An exhaustive and accessible report.
A holistic study of how allergies continue to bewilder medical science.
As a medical anthropologist, MacPhail’s subject matter is both professional and personal. In 1996, her father died suddenly of anaphylaxis after a bee sting. That event prompted the author to carry an EpiPen and to launch a research project examining the “puzzle of allergies.” In a deft three-part analysis, she probes the biological processes of allergens and the misconceptions surrounding them. She then examines the “confusing maze” of diagnosis and the causative theories on why allergies are proliferating, and she explores possible solutions and the progress medical science has made (outside of antihistamines) treating global allergy issues, including the development of promising new vaccines. MacPhail cites historical information from the early 1800s, when the first allergy was medically documented, and consistently attempts to nail down the ever shifting definitions of what allergies actually are, tackling the vexing question of origin with informed speculation. Whether it be the cumulative effects of environmental changes, industrial development, food additives, or genetic mutations, specific people seem more vulnerable to certain allergens. The author optimistically reflects on modern immunological advancements that have provided relief, and she presents a series of crisply rendered perspectives of people who cited severe allergies to airborne allergens, dust mites, or specific foods—all frustrated by the lack of a definitive cause or the unaffordability/unavailability of longer-term remedies. “In a capitalistic system,” she writes, “a patient is akin to a customer.” While the culprits responsible for the increases in allergic sufferers are debatable moving targets, MacPhail skillfully narrows down the possibilities and some of the solutions, although her contradictory advice on air purifiers may confuse readers seeking solace. Nonetheless, the author’s examination of the science of immunology from a social and cultural perspective will give readers plenty of relevant, thought-provoking information.
An exhaustive and accessible report.Pub Date: May 30, 2023
ISBN: 9780593229194
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
Mixing science, metaphors, and philosophy, House provides elegant frameworks for ways to think about thinking.
An exploration of the possibilities of consciousness.
House, a neuroscientist whose research focuses on the nature of free will, tackles a knotty subject in a series of essays on the latest science in the field. He also uses extended anecdotes that put complex concepts into accessible terms even while acknowledging that there are no easy answers in the study of consciousness. Consider different translations of a poem: Each has something relevant to say, but none can entirely capture the essence. House repeatedly returns to a case in which a woman was undergoing brain surgery to address epilepsy. At one point, the surgeons touched a part of the brain that made her laugh. Did this indicate that emotional responses are simply an aspect of the physical matter inside our skulls? In another essay, House discusses his interviews with a man who had a substantial part of his brain removed to get to a tumor, yet he seemed unaffected aside from finding it more difficult to play the piano. The author, whose investigations recall Oliver Sacks, also digs into processes of learning: Is the human mind a learning machine, and did the learning process begin when a certain level of environmental awareness was necessary for survival? Did it develop through stages to its current level? Does it simply absorb sensory inputs, editing out useless or redundant material? House makes an interesting detour to wonder if a society of blind people could deduce the existence of the moon, while other essays look at the functioning of memory and prediction, which takes up a remarkable amount of the brain’s capacity. There is also a theory that consciousness links to movement, which is one of the most essential, if often unconscious, aspects of brain function. Though the author occasionally gets lost in his own musings, he offers readers plenty of fascinating questions about the brain, the mind, and the soul.
Mixing science, metaphors, and philosophy, House provides elegant frameworks for ways to think about thinking.Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-15117-9
Page Count: 336
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
A mixed-bag cultural assessment of the internet landscape.
The editor of the New York Times Book Review offers dismayed lamentations on all that is being lost to the internet.
In her latest, Paul analyzes the implications of the internet age, deploying “my grumpy-old-man thoughts and wary skepticism, lashed through with a contrary streak of optimism, accumulated over years of observing the culture and covering its manifestations and effects.” She acknowledges the putative treasures and tools of the internet, but she reminds readers that for every gain, there is a loss—e.g., privacy, civility, or myriad products, services, and practices we may have thought to be timeless. To many, writes the author, we can say good riddance or a fond farewell, though she aches for the loss of others. From handwritten letters to quiet, unoccupied moments, cursive writing to vacations without work (or email), school librarians to newspapers, LPs to mixtapes to the notion of “closure”—so much we thought eternal is quaintly antiquarian or gone forever. As Paul engagingly shows, their replacements aren’t always an advance. Yet one thing Paul neglects to address, save by implication, is the power of “no.” We are not forced in every case to accede to fashion, to all of modern technology’s demands, or to the dictates of contemporary sensibilities. Paul is incisive when she gets serious, as in her regrets on the decline of reading (especially of books), diminishing opportunities for solitude, and our eroding capacity for empathy. But some of her death knells are premature, a stretch, too sweeping, or off-base, while others come off as overly tongue-in-cheek. It’s understandable that Paul writes as if Gen X reality (and that of their children) is a dominant force. Still, there are plenty of people pushing back against the tide in meaningful ways. The author should know there are also 100 ways to resist digital dominance as well.
A mixed-bag cultural assessment of the internet landscape.Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-13677-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
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