    58

    Poverty makes the spadefoot toad passive and inert.  But the

    coming of prosperity whets a spirited desire to get even more out of life.

    The spadefoot toad is following a basic biological law.  That same

    principle makes the rapid rise in good fortune among humans a

    dangerous thing indeed.  Nature shuts down the expenditure of energy

    when resources disappear.  But she unleashes energy when fresh

    resources arrive.  She makes those who are deprived sit still and

    endure their fate.  But when good fortune lifts the curtain of

    hopelessness, biology gives the lucky souls who've landed on an

    upward track a burst of manic zeal.

    The connection between the human supercharger testosterone

    and the hyperactive states of creatures like the toad is not merely

    metaphoric.  Experiments indicate that testosterone is the hormone that

    jolts hibernating creatures out of their torpid metabolic state when

    environmental resources finally return.178  Testosterone has an equally

    impressive impact on creatures who do not sleep the tough seasons

    away.  During the winter, when times are tough, the canary is a silent

    bird.  But when spring comes, his body produces a testosterone surge.

    The result: a sudden desire to sing.  How does testosterone produce

    this musical enthusiasm?  Among other things, by triggering a growth

    of neurons in the brain.179

    You can see a similar biological conservation device at work in

    yourself.  You sit down to a meal.  A half hour or less after you've

    started eating, you begin to feel warm.180  The food you're chewing

    hasn't reached your bloodstream yet--in fact, it will take hours before it

    is digested.181  So where does the sudden spurt of fuel that warms you

    come from?  The body has held energy in reserve, just as it does in the

    case of the spadefoot toad.  Those stored calories are designed to tide

    you over in case you skip lunch or find yourself in the middle of a

    famine.  Once the first bite of a new meal passes your lips, however,

    your metabolic regulators conclude that there's new food at hand and

    release some of the hoarded nutrients into your bloodstream.

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