Louis Pauwels, a French writer and editor, and Jacques Bergier, a nuclear physicist, state in their remarkable book The Morning of the Magician that “those who are really interested in the future should also be interested in the past and as ready to look for what they are seeking in both directions—backwards as well as forwards.” That is what we will do in this book about insect evolution.
Evolution is dependent on time—but what is time? That is a question that is still being investigated-by scientists all over the world. Einstein said that time is simply what the clocks show. He could have just as well said what the calendar shows. It was his way of saying that we really do not know what time is. However, we must still attempt to measure time as accurately as possible. Our twenty-four-hour clock or 365-day-a-year calendar would not work for another planet with another rotation, Jupiter circles the sun only once every twelve earth years. A Jupiter calendar would be considerably longer than our earth calendar. Ancient people developed their own special calendars. There is one such on Salisbury Plain in England.
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Philip S. Callahan, Ph.D. Philip S, Callahan holds a Ph.D. in entomology from Kansas State University, and until recently was Professor of Entomology on the graduate faculty of the University of Georgia.... |