THE END OF IGNOR ANCE

摘要

I've NEVER BELIEVED in nature's miracles. Even as a boy, I had a sneaking suspicion that, given a phone call to the right boffin, anything could be explained by science. True, when I gazed awestruck through my grimy jam jar at a peacock butterfly struggling out of its pupa, I had no idea exactly what had happened to the fat black caterpillar I'd watched spinning its silky cocoon. But I felt that, if only I could 'see' inside the creature, I could work it out. And, okay, I admit that when I see a gang of swallows ricocheting over a pond I thmk, "Wow, these fragile feathery things can migrate to South Africa, and I need a car, plane and masses of environmentally unfriendly fuel to get there." It's a long way - a very long way. "Wow!" indeed.