The Serengeti Rules Explains How to Save Everyone from the Apocalypse

 “...I hope that they [readers]…feel enriched with fresh insights into the wonders of life at different scales...that they feel more hope for the future--that there is time to change the road we're on” (Carroll 268). The preceding quote, taken from the last sentence of Serengeti Rules, embodies the central impact of the book on its readers word by word. Truly, the author opened my eyes to the magnificent glory and complexity of life and gave me the hope that something could be done to save the environment. Plus, he did much more. Published in 2016, Serengeti Rules by Sean Carroll seamlessly stitches together stories of scientific discoveries from various biological and physiological fields into a set of rules of natural regulation. Carroll eloquently depicts each story from multiple angles as he zooms in and out of scenes, to and from specific time periods, and draws linkages across each story. It is only through such a clever narrated book that the audience truly unites with the scientists from the stories in their shouts of “Aha!” or “Eureka!” and discover the wonders of life at multiple scales.

In his book, Carroll introduces a new aspect of the realm of science: interconnection between different scales of the world, from bacteria to buffalos. He offers multiple interpretations of discoveries and makes direct references across chapters to bring the readers’ attention to a continuing pattern of systems that stretch through a wide range of seemingly unrelated topics. The author generously sprinkles these connections through the course of the book, and the readers learn from him by independently applying the rules of natural regulation to previous chapters in their own ponderance.

Aside from linking different stories, Serengeti Rules navigates the audience through a web of interconnected ideas that drive the scientists to move forward in their study. In his discussion of steps leading to a discovery, Carroll carefully unfolds the logic behind the conclusion by digestible increments, ultimately helping the audience understand that complex concepts comprise a logical arrangement  of smaller, simpler rules. In addition to simplifying the progression of scientific deduction, the author renders his writing comprehensible to readers of diverse educational backgrounds. Instead of using fancy, alienating science jargons, the author includes well-known phrases or entities outside of the scientific field to highlight fascinating correspondence between the readers' experience and the book while conveying a great depth of insight in science, sometimes even more so than books directed for science professionals. For example, Carroll mentions a well-known quote from George Orwell’s Animal Farm “Some animals are more equal than others” to manifest the dynamic interaction of organisms in an ecosystem (Carroll 127). I believe the author’s capability to build a bridge between the readers’ experiences and science serves as a powerful tool that creates a gateway for a wide range of people to feel comfortable learning about science.

Another unique quality of the Serengeti Rules provides a space for the readers to apply the lessons of the book to their life by reflecting on the world they live in. Through a series of stories in the first section of the book, the author underscores that the smallest changes can overturn a natural system. This theme comes to a climax as Carroll points to human actions as the principle cause of ecological perturbations in the following quote: “But the ultimate causes of these cancers are not missing predators, they are a matter of humans doing too much: too much phosphorus on our farms, too much pesticide on our fields, too much poaching of lions and leopards... It is becoming ever clearer from the kinds of indirect, inadvertent, unanticipated side effects...that we are doing these things against our own long-term interest” (Carroll 166). The author indicates that even the smallest actions we make may accumulate to bring an impact that sways the stability of natural systems and bring about unprecedented challenges to the planet’s ecosystems. However, the same idea can be interpreted conversely to signify that our small actions could largely help reverse the consequences our greed has caused. 

Overall, the Serengeti Rules has altered my preconceived notion of science as a rigid, esoteric topic that I would never be familiar with. It is a valuable work that deserves to be read by everyone, especially those unfamiliar with or disinterested in science, and I bet the elephants in the Serengeti would agree with me.

-Yelim