Here’s another—probably not the last—in the recent batch of books explaining modern science by referring to popular sci-fi shows. After a foreword by Lawrence M. Krauss, author of The Physics of Star Trek, the authors begin by examining a point evident to the most casual viewer of Star Trek: the presence in the cast of large numbers of “alien” creatures. Yet most of these creatures are basically human in form—a fact explained in the universe of Star Trek by a variant of the panspermia hypothesis, which postulates that life on Earth was seeded (accidentally or deliberately) from some other world where it began. The authors (both M.D.s; he is affiliated with the Mayo Clinic) then examine the factors that determine evolutionary divergence of similar organisms, focusing on a human embryo’s development of facial features. Research on chimpanzees and other apes sheds light on the limited range of facial expressions in Vulcans, or the total lack of expression of the android Data. Facial morphology also affects our judgment of an alien race’s character—as a rule, the closer to the human norm its members’ faces, the more likely a race is to be “good guys” in the Trek universe. They suggest variants that the show’s writers might profitably explore—sense organs that detect infrared light (common among snakes) or magnetic fields (used by birds for navigation). All these points are made by reference to specific episodes and characters, showing a detailed familiarity with the show. The authors go on to examine the factors influencing life aboard a spaceship (including the manufacture of food by a replicator), exotic life forms discovered by the Enterprise (rocklike intelligences), cloning, life extension, and other biological issues. All this is done clearly and good-naturedly (the authors are obviously fans), and, most importantly, without dumbing down the subject. Entertaining and informative, worth reading even by non-Trekkies. (For another look at Star Trek, see Jeff Greenwald, Future Perfect, p. 712.)
Pub Date: June 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-06-019154-6
Page Count: 204
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1998
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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