The Sociable Sciences

"B efore genetics and the mapping of DNA, before ecology and global warming, adventurous and foolhardy souls were compelled into the wild because of their insatiable curiosity about the natural world. The work of these naturalists was intensely sociable: they explored together, dashed off irate letters to colleagues, haggled over specimens, commiserated over family tragedies, and extracted favors from one another. And no one better exemplified this than the European scientists who were drawn to Chile in the nineteenth century. This beautifully written history begins with a familiar pairing -…