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ers (including his own pupils) were not always successful. Indeed, nowadays Tinbergen would not fare well in the struggle for funding. Kruuk discusses these weaknesses in great detail. However, he argues Johan J. Bolhuis convincingly that Tinbergen was a pioneer and that it was Niko’s novel, ex003 was a double anniversary for the Dutch Youth League for Nature perimental approach—rather Niko’s Nature late Niko Tinbergen. Thirty years ago Study than at school. Later, than the actual results—that A Life of Niko he, Konrad Lorenz, and Karl von while a biology student at proved crucial to the developTinbergen and Frisch shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine Leiden University, he skipped ment of ethology as a science. His Science of for the development of ethology, the scien- many a lecture. Niko realized Another reason Tinbergen Animal Behaviour tific study of animal behavior. In addition, this and considered his brothhurried his thesis work was that by Hans Kruuk it is forty years since his ground-breaking ers Luuk (who became an imhe had an opportunity to join a Oxford University Press, small Dutch expedition to analysis of the fundamental problems in portant behavioral ecologist) animal behavior [Z. Tierpsychol. 20, 410 and Jan (the father of econom- Oxford, 2003. $30, £20. Greenland. The year he and his (1963)]. Thus the timing of Hans Kruuk’s etry, who in 1969 shared the ISBN 0-19-851558-8. wife spent there turned out to biography Niko’s Nature is perfect. first Nobel Prize in Economics) have a lasting impact on his sciKruuk, (a professor of zoology at the much smarter than himself. His Ph.D. was entific career. Through his interactions University of Aberdeen as well as based on field studies of a bee-hunting with the native Inuit, Tinbergen learned to Tinbergen’s student and friend) begins the wasp (the bee-wolf, Philanthus triangulum) view animals differently. From an engaged book with a wonderful account of an April that he conducted in Hulshorst, a nature re- observer, he became (in his words) a hunter morning in the dunes of northwest England, serve in the east of Holland where the like the Inuit. He came to realize that in orsometime in the early 1960s. der to study the behavior of animals scienEngaged in field observations on tifically, he needed to ignore any considerbirds, he sees the “Maestro” apations of emotions that the animals might proaching in the distance. Tinbergen have. This change of heart effectively has been filming a pair of blackpaved the way for an objective, empirical headed gulls, and he mimes their study of animal behavior. meeting ceremony as he describes it Tinbergen was also enormously influin great detail. It becomes clear that enced by Konrad Lorenz, although the two Image not this was the happiest period in men could not have been more different. available for Tinbergen’s life. Escaping the conProud, authoritarian, vain, and more of a online use. fines of Oxford, he spent time in the philosopher, Lorenz was not very keen on field with his beloved birds and fieldwork. In contrast, Tinbergen was an exwith his students, chatting about anperimentalist whose scientific life imal behavior. The students happily revolved around observations of followed Tinbergen’s spartan regime animals in their natural environof life in the field, and they enjoyed ment. He realized early on, howthe many scientific discussions. Watching from the hide. Tinbergen ever, that Lorenz’s intuitive ideas Tinbergen comes across as a warm often made sketches of the birds about behavior were often very Image not personality who interacted with his and behaviors he observed. good, and he was keen to test available for students in a respectful, and one those suggestions empirically. In might say loving, manner. Kruuk compares Tinbergen family spent 1936, Tinbergen persuaded his online use. this with the behavior of his rather more its annual vacation. For professor in Leiden to invite stiff and formal Dutch professors. Niko in- Niko, writing the theLorenz over for a small sympovited his students to call him by his first sis was an unwelcome sium on instinct. The lifelong name, which would have been unthinkable distraction from his friendship that began then even in Holland in those days. beloved fieldwork, and Sixties self-portrait. survived the Second World War, Kruuk characterizes Tinbergen as “the consequently it was onduring which Lorenz ended up as brilliant birdwatcher who became a Nobel ly 29 pages long. Furthermore, as Kruuk a German army doctor on the eastern front laureate.” Niko was very much a field man, explains, the study was not exactly a scien- while Tinbergen was interned along with who did not care much for formal science tific masterpiece: N-values were rather low other intellectuals in a hostage camp. In the and academic duties. (His resentment of in most of the experiments, and the results camp, Niko developed his artistic talents. administrative tasks eventually led him to were often not replicable. He wrote and illustrated several children’s resign his professorship in Leiden and acSuch methodological shortcomings form books, some of which were published after cept a modest lectureship at Oxford a recurring theme in the book: Tinbergen’s the war. This biography includes many University.) In his boyhood, he spent more later, classic, work on camouflage in butter- beautiful drawings and field sketches by time on field studies organized by the flies and on stimulus perception in gulls and him. sticklebacks was also far from perfect. Kruuk is right when he suggests that Subsequent publications on the same dataset Tinbergen’s greatest contribution to bioloThe reviewer is in the Behavioural Biology Department, sometimes differed inexplicably from the gy has been his analysis of the four princiUtrecht University, Post Office Box 80086, 3508 TB original, and attempts at replication by oth- pal questions in ethology. Niko discussed Utrecht, The Netherlands. E-mail: j.j.bolhuis@bio.uu.nl
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these issues in his classic 1963 article, written for the occasion of Lorenz’s 60th birthday. The four questions are variations on “why does the animal behave in this way?” One focuses on causation: how does the behavior work? what is the mechanism? Another considers ontogeny—how the behavior develops during the life of an individual. The third question concerns the function of a behavior: what is it for? Tinbergen called this its “survival value.” Lastly, one can ask how a behavior has developed over the course of evolution. Niko’s Nature is an impressive tribute to a brilliant scientist. Kruuk gives us a comprehensive, warts-and-all account of the life of one of the 20th century’s most distinguished biologists and his contributions to the development of the field of animal behavior. In doing so, Kruuk also shows what science is really like. In that respect, the book reminds me of James Watson’s autobiographical The Double Helix, which I always recommend to my students. Both books reveal that science is not a calling, answered by self-deprecating idealists. Rather, scientists are, above all, humans, with all their weaknesses. Kruuk shows us that Tinbergen’s shortcomings were amply compensated by his sharp mind and his brilliant insights into the behavior of animals. His book demonstrates quite beautifully that scientific endeavor in all its imperfection can lead to great results.
MOVIES: IMMUNOLOGY
Danger in Wonderland
Matthew L. Albert
“Here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, just to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast!” –The Red Queen in Louis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass
W
e humans are used to considering ourselves the host (or victim) in our relations with the microbial world. Indeed, we often lose sight of the fact that infectious disease occurs in an evolutionary context and that all organisms are subject to the same rules—the rules of natural selection. That our ecosystem is bound by finite resources provides the selective pressure, which leads to a constant state of interaction and interdependence between and
The reviewer is in the Department of Immunology, Institute Pasteur and Avenir Program, INSERM; 25 Rue du Dr. Roux, Paris, France 75724. E-mail: albertm@pasteur.fr
among species. Interestingly, the recently Of the myriad mechanisms for control completed Matrix trilogy of films plays with in the film, the most interesting is the this dynamic, placing humans on the other Keymaker, a program that generates a side of the struggle: the humans are the helpless character who nevertheless provirus, locked in a struggle with futuristic sil- vides crucial functions. The Keymaker and icon-based life forms, “the machines.” Little another program, the Oracle, collaborate to did the Wachowski brothers (the writers and provide hope to the humans and to ensure directors) know how much insight they the survival of a small population that may might be offering to biologists on subjects of carry the species through cycles of near exhost-pathogen interactions and the mecha- tinction. The Keymaker’s job is to provide nisms of immunity. guidance and passage to Neo through the The first of the three films, The Matrix, backdoors (the lymphatics vessels) of the opens with the protagonist Neo being matrix. It grants him entry into the matrix’s sprung from the human bioreactor, which core, from where he can best attack the mahas been established by the machines to pro- chines. The Keymaker program and its revide a source of energy. Soon after, we learn lation to the humans are in some ways analthat the matrix is a computer-generated ogous to the dendritic cell and its role in dream world fed into the brains of humans the immune system. For many pathogens, hooked into the bioreactor. Freed from the such as Toxoplasma and HIV, the dendritic matrix, Neo joins a rogue group of advanced- cell provides the key for widespread disthinking humans (computer hackers) who semination through the host. But the denhave tunneled to Earth’s core and established dritic cell is also pivotal in immune activaa city called Zion. From there, they stage tion, facilitating containment or extinction their guerrilla warfare on the machine world of invading organisms. In both the films that captured the planet’s surface in the early and the biologic world, we must always be 21st century. aware of whose agenda we are following. Though the fight scenes and car chases Sometimes, being aware of multiple agenare highly entertaining, it is the films’ das may require turning things on their heads. awareness of the complex interdependence In the matrix, programs hack other programs. of the humans and the machines that made The powerful Merovingian, for example, exme reflect on the natural world. This inter- iles the mild-mannered Keymaker, expresses dependence was clearly articulated in a desire to delete the Oracle, and displays Matrix Reloaded by Councillor Hamann, a shameless opportunism. Here, I have strugrebel leader, who takes gled to find a parallel Neo to the engineering within the immune sysThe Matrix level of Zion. There the tem. We know about comThe Matrix Reloaded Councillor notes the irony petition for space and reThe Matrix Revolutions in the fact that “these masources in the immune Written and Directed by Andy chines [desalination units, system’s resting state (imWachowski and Larry Wachowski cooling stations, and mature lymphocytes must Warner Brothers, 1999, 2003, and 2003. power plants] are keeping compete for survival) and us alive while other mathe need to actively kill off chines are coming to kill us.” Similarly, en- immune cells after inflammation (to avoid dogenous retroviruses that long ago invaded turning into one giant lymph node). But is it our cells are now domesticated within our possible that during an inflammatory reacgenome. These retroviruses are responsible tion, one part of the immune system may in part for our evolution, while other retro- hack other aspects of our own disease deviruses are attacking us. So, who is in con- fenses? If so, such internal competition could trol? The films illustrate the absurdity of allow for self-evolution and more dynamic, this question. We can no more get along robust immunity. without our retroviruses than the rebels can Critics may have difficulty looking past survive without their machines. the trilogy’s not-so-subtle biblical referConsideration of how the machine world ences, and I wish that the third film had not senses and controls the humans offers enjoy- succumbed to the trappings of a Hollyable parallels with mechanisms of immunity. wood happy ending. But who knows, the Like the natural world, the matrix is too vast peaceful resolution at the end of Revolutions for the machines to be aware of the entire may simply be a brief respite in a tireless digital space at every moment. Its design co-evolutionary process. In any case, this permits humans to enter undetected, until a immunologist will gladly take advantage of “danger signal” is activated. These perturba- the calm. I’ll be scanning the knockout littions in the matrix (e.g., a car alarm) serve as erature for examples of animals whose iman innate immunity mechanism for detecting mune systems are rendered more efficient invaders. The disturbances call in the Agents, at controlling certain pathogens, and I will who are capable of targeted attack and armed continue combing pop culture for insights with immunologic memory. into the natural world.
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