LIZ CLANCY: Aristotle's Lagoon

Aristotle’s Lagoon was a one-off documentary shown last night on BBC4 at nine o’clock. To be quite honest, for the first few minutes I thought it was going to be somewhat dull so decided to divide my attention between it and the washing up. A few more minutes into the programme, though, and I dropped my sponge in surprise.

I dare say most biologists, ecologists and naturalists already know much of this gumph but I was riveted at the unbelievable wealth of knowledge Aristotle gained from his two years studying the wildlife of the lagoon on the Greek island of Lesvos.

For instance, the philosopher described, in his Historia Animalium, the biology of the cuttlefish, including the appearance of its eggs. Our presenter (a biologist with a vaguely foreign accent – I forget his name) was as flabberghasted as I imagine all us viewers were by the sight of a transparent marble-sized cuttlefish egg in which we could clearly see the living embryo moving around inside, as the rather less stunned fisherman looked on. We also learnt that the cuttlefish, like Doctor Who, has three hearts and most certainly not like the good Doctor, poos onto its own head!

That Aristotle was every bit the typical ‘man ahead of his time’ was made all too clear throughout much of the programme. The philosopher who later tutored Alexander the Great invented ideas very similar to current scientific truths: his eidos, which was very succinctly explained by Prof. R. A. H. King of the University of Glasgow, was remarkably similar to how DNA and genetics have been proven to actually work, and though not an evolutionist (Aristotle believed that the world had always existed and barely changed) he did predate Darwin in seeing that the creatures in nature are well fitted to their environment. He also noted that although they lived in the water and looked like fish, dolphins breathe air.

The presenter of the programme was quite clearly a big fan of Aristotle’s, frequently insisting the ancient boffin was ‘the father of biology’ but he did not hold back from pointing out just why Aristotle is rarely credited as such by other scientists. Apparently, as staggering as his achievements were, his failures were ‘catastrophic’ because he didn’t test his theories. As a result, those who accepted them without question were extraordinarily correct on many aspects of biology, but spectacularly wrong for centuries on others.

One of the best hours I ever spent. If you missed it, catch it on BBCiplayer.

(I’ve still got the bloody washing up to do….)