If ever text called for editor, this is it.
Canadian journalist Dewar (Bones, 2001) tackles the whole business of stem cells, cloning, and other at-the-edge science in a text composed largely of long interviews with various movers and shakers.
And business, she contends is what it’s all about. The not-hidden agenda of the text is the oft-repeated refrain that science and capitalism now go hand in hand; that academia is being bought by corporations; that scientists have made fortunes in biotech; and that even bioethicists command huge consultants’ fees for their advice. As far as regulation is concerned, forget it. Government (at least in Canada) doesn’t have a clue. Add to this the title reference to Genesis: Adam and Eve were banned from Eden because they ate from the Tree of Knowledge, forever depriving them from the second Tree—of Life. But it’s the tree of life that Dewar sees as the quest of “hubristic” scientists in a field she calls “revelationary.” Such would include Advanced Cell Technology’s Michael West, who started out hoping to “cure” aging by finding the gene that allows cells to keep dividing. And it would include James Watson, who comes in for major attack, along with the Cold Spring Harbor enterprise he has long directed. And Craig Venter. But for all Dewar’s rants, she has raves as well: for Fred Sanger, Sidney Brenner and John Sulston; and, in one nice chapter, the bioinformatics geeks who saved the US government and Celera by creating the software that allowed assembly of the rough drafts of the human genome. Does the reader learn about the science and ethics of stem cell and cloning research? Yes, Dewar does all right there, but her descriptions are so often covered up by portraits of the personalities involved, their motives, competitors and backbiting, as well as by her own intrusive presence, with her questions about their beliefs in God, that you want to shake her. Same with her many digressions—including a long sketch of Darwin.
If ever text called for editor, this is it.Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2005
ISBN: 0-7867-1488-3
Page Count: 528
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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