Spirals in Time
'A rewarding glimpse of another world' THE GUARDIAN
Seashells are the sculpted homes of a remarkable group of animals: the molluscs. These are some of the most ancient and successful animals on the planet, and they have fascinating tales to tell. Spirals in Time charts the course of shells through history, from the first jewelry and the oldest currencies through to their use as potent symbols of sex and death, prestige and war, not to mention a nutritious (and tasty) source of food.
In this book, Helen Scales leads us on a journey into the realm of these undersea marvels. She goes in search of everything from snails that 'fly' underwater to octopuses accused of stealing shells and giant mussels with golden beards.
Shells are also bellwethers of our impact on the natural world. The effects of overfishing and pollution are, of course, serious concerns, but perhaps more worrying is ocean acidification, which causes shells to simply melt away. Spirals in Time urges you to ponder how seashells can reconnect us with nature, and heal the rift between ourselves and the living world.
One of the books of the year – Nature, Guardian, The Economist, The Times
Helen Scales is a marine biologist based in Cambridge. Her doctorate involved exploring the reproductive biology of the humphead wrasse, and since then she has tagged sharks in California, catalogued marine life surrounding a hundred islands in the Andaman Sea, and most recently studied the diverse fish that live on coral reefs in the South Pacific. Helen is now a freelance researcher and broadcaster. A major outlet for Helen’s explorations is BBC Radio where she is a reporter and presenter on science and natural history programmes, especially on Radio 4 and the World Service. Her credits include regular appearances on Inside Science and Home Planet, numerous one-off documentaries, and a coveted spot on The Museum of Curiosity. Helen is also a long-standing member of the award-winning science communication collective, The Naked Scientists, based at the University of Cambridge. Helen’s first book was Poseidon’s Steed; The Story of Seahorses from Myth to Reality (2010, Penguin).
helenscales.com / @helenscales