© 1999 Macmillan Magazines Ltd

attachment bonds which is said to producegrief.

The evolutionary viewpoint is also usedto regard primitive grief as a deficit reaction,occurring when a significant other is absent,and leading to searching and protest reac-tions. In adult humans, these reactions thenextend to involve complex mental processes,limiting the amount of distressing informa-tion that is received. Conventionally,attempts have been made to overcome thiskind of equilibrium by ‘grief work’, butArcher seriously questions the validity ofsuch an approach.

His writing sets contemporary ideas inboth cultural and historical contexts, under-takes an extensive review of research, andlooks at such specific issues as the loss of achild, parent or friend (in spite of the prefer-ence for evolutionary principles). Like manyattempts to move a subject on in one signifi-cant bound, it promises rather more than itdelivers. But no one with a serious interest ingrief can afford to ignore it.Hugh Freeman, former Editor of the BritishJournal of Psychiatry, is Honorary Visiting Fellow,Green College, Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6HG, UK.

A model subjectGlobal Energy and Water Cycles edited by K. A. Browning and R. J. GurneyCambridge University Press: 1999. 292 pp.£50, $95

David Rind

The interactions between energy and watercycles are basic to both weather forecastingand climate-change prediction. This bookbuilds on a 1994 conference of the GlobalEnergy and Water Cycle Experiment andattempts to assess our understanding of thisinteraction for forecasting on both short andlong timescales.

Almost all of the relevant processesinvolved in the water and energy cycle (withthe notable exception of sea ice) have theirown subsections in the book. These includesuch diverse fields as numerical schemes forwater-vapour advection, cloud physics, themovement of water through the soil and theocean’s response to fresh water. Each sectionpresents cutting-edge science, emphasizesuncertainties and projects what futureresearch is needed and likely.

The book focuses on how a process worksand how it can be modelled, especially in theglobal general circulation models used topredict climate change. The problems areimmense. To model the process, we mustfirst understand it, which means we must beable to observe it. Observations of manyhydrological processes are quite poor. Usingavailable data, modellers have provideddetailed representations of particular

processes, with the relevant physics oftenoccurring on very small scales. Whetherthese processes can be accurately simulatedin terms of the larger-scale variables used ingeneral circulation models, what level ofdetail is needed to make global models use-ful, and how representations can be madeconsistent among the different processes arethree main themes in this book.

While the level of presentation is quitehigh, there is no attempt to make the cover-age systematic. For example, there is no fig-ure showing the climatological global pre-cipitation field, as uncertain as it is.

This book is most appropriate forresearchers and advanced graduate students,since it will update them on the diverse com-

ponents involved in climate modelling. Butstate-of-the-art books in rapidly developingfields have a relatively short shelf-life. Significant developments have alreadyoccurred in the three years since most ofthese articles were written. For example, wehave seen the launch of the Tropical RainfallMeasurement Mission and a moisture-conserving form of the semi-Lagrangianscheme for water-vapour advection has been developed. I estimate that another suchbook will be needed in around five years.With luck, the editors will consider makingthis a series. David Rind is at the NASA Goddard Space FlightCenter, Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 2880Broadway, New York, New York 10025, USA.

book reviews

480 NATURE | VOL 398 | 8 APRIL 1999 | www.nature.com

Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman(Adventures of a Curious Character)a stage performance by Mike Maran Productions

John Polkinghorne

Richard Feynman is one of a very small band oftheoretical physicists whose names have a chanceof being recognized by the general public. This isnot because of a just appreciation of the powerfulcalculational techniques that won him a Nobelprize for his work in quantum electrodynamics.Rather, it is because of the persona he created forhimself as a fun-loving, bongo-drum-playingguy who just happened to be brilliant at physics.This carefully cultivated image is powerfullyconveyed in the best-selling book after which thisstage production has been named and fromwhich it draws much of its material.(Characteristically, the book was compiled fromverbal anecdotes by a member of the Leightonfamily, faithful amanuenses to Feynman, whowas himself an actor rather than a playwright.)

Many people have enjoyed the book, thoughI have to say that, though I am a great admirer ofFeynman the physicist, I have never cared for itmuch. Beneath all the jokiness there is a clearsubtext: I am cleverer than anyone else and hereare a hundred stories to prove it. But the image ofthe New York kid was a mask behind which amuch more complex and interesting characterwas concealed. This is evident from the fact thatwhen James Gleick came to write his balancedand successful biography, Genius, he found adetailed and carefully preserved archive availableto him — not quite what one might haveexpected of someone whose public stance wasthat he would have liked to have ducked out of allthe trouble involved in accepting a Nobel prize (astory repeated in this show but one that I havenever believed).

Both the persona and something of the manbeneath it are displayed in this lively stageproduction. Its form is essentially that of thecabaret, a succession of stories, accompanied byvisual images and punctuated by episodes of theSouth American rhythms Feynman liked so

much, skilfullyperformed on avariety of exoticinstruments. There are seriousmoments — thetragic early deathof his first wifeArlene is recalledand there is anaccount of

Feynman’s agonized reaction to the devastationof Hiroshima by the atomic bomb he had helpedto build.

Dick Feynman had a deep intuitiveunderstanding of vast ranges of science outsidehis chosen speciality and a considerable ability toconvey insight to non-scientists in a lucid andstriking way. In the show, this is best exemplifiedby his beautiful observation that a tree grows outof the air and not out of the earth, and by hisincisive and deceptively simple contribution atthe end of his life to the enquiry into theChallenger disaster, identifying the cause as theeffect of low temperature on the seals of the fuelcompartments.

The production drags a little towards the endof its hour-and-a-half, when a valiant attempt toconvey something of the Feynman diagramtechnique is, almost inevitably, somewhatconfused and confusing, and where there is,perhaps, undue recourse to drumming to fill ingaps in the continuity.

Nevertheless, Mike Maran is to becongratulated on a lively contribution to whatseems to be a growing genre of dramaticperformances with some scientific content. Iattended a 4 p.m. performance at which at leasthalf the audience appeared to be under the age of16. I am sure that these young people will havecaught something of the excitement and value ofscience through this performance, inspired bysomeone who was both a very great scientist andan accomplished showman.John Polkinghorne is a former President ofQueens’ College, Cambridge CB3 9ET, UK.

Science in culture