... the scuba-diving historian and philosopher of science tackles these questions with eloquent boldness ... Godfrey-Smith recounts close encounters with marine fauna, gleaned from years of diving off the Australian coast. These have an electric immediacy: He’s often as much observed as observing ... The passages in Metazoa on those dynamic features, such as synchronized 'electrical breathing' in neurons, are gripping—as are the discussions of pain in hermit crabs, split-brain cognition and REM sleep in cuttlefish. The sheer number of exploratory pathways, the author admits, give the book a 'tentacular' form. I also found one or two of the philosophical passages somewhat viscous—like mud-wrestling an octopus.
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