Latest news with #TheExplorer'sGene
Winnipeg Free Press
5 days ago
- Science
- Winnipeg Free Press
Navigating the unknown
Among the many technical terms from fields such as neuroscience, artificial intelligence, applied mathematics and genetics found in this fascinating new book by bestselling Canadian science writer/distance runner/physicist Alex Hutchinson, the reader discovers 'prediction error.' It's a term that comes from studies of how the brain makes sense of the impressions presented to it by the senses. The brain doesn't simply receive sensory data; rather, it continually makes predictions based on partial sense data and feeds these back to the senses. When we get lost, the predictions we make tend to be errors. We also carry a variant of the gene DRD4 that gives us a happy endorphin boost when our rate of prediction error declines. That genetic variant, Hutchinson writes, emerged 40-50,000 years ago, 'right around the time when our ancestors began their long, multi-pronged march to the farthest corners of the globe. It was a march, the findings hinted, spurred in part by dopamine.' Associated Press files Despite the book's title, Alex Hutchinson's latest is about much more than investigating far-flung and remote corners of our planet. Appropriately enough, The Explorer's Gene will be picked up by many readers as a result of a prediction error. Judging by the title and the historic mountaineering photo on the cover, readers may assume the book is a story of outdoor adventure. So it may come as a surprise that it's packed with discussions of experiments involving social-science questionnaires, rats in cages or brain imaging. Exploration, in Hutchinson's context, can mean striding off into the unknown, conducting scientific research or even varying your restaurant selections. Should you always order from the pizza parlour you like, knowing from experience that you'll enjoy it? Or should you 'explore' the restaurant scene in case a new, better place has opened up? According to Hutchinson, the science says 'try that new joint now and then.' Hutchinson, who has a master's degree in journalism from Cornell University and a PhD in physics from the University of Cambridge, drew on his experience with Canada's national distance running team to write the bestseller Endure, on the science of endurance. Hutchinson cites Swedish speedskater Nils van der Poel as an example of the benefits of experimentation. The skater had done reasonably well with the standard approach to training, but after the 2018 Olympics tried an unheard-of training regimen that led to Olympic gold in Beijing in 2022 and world records. Supplied photo Hutchinson is a science writer, long-distance runner and physicist. Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. Each chapter begins with a capsule illustration of an aspect of exploration, exemplified in incidents such as Alexander Mackenzie's journey to the Arctic Ocean in the 18th century or the Polynesian voyages that settled the Pacific Ocean. One story, about a six-year-old boy who got lost in the mountains of Oregon and found his way home on his own, introduces a discussion of free childhood play as a form of exploration and the worrisome consequences of a decline in such exploration in a wired, media-fed culture. Another topic may be of special interest to readers with a lot of mileage on their traveling shoes. It's called the 'explore-exploit' dilemma. Generally speaking, we explore when we're young and have time to make mistakes and try again. When we're older we 'exploit' our existing knowledge, living off skills acquired earlier. But that doesn't mean we should give up exploring altogether. In fact, Hutchinson argues that continuing to explore helps keep people physically and mentally healthy as they age. So even if you feel too old to learn about algorithms and game theory, and even if your explorations are mostly carried out through a screen, adding The Explorer's Gene to your bookcase may help you navigate the seas of advancing age as you sail toward the final discovery. Bob Armstrong is a Winnipeg novelist who writes about his explorations on Substack @wanderingwriterbobarmstrong. The Explorer's Gene
Wall Street Journal
04-04-2025
- Science
- Wall Street Journal
‘The Explorer's Gene' Review: Pulled to the Horizon
Endurance sports combine the exhilaration of voluntary suffering with the thrill of mental arithmetic. Any race longer than a sprint requires a careful metering of effort, a constant assessment of how hard one can—and must—go. Running a mile 10 seconds too slow, for example, means willing oneself to run the next one 20 seconds faster to stay on pace. Athletes often talk about races being 'tactical,' but the calculations don't resemble chess so much as the balancing of a painful budget. In his 2018 book, 'Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance,' Alex Hutchinson lucidly analyzed this mental and physical interplay, the thing that makes such sports perversely fun. For some people, however, that double distress isn't enough. They crave the risk that accompanies a plunge into the unknown, and they are the inspiration for Mr. Hutchinson's latest, 'The Explorer's Gene: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map.' Mr. Hutchinson, a professional runner and quantum physicist turned journalist, argues that humans are 'wired' to explore. But there doesn't actually seem to be a single genetic cause. There is a gene, known as DRD4, that in one variant has been linked to a thirst for novelty, but even within frontier populations that are the result of relatively recent exploration it is far from universal. Exploration seems to be 'biocultural,' as one scientist puts it to Mr. Hutchinson, driven by a mix of genetic and other factors. And to some degree, human exploration isn't unique or remarkable. Life tends to fill the space available, though as Mr. Hutchinson writes 'no one romanticizes the noble exploratory urge of the acorn.' On land, the tide of human settlement 9,000 years ago in the Neolithic age spread about as fast as that of plants or animals, about 1 kilometer per year. What set humans apart were our long journeys across open water. Settling the islands of the South Pacific involved sailing far over the horizon. The courses that brought humans to Australia some 55,000 years ago, for example, could not be the result of random drift on ocean currents; they required a deliberate hand on the helm. For Mr. Hutchinson, such achievements are a 'smoking gun' for an innate urge to explore, and a milepost for when humans developed 'behaviorally modern' characteristics such as language and complex planning.
