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The University in Ruins. By Bill Readings. Harvard University Press: 1996. Pp. 238. $29.95, £18.95.

What is it about society in the United States that led to such complete polarization between the creationists and evolutionists?

A SERIES of papers by Bruce and colleagues1–4 has described a pre-implantation block to pregnancy in non-inbred laboratory mice which is evoked by the presence of strange males of the same strain or of a different strain (‘alien’ males). This effect is olfactory-mediated. The phenomenon has also been reported in another species, non-inbred prairie deermice (Peromyscus maniculatus bairdii)5.

WE have now been working on problems connected with andrœcial and gynaeceal variation in Ranunculus for several years and wish to supplement the remarks by Mr. J. Parkin in his letter published in NATURE of April 13, p. 568.

Darwinism and Divinity: Essays on Evolution and Religious Belief. Edited by John Durant. Basil Blackwell: 1985. Pp.210. 15, 24.95.

THE results of genetical studies, completed up to the F2 generation this year, and of preliminary cytological investigations, enable us to add another to the increasing list of known tetraploids amongst plants. Crossing Saxifraga rosacea with S. granulata, a small F1 generation was raised the plants of which were uniform, except that one showed abnormal development of the petals in most of the flowers. The general balance of characters was towards the male parent (S. granulata). One of the F1 plants with normal flowers was selfed and a large F2 generation (436 in dividuals) raised. The plants of this generation were remarkably uniform, except that petal abnormalities appeared in a few or majority of flowers in five plants. No trace of segregation towards the distinct habit and flower characters of the two parents could be traced.