Inaugural share - Supernature
A 1973 science book exploring macro forces and overlooked ideas that challenge the boundaries of traditional science.
I happened to buy this book through a WhatsApp group that sells old books. Something about it sparked my curiosity—and while I picked up a few graphic novels too, this was the one I was most excited to read.
It didn’t disappoint. Four years later, I still recall some of the concepts and ideas from Supernature with surprising clarity. Many science enthusiasts might label it pseudoscience—and sure, some of the ideas might well be just that: ideas. But it offers a fascinating lens nonetheless.
Take the moon, for example. Its alignment with Earth and its impact on various species is well-established—but Watson highlights some extreme (and memorable) examples to make the point. One that stood out: the marine bristleworm (Platynereis dumerilii), which synchronizes its reproductive cycle with the lunar phases. These worms surface to spawn during the last quarter of the moon. Incredibly, even under constant artificial light in a lab, their behavior could be “reset” with just two nights of dim simulated moonlight. It’s a brilliant example of nature’s internal timing mechanisms, finely tuned to the cosmos.
And then there’s a slightly gruesome but equally fascinating experiment with the American cockroach (Periplaneta americana). When its head is removed, it loses its circadian rhythm. But when researchers surgically connected a headless cockroach to a normal one—sharing a circulatory system—the headless one regained its rhythmic activity. The implication? Hormonal signals that govern internal clocks can travel through blood alone, showing how decentralised biological timekeeping really is.
Fascinating, isn’t it?
Watson goes further—into telepathy and psychokinesis. One account that stuck with me: Nelya Mikhailova, a Russian woman who demonstrated psychokinetic abilities in a controlled lab setting. In experiments led by neurophysiologist Genady Sergeyev, she was able to separate the yolk from the white of an egg submerged in a saline solution—using only mental focus, no physical contact. The setup was carefully monitored, and her brain activity and electromagnetic field were observed to shift significantly during the process.
The book is full of curious, sometimes bizarre, always thought-provoking ideas. It explores plant perception and communication (like lie detector experiments where plants responded to human intention), microbial intelligence and animal awareness (redefining what we call “intelligence”), homeostasis and healing (the placebo effect gets its due), metamorphosis and biological miracles, genetic memory, synchronicity, and mysterious long-distance biological interactions—some of which echo ideas from quantum biology.
You get the drift. It’s novel. It’s mind-expanding. And it’s a genuinely fun read.
If you’re the kind of person who loves asking “what if?”—you’ll find this book stays with you. Just check Goodreads. You’ll see comments from people who read it in middle school and still remember its impact.
So… if that sounds like your kind of rabbit hole, go find a copy. :)