Why Elephants Have Big Ears by Chris Lavers, Victor Gollancz, £18.99,
ISBN 0575067225
REVVED up by espresso for a tough day at work? Calmed by chamomile tea for a
quiet hour in the garden? You can switch between these opposing states in a
matter of hours, but it’s taken millions of years for the subtle interplay
between metabolism and environment to evolve into today’s wild variety of beasts
and behaviours.
Curiously, we take metabolism for granted. Every day thousands hit the
doughnut trail, blithely assuming that their bodies will somehow burn off the
extra calories. Or perhaps they hug the…
