Nothing new under the sun

Rupert Sheldrake had it coming. In A New Science of Life (1981), he argued that animals and plants have inherited a collective memory from their predecessors, thanks to ‘morphic resonance’. This also explained why animals had telepathic powers. ‘You see, I told you so,’ I said to my wife when reading about this in Steven Poole’s exciting new book, and exchanged a secret glance with our dog. Mothers, one might add, also seem to have such psychic powers and know exactly when their teenage sons are sneaking home late at night.

But Sheldrake is not your average ‘new ager’ or dog lover. He is a cell biologist. The idea of telepathy and that ‘laws of nature’ might not be fixed in time but flexible and evolving infuriated the science establishment. Rethink comes to the rescue of such contrarian thinkers. They are what the Germans call Querdenker, literally people who do not think straight. Poole invites us to be a bit bolder than we often are, to challenge accepted truths, to revisit old ideas and even to play with some crazy new ones.

We live in modern times and tend to believe in scientific progress. Of course, there are some people who continue to believe that the earth is flat or that climate change is a myth, but professional scientists and most sensible people don’t. Superstition gives way to scientific truth. Rethink makes you, well, rethink this convenient story. Fear not: Poole is not a relativist. There are some really bad ideas — the earth is not flat. But he does challenge the idea that science is travelling on a linear road to perfection. Instead, he sees a roller coaster.