James Hamilton-Patterson describes our dilemma with the metaphor of the stuck monkey. Hunters allegedly used a banana in an immobilised glass jar as a trap to catch monkeys – once the monkey has grasped the banana inside the jar, it can’t pull out its hand and remains stuck. We, as a global civilisation, can’t let go of the juicy rewards of our economic development, so we are stuck very much the same way as that monkey.
Until the mid-1970s, chemists and biologists studying complex biological systems were largely preoccupied with deconstructing the systems into their component parts, in futile attempts to discover how the parts interacted to make the whole system work. The major change came when biological research shifted its focus toward accessing individual cells for the purpose of manipulating their DNA and modifying the functioning of genes.
Dennis Rouvray reviews the book "Nanomaterials for photodynamic therapy" by P. Kesharwani about the vital role played by the sun in promoting health. Read the review.
Oxford historian Peter Frankopan, who carries the all-encompassing job title of Professor of global history, has now gone one step further by attempting to tell the whole history of mankind in its connectedness and exchange with the Earth’s natural environment. This is a very ambitious undertaking, filling more than 660 pages for the text alone.
Mountains of books have been published instructing us on how to live a healthy life well into old age. Few, however, are written by authors as well qualified on this topic as Shilpa Ravella. Assistant Professor of medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, US, Ravella specialises in transplant gastroenterology and human nutrition, and has authored papers on a range of medical topics.
Andrew Reynolds, a Professor of philosophy, discusses numerous such examples of the use of metaphors in the areas of genetics, protein science, cell biology, evolution, and medicine. Lay-friendly - but competent - explanations of the scientific background take up a large fraction of this small-format book of under 200 pages.
Author Matthew Cobb presents an exceptionally well-informed account of the phenomenal development of genetic engineering over the past seven decades. Modern genetics is now rightly celebrated for its many major triumphs, however, certain applications of genetics in the past have been far from principled.
According to his book, our next big mistake was allowing these parallel narratives of science to foster almost unchallenged for the next 60 years. One of the best examples is Andrew Wakefield’s paper on the ‘link’ between autism and the MMR vaccine that single-handedly launched the anti-vax movement and, despite having no scientific credibility, took 12 years to be retracted.
The opinions expressed in John Hands’ book stand in striking contrast to those of other commentators on the situation. He accepts that significant changes are now taking place on our planet but claims that these are neither unmanageable nor do they constitute an existential threat.
Overall, I would count the juxtaposition of marine and modern human life as a remarkable discovery that adds an interesting twist to the age-old tradition of human-animal storytelling, communicated well with flamboyant and fearless writing.