Here’s an idea to warm a carnivore’s heart: The unusually large human brain (when compared to other species) “is probably related to our switch to a diet that contains meat.” So writes Marcus Chown in his entertaining Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand. The short chapters are intended to startle readers. Did you know that slime molds have 13 sexes? Or that we share one-third of our DNA with fungi (make it shitake, please!). A radio astronomer by trade, Chown has the making of a good stand-up comedian, aiming to draw laughter from the facts of nature—at least the knowable facts. As Chown writes, the “how” behind the leap (4 billion years back) from non-life to life is one great unanswered question—likewise, the invisible dark matter and energy that constitute 95% of the universe. Well, how about that human brain: it does its computing with roughly 20 watts of power—a dim bulb, indeed.
