Rob DesalleRezensionen

This sounded like a great idea for a book, but I was disappointed. The writing is not great, in fact it’s downright awkward in many spots. And it was aggravating that they spent so much time in a cosmological history of the entire universe: yeah, sure, if there had been no Big Bang there would be no photons and hence no light and hence no color, but it was absurd to spend so much time on it. Every single book about any subject could justify this as well, a book about Norwegian shoes could also start with the Big Bang. Similarly, way too much ink was used explaining evolution via natural selection.

Despite my gripes, there -was- a lot of interesting stuff about color in the book. Shame to have to wade through so much other stuff to see it, and a shame the writing wasn’t better. (I admit I can’t write, myself, but I think I know good science writing when I see it, and this is substandard. )

Sadly, this book was scheduled to be released with an American Museum of Natural History (NYC) exhibit about color that opened in March - talk about bad timing.

Very light. Doesn't really go into detail on any one subject. Gets briefly interesting when talking about subjective experiences of colour and then suddenly ends always mid-sentence.

This book draws upon modern genetic evidence to debunk the idea that "race" has a biological basis. The authors are well-qualified to write such a book. Both are curators at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, with DeSalle being at the Sackler Institute of Comparative Genomics. The authors previously combined efforts in writing the fine book Race?: Debunking a Scientific Myth.

The authors' main conclusion is that modern genomics (based on DNA analysis of people worldwide) refutes the idea that humans can be divided into the traditional categories of race. Among other aspects that challenge the racial categories is (a) that there are no objective criteria by which such categories can be identified genetically; and (b) that any categories one might seek to define intergrade imperceptibly with others. As noted back in the early 1960s by Frank Livingstone, "there are no human races, there are only clines". The authors devote one chapter specifically to refuting Nicolas Wade's A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History, a work widely disparaged by scholars for its flawed science and racialist perspective. In fact, their title is a riff on (and implicit rebuttal to) Wade's book.

I have mixed views on this book. On the one hand, the arguments are well-founded and convincing. On the other hand, the book is quite technical, and written well above the level of readers that lack training in genetics. Indeed, though a biologist (not a geneticist), I found much of it heavy going; and the color graphics (which I am glad were included) were of only marginal assistance. A much more effective work would have presented the genetic science in ways accessible to the educated reader. Such would not only have been possible, but should be viewed as essential. If another writer with expertise in human genomics were to undertake such a book, it could be a welcome addition to public discourse on one of the more important scientific issues of our time.

Like the ever increasing number of sexes we suddenly recognize, there are more senses than we traditionally credit. Balance, for example, is definitely a sense. And it is part and parcel of our hearing mechanism. Pain is another. And there are combinations of traditional senses – how smell affects taste, for one. Our Senses is an attempt to cover them all in a survey of research. The result is not totally satisfying.

Rob DeSalle has pulled together a lot of great stories, examples and theories. (Nature has evolved 25 completely different kinds of sight mechanisms, original designs adapted to the needs of different species.) But he has also focused (too much) on DNA and specific genes, whose letter/number codes are instantly forgettable and of little use to the average child reader. This book is the accompaniment to the exhibit of the same name and design at The American Natural History Museum in New York. As such, it is really a museum gift shop book. It is not a catalog of the exhibit, but an expansion of greater depth.

The problem is like that of all-season tires – wrong for summer and also wrong for winter. There is both not enough detail and also too much. Intriguing paths end suddenly. Highly technical knowledge is displayed without insight. It’s a problem of the pairing of museum and book, not of the author Rob DeSalle, who is not merely expert, but clearheaded, thoughtful and most enthusiastic. If you see the exhibit, this is a great reminder.

David Wineberg

This book provides a child-friendly look into the human brain, how it's structured, how the cells work, how we use our senses, how we process information, and the way that we think. Each section has an activity that can be done that coordinates with the information and facts about the brain. The book provides many different viewpoints-from the author to the reader to others he talks about-and uses the activities to create concrete learning for readers. There are a lot of little known facts that help the reader understand the information provided in child-like terms.
Media: pen and ink, watercolors
Genre: Informational ("The messages that move along these nerves communicate information gathered by your senses. These signals control body parts.")

Welcome to the Microbiome is clearly divided into two. The first half of the book is the history of bacteria, microbes and viruses. It is a biology lesson. Despite the title, only the last half - 110 pages - is about the microbiome. That’s how little we know about it.

A microbiome is any place on or in our bodies where microbes, bacteria and viruses gather. It could be an armpit, any of the orifices, or the internal organs. Bacteria are the oldest forms of life and have involved themselves in every kind of more sophisticated being. From the oceans to the air, we all share their presence. They are useful and necessary. Even the dangerous ones have useful functions (we usually don’t know about). We kill them off with antibiotics. We prevent babies from receiving their starter dose by removing them surgically instead of having them pass through the birth canal. Mostly, we have no idea what role they play and how removing one affects the whole being. For the human mouth alone, “We have no taxonomy for three quarters of the organisms living there.”

Along the way, we learn that they communicate by quorum sensing; the group recognizes situation and action. There are 10 billion microbial cells per milliliter in the lower large intestine and colon, by far the highest density. Major organs are not sterile, but teeming with microbes. And the differences between microbiomes on the same human body are far greater than the differences between communities of humans.

Unfortunately, it seems researchers are making the same mistakes again. They are isolating individual microbes and testing them in mice to see what effect they might have. In addition to mice not being human, we have learned to our cost that reductivism of this sort does not pay. Microbes, like chemicals, will have different effects depending on their environments and the other chemical compounds also present. Their reaction and co-operation produce innumerable results we are not considering. It has already proven true that adding or removing a single bacterium type has unintended consequences far beyond our expectations. We have released 88,000 chemical compounds into the air, soil and water since WWII, and we have never tested most of them alone, let alone in combination. We see the results today: 75% of cancers are environmental and are now the number two cause of death. Compare that to billions of bacteria we haven’t even named. They at least ,are there for a specific reason.

So while Welcome to the Microbiome has some interesting factoids to share, it is far from being authoritative, let alone comprehensive.

David wineberg

Human Origins is an informative and engaging introduction to the constantly changing study of human origins and genetics, early migration theories and our enigmatic brains. Particularly captivating are the modern techniques for extracting clues from DNA, which were impossible and unheard of several decades ago.

I wasn't able to appreciate thoroughly the chapter focusing on nucleotides, having insufficient basic knowledge of the subject to fully grasp the concepts as laid out here, but that is a deficiency on my part rather than the author. The book suffers from some terribly pixelated graphics which, while they come across as somewhat unprofessional, do not necessarily detract from the content. All in all, a fascinating peek into who we are.

I absolutely loved this book. I generally love "the science of..." type books, but this one was particularly well written. I believe this book can be relatively broken up into three sections:
Section 1: Mourn for your youth - I grew up with Jurassic Park. I obsessed so much over it that I devoured anything Michael Crichton in middle school. During a stay in the hospital, my mother and I read Jurassic Park and The Lost World to one another. The beginning chapters of this book all basically start off with: it's not possible, but assuming it were, this, this and this would go wrong. It completely ruins the suspension of disbelief.
Section 2: Get rid of the science curriculum in public schools - I learned more about Earth science, geology, biology and other natural sciences reading this than I did attending a math and science magnet school and studying engineering. It's incredible how easy the authors made complex concepts to understand.
Section 3: Let's punch Ian Malcolm - I always had a sneaking suspicion Malcolm was blowing smoke out of his ass; this book provided all the scientific and mathematical reasons that he really was an arrogant asshole.

My daughter loved the illustrations and laughed at Darwin and Wallace. She really liked how the drawings showed technology at work (like slicing the brain via an MRI).

Big Kid Reaction: This is one of those books that you jump around in. You don't have to read it front-to-back, and that actually makes for more time spent reading. The pages are jam-packed with information and imagery which may overwhelm some readers at first glance. There are plenty of speech bubbles help break break it down into manageable pieces.

To read our full review, go to The Reading Tub®.