Brian Switek, contributor
HUMANS persist in trying to subdue nature, and there is perhaps no creature that we have so totally dominated as the dog. From an ancestral grey wolf stock, we have created myriad canines for seemingly every occasion - from muscular mastiffs that guard homes, to pugs and other breeds that have been so drastically modified that they can't even be born without human intervention.
When did the strange relationship between humans and dogs begin? According to journalist Mark Derr in How the Dog Became the Dog, prehistoric wolves had an inner pet just waiting to be drawn out by the right kind of human. Contrary to the popular notion that dogs are the descendants of trash-grubbing wolves that were friendly or naive enough to strike up an association with ancient people, Derr contends that wolves and Pleistocene Homo sapiens struck up a mutually beneficial relationship as soon as the two species met in prehistoric Eurasia. In time, socialised wolves that merely followed humans on hunts became what Derr calls "dogwolves", before ultimately being modified into the various domestic breeds we know today.
Derr's narrative lopes a little lightly over the scant fossil evidence and confusing genetic trail of the earliest dogs. The difference between wolf and dog doesn't seem so much anatomical or genetic as the result of a change in status that came with domestication, and that hasn't been preserved in the fossil record. Derr tries to fill in some of the substantial gaps with fictional passages of people and their canid companions through history, but these momentary distractions from what is unknown just serve to confound the book's central question. Derr's wandering, circuitous story of dog origins only highlights how much we have yet to learn about our curious relationship with the domesticated, carnivorous beasts we have invited into our homes.
Book information
How the Dog Became the Dog by Mark Derr
Gerald Duckworth/Overlook
?18.99/$26.95
Good things come to those who procrastinate
Catherine de Lange, contributor
PUT reading Wait to the top of your to-do list and chances are you still won't get around to it. Although we live in a society obsessed with productivity, as many as one in five adults are "chronic procrastinators", says Frank Partnoy at the University of San Diego, California. Students spend a third of their time procrastinating, for example. So what's to be done?
Not a lot, says Partnoy, who argues in Wait that there are upsides to putting things off. The trick is to work out whether the benefits of delaying the task outweigh the costs. He even recommends a questionnaire to help you find out. The thing is, all this talk of procrastination begins to feel like procrastination itself - and doesn't seem to make that to-do list any more appealing.
When he moves past procrastination, things get a bit more interesting. Partnoy shows, for example, how a subliminal image of a fast food company logo on a screen can lead people to act more quickly and become less able to enjoy things like beautiful photos and music. When it comes to pleasure, speed kills.
Partnoy also explores snap reactions, making the case that we shouldn't always go with our gut. He cites studies that reveal impulsive racial biases in those who claim to be open-minded. We need to slow down and acknowledge these prejudices in order to tackle them, he says.
Wait is no page-turner, and reads more like a series of well-written articles than a cohesive book. Still, if you find yourself with an unpleasant to-do list, there are worse ways to kill time.
Book information
Wait: The art and science of delay by Frank Partnoy
Da Capo/PublicAffairs
?15.99/$26.99
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