Anina Lee and her wonderful world

Writer Elaine Davie

“It’s called evolution,” laughs biochemist turned conservationist Dr Anina Lee, describing the extraordinary adaptive strategies a multitude of life forms, from tardigrades to fynbos, have developed over millennia to ensure their survival.

To followers of The Village NEWS, Anina will be no stranger. Week after week for four years she has unpacked a treasure trove of intriguing stories drawn directly from nature, making her one of our most popular contributors.

Readers will therefore be excited to know that on Tuesday this week she launched a new book, consisting of 30 of her favourite essays, appropriately titled What a Wonderful World! An all-round local publication, it features detailed and lively watercolour Illustrations by Onrus artist, Margie Crossman and has been published by David Hilton-Barber’s Footprint Press.

Not only will local readers have the pleasure of reading and re-reading the collection, or simply browsing through it to revel in the illustrations, but it will be the ideal gift for friends and family members further afield. While Anina makes no bones about its educational intent, it will be as much fun for adults as for children.

Her easy, often humorous writing style clearly reflects Anina’s unflagging interest in her subjects. Although she has a PhD in Biochemistry, she never allows that to stand in the way of an almost child-like joy in the surprises she continues to unearth in nature. “Many of the adaptations both animals and plants have developed are geared towards protecting their proteins and DNA, like the protective chemicals excreted by frogs. As a biochemist, that really intrigues me, but the challenge is to explain the science in layman’s language – to get away from scientific jargon.”

She quotes the brilliant scientist, Richard Feynman who she says expresses her feelings exactly: ‘I do science for the pleasure of finding things out’. “I usually know little or nothing about my topics beforehand and my greatest satisfaction is in doing the ‘finding out’, asking the questions my readers might want answered. I never stop being grateful to scientists who so generously share their knowledge and research results on the internet. If you have the time and the interest you can find almost anything there.

Click on the newspaper below to read more (see page 4).