The Greek philosopher Diogenes, in response to Plato’s prematurely triumphant definition of Man as a “featherless biped”, presented the latter’s disciples with a plucked chicken. “Here,” Diogenes exclaimed, “is Plato’s man.” Plato modified his definition – to a “featherless biped with broad nails”.
Veteran science journalist Tim Friend provides a fascinating survey of microbial ecology in his search for extremophiles in the biosphere. But it falls short. Friend is deceived by the modern equivalent of Plato’s mistake: that the taxonomic group archaea – archaeobacteria, as many biologists still call it – is a unique and newly discovered form of life. This…
