A useful primer on the science of air pollution.
An explanation of the atmosphere with an emphasis on the parts that don’t belong.
Broomfield, a British chemist specializing in air quality, reminds readers that before global warming caused by greenhouse gases became a universal preoccupation, scientists studying the atmosphere worried about air pollution. Most greenhouse gases are not poisonous. This is definitely not the case with pollutants, which cause as many premature deaths as smoking. The good news is that, unlike the case with global warming, the battle against air pollution has seen genuine progress. The oldest pollutant is probably sulfur dioxide from burning fuels, mostly coal. It produced the famous toxic London fogs that peaked during the 1950s and produced the first effective anti-pollution laws, which have reduced levels by 95% in nations where laws are effective. In the 1920s, when leaded gas was introduced, everyone knew that burning it released poisonous lead, but burning unleaded gas produces equally toxic byproducts. The solution was the catalytic converter, which also eliminated another pollutant: carbon monoxide. Many readers remember the 1980s, when experts warned that chlorofluorocarbons in refrigerants were destroying ozone in the upper atmosphere, which protects us from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation. An unprecedented episode of international cooperation banned the chemicals, and ozone should recover in about 70 years. Two persistent pollutants today are oxides of nitrogen and ultrafine particulate matter, both from burning fuels. Many readers may be surprised to learn that the greatest source of particulate matter is wood burning. Anyone using it indoors for heating or cooking need not worry about outside air pollution, however; their inside air is far more toxic. Although the author pays attention to conditions in America, he writes for a British audience, so Britain is the source of most examples, anecdotes, and government regulation. But plenty of meat remains for American readers.
A useful primer on the science of air pollution.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64313-334-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Pegasus
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and...
A dense, absorbing investigation into the medical community's exploitation of a dying woman and her family's struggle to salvage truth and dignity decades later.
In a well-paced, vibrant narrative, Popular Science contributor and Culture Dish blogger Skloot (Creative Writing/Univ. of Memphis) demonstrates that for every human cell put under a microscope, a complex life story is inexorably attached, to which doctors, researchers and laboratories have often been woefully insensitive and unaccountable. In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, an African-American mother of five, was diagnosed with what proved to be a fatal form of cervical cancer. At Johns Hopkins, the doctors harvested cells from her cervix without her permission and distributed them to labs around the globe, where they were multiplied and used for a diverse array of treatments. Known as HeLa cells, they became one of the world's most ubiquitous sources for medical research of everything from hormones, steroids and vitamins to gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, even the polio vaccine—all without the knowledge, must less consent, of the Lacks family. Skloot spent a decade interviewing every relative of Lacks she could find, excavating difficult memories and long-simmering outrage that had lay dormant since their loved one's sorrowful demise. Equal parts intimate biography and brutal clinical reportage, Skloot's graceful narrative adeptly navigates the wrenching Lack family recollections and the sobering, overarching realities of poverty and pre–civil-rights racism. The author's style is matched by a methodical scientific rigor and manifest expertise in the field.
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and Petri dish politics.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4000-5217-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010
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