PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewQuammen, one of science writing’s savviest stylists, is best when probing the human side of science ... the book often feels like an attempt to afford Woese his rightful place in history ... Quammen even unearthed a telling piece of marginalia from Woese, who, while annotating a colleague’s scientific paper, wrote in all caps: \'YOU ACCORD DARWIN SO MUCH MORE SUBSTANCE THAN THE BASTARD DESERVES\' ... But if Quammen is writing for the ages, his prose at times risks feeling dated. His book spans nearly three centuries and mentions more than 160 scientists by name. Of those, by my count, only 11 are women ... Quammen offers a readable and largely reliable Baedeker to a fast-moving and complex field of science that is as tangled as the tree of his title.
