Gould's picks of the best of six years' worth of his ``This View of Life'' columns in Natural History add up to dozens of choice essays. The themes are familiar—reflections on evolution as bush of diversity and not ladder of progress; as chance and not design; as punctuated equilibrium and not gradualism. There are wonderful disquisitions on special creatures like Australian platypuses and echidnas, not only exceptional as egg-laying mammals but equipped with large and, in the case of the echidna, richly convoluted brains. (They score pretty well on maze test, too.) Then there are the mother frogs who use their stomachs as brood pouches delivering live-born froglets from their mouths. Alas, this species may have gone extinct as part of the strange worldwide decline in amphibian populations in recent years. Kiwis come in for discussion a couple of times, in one case as an example of wanton predation by a dog, thus giving the lie to the clichÇ that only man kills for pleasure. And, as always, Gould, the George Will of paleontology, waxes eloquent on his favorite sport, baseball, sometimes for lessons in probability, sometimes as a springboard for one of Gould's favorite scholarly sports: supplying historical correctives. Thus we learn the real truth behind Abner Doubleday and Cooperstown, N.Y.; what Huxley and Bishop Wilberforce really said in the Great Debate; and how the Burgess Shale was really discovered. Teaching and its decline; textbooks and their decline; and other signs of the decrepitude of the culture are balanced by the cheer and zeal with which Gould extols advances in science like the space probe Voyager. Finally, there is the admirable Gouldian trait of un-pedantry, according to which he sides with the post office in choosing the technically incorrect but popular name for the dinosaur depicted in a recent issue. Bully for Brontosaurus and bully for Gould, too.
Pub Date: May 13, 1991
ISBN: 0-393-02961-1
Page Count: 524
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An exposition of the revolutionary changes in medicine coming in the next century as well as discussion of some of the ethical problems these will create. The distinguished Clark, professor emeritus of immunology at UCLA (Sex and the Origins of Death, 1996, etc.), attempts to explain to nonscientists the biology underlying molecular medicine. This is no small undertaking, and Clark is only partly successful. For the layperson, his work requires careful reading of dense text, mastery of a mysterious new vocabulary—``recombinant plasmids,'' ``antisense mRNA''—and study of complex diagrams. After these demanding biochemistry lessons, Clark turns to a fascinating discussion of what it all means in terms of health. He details the current state of gene therapy in treating cystic fibrosis and severe combined immune deficiency (the Bubble Boy disorder), in which copies of normal genes are being successfully introduced into the living cells of individuals with defective genes. In cancer, the ultimate goal of gene therapy is to alter or kill every tumor cell, and in AIDS to neutralize the effects of HIV. Clark, who is optimistic about reaching these goals, then devotes a chapter each to the profound effects on public health that DNA vaccination (injecting a gene from a pathogen, which would be more effective than today's vaccines) will bring in the next century and to the significance of the Human Genome Project, due to be completed shortly after the turn of the century. He clearly sees an educated public as the best defense against misuse of genetic information, for instance, altering a fetus's genetic makeup with the best of medical intentions but without knowing all the consequences of doing so. Although Clark insists that if one is to understand molecular medicine, one must first understand molecular biology, those who find his biology lectures too academic for comfort can still savor the well-wrought medical and ethical discussions.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-19-511730-1
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1997
In 1270, one year before the start of Marco Polo's fabled adventure, a Jewish merchant from the Adriatic port of Ancona set sail for the Orient; over 700 years later, his recently discovered account affords a rare and fascinating glimpse into the peoples, commerce, and thought of the 13th century. Selbourne, a former Oxford professor with an interest in Judaica, presents a fully annotated, very readable translation from the medieval Italian. It reveals Jacob d'Ancona as a savvy businessman, a scholar, a knowledgeable healer—and someone who never shies from disputation. Jacob sails to the eastern Mediterranean; journeys overland to Basra, where he attends the wedding of his son to a wealthy merchant's daughter; crosses the Arabian Sea, alighting on India's Malabar Coast; and then via Sumatra sails north to the Chinese port of Zaitun, the ``City of Light.'' Readers may be surprised to learn that Europeans of all stripes, as well as Saracens, or Muslims, had already been engaged in thriving trade with the Chinese for perhaps hundreds of years, Jewish merchants being among the most prominent. Zaitun itself was a Sodom of sorts: Its ``light'' is a consequence of the all-night commerce in human pleasures, which the pious Jacob abhors. But it is also a center of learning and a great agglomeration of peoples from the known medieval world. During his five-month sojourn, Jacob becomes involved in the intellectual and practical debates swirling around the city, which faced imminent invasion by Kublai Khan, to whom Polo would shortly become an advisor. Jacob's somewhat prolix disquisitions on piety and religion, the relationships among Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and the wisdom of confronting the Mongols earn him both admiration and enmity, and he must finally flee the city, though not without considerable financial success. An exciting, stimulating, and unique human document, and one that will no doubt become a much-trumpeted addition to the historical record. (50 b&w photos)
Pub Date: Nov. 13, 1997
ISBN: 0-316-17353-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1997
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
