, £16.99, ISBN 0 00 255672 3)
is a good story about a population of elephants in Nepal with craggy heads that
seem to resemble the ancestors of modern elephants. Adrian Blashford-Snell and
the glamorous Rula Lenska set out to find them, and Adrian Lister, a real
scientist, went along to check DNA from the living elephants’ dung, comparing it
with fossil bones of the ancestral Elephas hysudricus, and so on. Not quite like
finding a mammoth, but great stuff. Sadly, the tale gets lost among cold lagers
and “mouthwatering sauces”. I wish publishers would learn that good biology
needs no dilution with by-the-yard travelogue.
More from New Scientist
Explore the latest news, articles and features
Space
Hubble Space Telescope is falling to Earth – should NASA save it?
News
Space
A robot called GIMLI will explore a lunar cave for a future moon base
91ɫÇéƬ
91ɫÇéƬ
The economic benefits of the covid vaccines may be double what we thought
News
Humans
Tomb in Siberia reveals humans were using cannabis 2800 years ago
News
Popular articles
Trending New Scientist articles