Following a Dutch baby tradition: Beschuit met muisjes

As I may have mentioned, we recently welcomed our first child into the world. In the months prior to the birth I asked around for English traditions to welcome babies. There really only seemed to be two, neither of which seemed as fitting as the Dutch tradition, which has been celebrated in my Dutch family for a long time.

Book Review: The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being by Alice Roberts

This is a book on biology, so it may be surprising that I'm writing a review of it on a blog about family trees. However, it is a book about our biology, the biology of humans, and how we adapted and evolved into what we recognise as a human body.

It's an interesting read that covers every major body part and function. What makes it special is that focuses on the development of the embryo before reaching out into the past to see how each body part became adapted for new uses and evolved.

At the time of reading I was expecting my first child (who recently arrived), and being interested in science, this book was an obvious choice. It just so happens that I'd been waiting for the book to be published - and then for one to be available at the library - before we even had our little meeple developing in my wife's womb. It's amazing to read about the history of evolutionary science and how looking at fossils and DNA provides answers to how different bones, etc moved positions in different species and adapted to either new or more specialised uses. One example being the swim bladder in fish that acts as a way for the fish to exchange gases and diffuse them throughout the body - blowing air out of its mouth when too much gas is inside it, and coming to the surface when the water is de-oxygenated to get more oxygen. I've kept fish on and off for years and had observed both actions many times, but I've never read about their biology. Anyway, it just show happens that we can observe via different species alive today; this swim bladder becoming lungs. So evolution didn't need to magic lungs out of thin air for organisms to live on land - as we're increasingly discovering if just adapted an existing body part and made it a bit more specialised.

It's interesting to see the family trees that the author has drawn in the book, showing how we're related to different species, not just apes, but organisms such as the lancelet.

I'd recommend this book to anyone making new members of their family tree and for anyone who finds the long view of family trees and family history interesting.

Newest member of my family tree