A provocative peek into the real-life mechanics of the scientific process.
Bock details the unscientific response to the Zika virus panic in Brazil in 2015 and reflects on its ramifications for today.
As the author observes, the emergence of the Zika virus in 2015 in Brazil quickly sparked a wave of alarm despite a paucity of scientific evidence justifying it. In fact, Zika was discovered in 1947 in Uganda and has never been linked to any major illness. Also, it is physically and genomically all but identical to dengue fever, making the two viruses notoriously difficult to distinguish. Some linked a rise of microcephaly to Zika, but microcephaly is also exceedingly difficult to diagnose, and the number of known cases, despite the terror widely spread through media channels, remained statistically insignificant. Then, inexplicably, Zika simply vanished from the globe, despite the absence of any vaccine to counter it. Bock, equipped with 30 years of experience as a primary care physician, astutely dissects the way in which a scrupulous process of rigorous research was bypassed in favor of a manufactured drama, one that, to this day, has never been adequately corrected. “Despite billions of research dollars spent and thousands of investigative papers created within the instantly busy Zika research field, all of the original concepts of the Zika–microcephaly connection seem fairly intact and unchallenged within the scientific community.” The author painstakingly marshals mountains of evidence, all lucidly explained, in favor of this thesis, and convincingly paints a less idealistic portrait of scientific progress than is often imagined. Bock connects the failings of the response to Zika to Covid-19, another pandemic that ignited more panic than was consistent with the evidence available, a remarkable discussion since Dr. Anthony Fauci interpreted the global management of Zika as a “roadmap for future challenges.” The author delivers a fascinating and meticulous account of the ways in which the major health organizations in the world overstated the alleged crisis—all of them spread panic, but none of them conducted the kinds of empirical investigations necessary to fully comprehend Zika’s impact. Bock explores possible reasons for these missteps in a way that avoids the self-aggrandizing posturing of panoramic conspiracy theories. Instead, he considers an array of reasons for the failure—including political opportunism (pro-choice activists used Zika to push for relaxed restrictions on abortion), careerism, and the sensationalistic tendencies of the press.
The author is at his best contrasting idealistic ideas about the nature of the scientific process with what actually happens (the latter being the outgrowth of the messiness of human motivation): “Science has the pretense or appearance of its facts being scientifically derived; however in reality there may be some similarity with the process, through popularity and consensus, of determining celebrity or fame – including ‘we know it when we see it.’ ”
A provocative peek into the real-life mechanics of the scientific process.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 280
Publisher: manuscript
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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