Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World
by Nick Lane
The God Delusion
by Richard Dawkins
This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession
by Daniel J. Levitin
The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil
by Philip Zimbardo
Original Intent and the Framer's Constitution
by Leonard W. Levy
The Baby Business: How Money, Science, and Politics Drive the Commerce
of Conception
by Debora L. Spar
Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations
by Charles F. Wilkinson
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Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World
by Nick Lane
From the New England Journal of Medicine, September 11, 2003
Nick Lane, the author of Oxygen, studied biochemistry at the
University of London and did his doctoral research on oxygen free
radicals at the Royal Free Hospital in London, but then left science
to become the director of a multimedia company involved to a certain
extent in medical education. His background suffuses this book, both
for better and for worse. Apart from the first chapter, which is cast
in a style approaching the juvenile, the book is very well written and
easy to read. Lane makes his points clearly, and his lines of
reasoning are well developed. The first half of the book is a very
interesting and well-thought-out analysis of evolution, starting from
the Archean eon and carrying on through the appearance of
multicellular eukaryotes, such as humans. There is some awkward
writing: "oxygen-hating" this and that, "first ever ice age," and a
strained analogy about opinionated newspaper proprietors. Early in the
book there are three or four statements that look like errors, but
they are corrected later in the book. Of considerable interest,
however, are Lane's remarks about chlorophyll arising from purple
bacteria. Even more interesting is his comment to the effect that the
oxygen-evolving complex in plants arose from an adaptation of
catalase. He astutely points out that Fridovich's discovery of
superoxide dismutase was "the most important discovery in modern
biology never to win the Nobel Prize," a sentiment with which I
heartily concur. The second half of the book begins with an excellent
chapter on vitamin C, in which the author appropriately describes the
outstanding work of Mark Levine and quotes Linus Pauling: "I would
trust the biochemistry of a goat over the advice of a doctor." But
subsequently, there is a mistake: Sue-Goo Rhee is referred to as a
woman, when in fact he is a man. The rest of the second half, though
informative in many places, is chiefly a buildup to the author's own
theory -- namely, that aging itself is due exclusively to the damage
caused by the leakage of oxygen radicals from aging mitochondria. In
the course of the book, Lane takes a couple of shots at scientists for
working on little pictures instead of the big picture. He takes little
cognizance of the fact that big pictures, including the cause of
aging, are made by the assembly of little pictures and that his own
theory, probably only in part correct, was derived from many little
pictures. He cites a few articles that support his idea but none that
oppose it. Despite the inclusion of a small number of references, the
book is not a perfect work of scholarship. But it is not meant to be
one. It is a thought-provoking popularization of evolution and oxygen
biochemistry, and I'm glad I read it. Its shortcomings
notwithstanding, I can recommend the book strongly because of its
informational content and its breezy and accessible style. It has to
be read, though, with eyes open. Bernard M. Babior, M.D., Ph.D.
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The God Delusion
by Richard Dawkins
From Publishers Weekly
The antireligion wars started by Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris will
heat up even more with this salvo from celebrated Oxford biologist
Dawkins. For a scientist who criticizes religion for its intolerance,
Dawkins has written a surprisingly intolerant book, full of scorn for
religion and those who believe. But Dawkins, who gave us the selfish
gene, anticipates this criticism. He says it's the scientist and
humanist in him that makes him hostile to religions—fundamentalist
Christianity and Islam come in for the most opprobrium—that close
people's minds to scientific truth, oppress women and abuse children
psychologically with the notion of eternal damnation. While Dawkins
can be witty, even confirmed atheists who agree with his advocacy of
science and vigorous rationalism may have trouble stomaching some of
the rhetoric: the biblical Yahweh is "psychotic," Aquinas's proofs of
God's existence are "fatuous" and religion generally is "nonsense."
The most effective chapters are those in which Dawkins calms down, for
instance, drawing on evolution to disprove the ideas behind
intelligent design. In other chapters, he attempts to construct a
scientific scaffolding for atheism, such as using evolution again to
rebut the notion that without God there can be no morality. He insists
that religion is a divisive and oppressive force, but he is less
convincing in arguing that the world would be better and more peaceful
without it.
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This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession
by Daniel J. Levitin
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Think of a song that resonates deep down in your
being. Now imagine sitting down with someone who was there when the
song was recorded and can tell you how that series of sounds was
committed to tape, and who can also explain why that particular
combination of rhythms, timbres and pitches has lodged in your memory,
making your pulse race and your heart swell every time you hear it.
Remarkably, Levitin does all this and more, interrogating the basic
nature of hearing and of music making (this is likely the only book
whose jacket sports blurbs from both Oliver Sacks and Stevie Wonder),
without losing an affectionate appreciation for the songs he's
reducing to neural impulses. Levitin is the ideal guide to this
material: he enjoyed a successful career as a rock musician and studio
producer before turning to cognitive neuroscience, earning a Ph.D. and
becoming a top researcher into how our brains interpret music. Though
the book starts off a little dryly (the first chapter is a crash
course in music theory), Levitin's snappy prose and relaxed style
quickly win one over and will leave readers thinking about the
contents of their iPods in an entirely new way.
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The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil
by Philip Zimbardo
From Publishers Weekly
Psychologist Zimbardo masterminded the famous Stanford Prison
Experiment, in which college students randomly assigned to be guards
or inmates found themselves enacting sadistic abuse or abject
submissiveness. In this penetrating investigation, he revisits—at
great length and with much hand-wringing—the SPE study and applies it
to historical examples of injustice and atrocity, especially the Abu
Ghraib outrages by the U.S. military. His troubling finding is that
almost anyone, given the right "situational" influences, can be made
to abandon moral scruples and cooperate in violence and oppression.
(He tacks on a feel-good chapter about "the banality of heroism," with
tips on how to resist malign situational pressures.) The author, who
was an expert defense witness at the court-martial of an Abu Ghraib
guard, argues against focusing on the dispositions of perpetrators of
abuse; he insists that we blame the situation and the "system" that
constructed it, and mounts an extended indictment of the architects of
the Abu Ghraib system, including President Bush. Combining a dense but
readable and often engrossing exposition of social psychology research
with an impassioned moral seriousness, Zimbardo challenges readers to
look beyond glib denunciations of evil-doers and ponder our collective
responsibility for the world's ills.
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Original Intent and the Framer's Constitution
by Leonard W. Levy
From Library Journal
Among its many legacies, the Reagan administration will be remembered
for its spirited defense of "a jurisprudence of original intent"the
simplistic assertion that the Constitution has a fixed and unchanging
meaning established by the founders. Levy, a noted constitutional
scholar and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Origins of the Fifth
Amendment (1968) levels a biting critique at this doctrine. Focusing
on such constitutional provisions as presidential power, the contract
clause, and the Bill of Rights, Levy claims that original intent lacks
a sufficient historical foundation. This rich, useful book is
presented in terms of the ongoing debate about the legitimate role of
the judiciary generally and judicial review particularly. An excellent
resource for constitutional scholars.
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The Baby Business: How Money, Science, and Politics Drive the Commerce
of Conception
by Debora L. Spar
From Publishers Weekly
Among the troubling aspects of new reproductive technologies is the
takeover of reproduction by the marketplace. This probing study
accepts the free market process while casting a discerning and
skeptical eye at its pitfalls. Harvard business prof Spar (The
Cooperative Edge: The Internal Politics of International Cartels)
explores many aspects of the high-tech commodification of procreation:
the fabulous revenues commercial fertility clinics earn from couples'
desperate desire for children and the ensuing conflicts between
medical ethics and the profit motive; the premiums paid for sperm and
eggs from genetically desirable donors; the possible exploitation of
poor, nonwhite and Third World surrogate mothers paid to gestate the
spawn of wealthy Westerners; the fine line between modern adoption
practices and outright baby selling; and the new entrepreneurial
paradigm of maternity, in which the official "mother" simply finances
the assemblage of sperm, purchased egg and hired womb and lays
contractual claim to the finished infant. Spar considers most of these
developments inevitable and not undesirable (they provide kids to
parents who want them), but calls for government regulation to curb
excesses and protect the interests of all involved. Her sanguinity
will not satisfy all critics, but she offers a lucid, nuanced guide to
this brave new world.
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Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations
by Charles F. Wilkinson
From Publishers Weekly
Reservations, long mired in poverty and oppression, have become
rallying points for Native American society, according to this
stirring history of the tribal sovereignty movement. Energized by the
Civil Rights movement's gains and pressing their claims under
long-dormant treaties, Indian tribes have taken control of reservation
government from an autocratic Bureau of Indian Affairs, regained lost
lands, asserted hunting and fishing rights, jump-started reservation
economic development and revived Indian languages and culture.
Wilkinson (American Indians, Time, and the Law; etc.), formerly an
attorney for the Native American Rights Fund and now a law professor
at the University of Colorado, ranges widely over the sovereignty
movement, emphasizing the court cases—like the Pacific Northwest
salmon controversies and the wrangles over reservation gambling—that
have expanded tribal rights. His sympathetic treatment extols the
movement's success in redressing historic injustices, but sometimes
skates too easily over difficulties in squaring ethnically based
sovereignty with principles of democracy and equal citizenship. (He
cites one reservation on which 50 Indians controlled a tribal
government claiming jurisdiction over 3,000 non-Indian residents.) And
he sometimes defends Native American prerogatives by invoking a
cultural uniqueness—Indians' spiritual connection to the land, for
example, may entitle them to "flexibility" in complying with
environmental laws—that smacks of essentialism. But the story of the
Native American renaissance is an inspiring one, and this book marks a
deserving chapter.