In 1872 the HMS Challenger left England on a two year voyage of scientific discovery. Armed with the latest scientific information, a team of sharp researchers, and hypotheses based on Darwinian evolutionary theory, the Challenger crew proceeded to collect data, specimens, and questions as they circled the globe with stops in Chile, Australia, and many other locations.

Corfield has studied and skillfully syhthesized the profusely documented research that was reported by the crew. He has also reviewed the personal diaries of the men who lived and worked on the ship.

While accidents and death were unfortunate partners to the daily drudgery of dragging the bottom and studying samples of animals and sediment, the many original findings and observations are reported with great clarity and sense of excitement.

Perhaps most intriguing is the way the author intersperses the discussion of the Challenger’s activities with modern follow on findings on topics such as species specialization, ocean bottom sediment analysis and dating, manganese “nodules,” and continental drift. All of this is woven together in a tale that never fails to fascinate.

The Challenger crew may have grown weary of the constant sampling of the ocean’s bottom, but the author never lets us forget where these findings fit in the overall progress of science.

Review copyright (c) 2009 by Dennis D. McDonald

Whenever I feel I’ve been reading too much non-fiction or I just want  to read a good story with interesting characters I turn to W. Somerset Maugham.

Over the years I’ve picked up several anthologies of his short stories and several of his novels. I’ve learned to trust his writing. Nobody comes close to his ability to deftly describe a character in a few pages and weave an interesting story.

The Narrow Corner is a short novel from 1932. As with many of Maugham’s stories it takes place in “The South Seas” where the remnants of Western imperialism and colonialism have left a trail of personal and professional crises, tragedies, and drama. This story is no different. An English expatriate opium-smoking doctor is hired to treat an old patient. The treatment requires a sailing trip with a disreputable captain and mysterious passenger on a small shabby sailing vessel.

They get to know each other on the voyage. They end up on an island where the colonial masters are eking out a business that has seen much better days. Naturally there is a beautiful young woman involved. Chaos and death follow.

Parts of the story are vintage Maugham writing — the beauty of the tropics, fascinating personal details that must be based on real life memories, and exquisite attention to dialog and personality. There’s also a “hothouse” atmosphere towards the end of the novel where all emotional hell breaks loose; this does lack Maugham’s usual subtlety.

But I’m not complaining. The Narrow Corner is a fun read.

Review copyright (c) 2009 by Dennis D. McDonald

In this fascinating and accessible book Ed Regis concludes that the maintenance of metabolic processes is really the primary indicator of “life.” But by the time that point is reached in the book, it doesn’t really matter.

What matters is that Regis has given us a wide-ranging view of “synthetic biology” that touches on chemistry, biology, genetics, heredity, evolution, natural selection, and the backgrounds of a diverse set of scientific researchers interested in creating a synthetic cell.

I’ll admit I don’t get too hung up on the question of “what is life?” I certainly appreciate the moral, religious, and legal implications of the question, having participated, for example, in the legal processes surrounding the death of a terminally ill friend. At one point in Regis’ book he does turn his attention to death after considering various definitions of life, but that section is not as strong as the others, perhaps because he doesn’t go into as much detail as he does on other “life-related” topics.

One  interesting part of the book is the author’s consideration of DNA and reproduction and how there have been serious questions raised about the primacy of the double helix in driving the generation and maintenance of life. In my own halting attempts to learn more about genetics in recent years I have become more aware of the complexities of reproduction, heredity, and natural variation, certainly more so than when I first learned about DNA in high school.

Perhaps most important is my personal conclusion that, as we learn scientifically more and more about the mechanisms of life, the boundaries between “life,” non-life,” and “death” become more and more fuzzy. That doesn’t mean I value life any less, but it does suggest that efforts to control, legislate, and limit certain types of scientific research are bound to fail.

This is a good, thoughtful, and well written book. My only complaint concerns the paucity of illustrations. The picture of the Krebs Cycle is nice, and the molecular model that follows it also nice (though unlabeled), but throughout the book there are many references to molecular structure and cellular components that cry out for illustrations. On balance, though, that author’s intellect, writing style, and clarity make this book both thought-provoking and insightful.

Text copyright (c) 2009 by Dennis D. McDonald. For more “science” book reviews click here.

If all you know about the Middle Ages consists of warfare, popes, and kings, and you want to know what daily life was really like, this is the book for you. I loved Frugoni’s BOOKS, BANKS, BUTTONS, AND OTHER INVENTIONS FROM THE MIDDLE AGES so I borrowed this from my public library and, boy, was I impressed and informed.

The combination of rare illustrations and text is continually fascinating. City life, government, food, schooling, religion, and shopkeeping are all discussed, accompanied by amazing paintings and drawings from the day. Religion infuses the daily life, of course, so  it was very interesting to compare and contrast Medieval practices and beliefs with those of today; you’ll be surprised at how spiritually similar things are between then and now.

Life was really tough then. Just traveling from one city to another was a chore. So much we take for granted today — light, heat, transportation, etc. — simply didn’t exist in an easy to access fashion back then.

This is a short book — less than 200 pages — but it’s packed solid with information and thoughtful commentary from the Italian author. Highly recommended.

Copyright (c) 2009 by Dennis D. McDonald

Allen and Polmar convincingly demonstrate Truman’s justification for dropping the atom bomb on Japan to end World War II. Japan wasn’t surrendering despite its cities’ being burned to cinders by B-29 raids. Evidence was mounting that an invasion of Japan would be a savage and costly venture both for the U.S. and for Japan.

This book intertwines descriptions of the brutality and bloodletting involved in the Allies’ island-by-island approach to strangling Japan late in the war with invasion planning. We’ve read some of this in other history books but here it’s presented as backdrop to the detailed planning underway for an ultimate invasion. It’s an effective approach. We witness what the Allies were seeing as the end of the war in Europe shifted attention to the Pacific War. Keeping in mind there was no guarantee that the Manhattan Project would work, the inevitability of an invasion of Japan was clear even as tenuous efforts were made by the Japanese to secure some kind of negotiated settlement through diplomacy with a still-undeclared Russia.

The level of detail presented is insightful. Attempts to show what was going on in Japan’s planning as well as in the U.S. are admirable. One discordant note consists of repeated swipes against MacArthur’s ego as he pushed for an invasion under his control.

Even assuming this is true — and the author’s revel in playing back MacArthur’s own words from memos and reports — I find this somewhat one-sided. I can’t believe there were not other outsize egos at play here in the push for an end to the Pacific war; what the authors write about MacArthur seems a bit one-sided and personal even if the basic events as presented are true.

Still, no matter how you look at the facts presented here, the Pacific Was provided monstrous examples of the brutality and savagery of which humans are capable. Truman grasped that when he authorized dropping the bomb.

Copyright (c) 2009 by Dennis D. McDonald

One of a series of novels by this author about a fictional Wyoming game warden named Joe Pickett, IN PLAIN SIGHT tells a gripping story that intertwines murder, family feud, politics, and a love of nature and the outdoors. Box’s depiction of Wyoming wide open spaces is uncanny, as is his ability to handle nuance in characterization and personality.

The ending of this particular novel was a bit to Hollywood-ish for my tastes, but I know I’ll be reading more about this game warden/murder detective. He’s an honest man who cares passionately about his family and his land.

If you’ve ever travelled around Wyoming you’ll begin to understand the pull of the land that Box so skillfully depicts. I wonder if Cheyenne’s Frontier Days figures in any Box novels?

Copyright (c) 2008 by Dennis D. McDonald

The subtitle of this book is “Caught in the Mystery of the Monarch Butterfly.” I was caught by this book’s beguiling tone, its lovely writing, and its respect for science and the mystery of the unknown that drives people to “do science.”

We learn much about the behaviors and the enigmas of the monarch butterfly and its mysterious migration behavior. We also learn much about the people who work to reveal these mysteries. Some work from within traditional academic science. Others operate as “lone wolves” and spend their time in the field pursuing their own research agendas with support from volunteers from all over the continent.

Halpern is an exquisite writer. She encapsulates thoughtfulness, sensitivity, and intellectual curiosity in a manner that is both unique and refreshing. Given the profound nature of the questions raised by the monarch butterfly’s behavior, the match between the subject and the author in this book is nearly perfect.

Copyright (c) 2008 by Dennis D. McDonald

This 3-part book by Oliver Sacks from 1989 reviews the history of deaf education and language, the neurological underpinnings of language acquisition and deafness, and the student uprising at Gallaudet College in 1988. 

The styles and language of the three parts are different. The history part is an amalgam of history and intertwined footnotes that are almost as long as the text. The “science” portion is the Sacks that many readers are familiar with, a blend of humane and intelligent prose that reveals profound insight into the world of research and human behavior. Part 3, about the student revolt, stands apart stylistically and effectively caps what is a fundamentally unusual overview of a topic about which I knew nothing before I read this book.

What did I learn? Quite a bit; Sacks is a good guide, though the observant reader can tell when he is treading in areas that are unfamiliar to him. But one if his messages is clear: Sign is a language, as evidenced by how its use relates to the social and intellectual development of deaf children. 

What I would like to do now is to learn how the research discussed in this book has advanced since 1989. If readers can point me in the appropriate direction, I would be grateful.

Copyright (c) 2008 by Dennis D. McDonald

Peter Watts’ Blindsight is hard SF. Normally I like hard SF but I had some trouble with this one:

• None of the characters is sympathetically drawn. Put another way, I don’t think I’d want to have any of them over for dinner with the family (well, maybe the vampire, who, oddly enough, stands out from all the other characters as having a real personality).
• Watts’ prose is well constructed, expressive, action oriented — but essentially lifeless. Also colorless and odorless. I just don’t think he portrays life inside a long distance spaceship very well — the sounds, the odors, the things that get misplaced. My vision of the ship was based on memories of reading about Skylab, I have to admit, with a bit of the messiness of the space station from Armageddon.
• The aliens. I admit I like a good “First Contact” story, but I really had a hard time not envisioning the little guys as looking and acting like the starfish in the tank in Finding Nemo. I know that is NOT the mood that Watts intended!

Still, I’d recommend this one for the fascinating ideas:

• Ruminations about consciousness and intelligence. This is always fun but Watts really gets into this in a big way.
• Genetics. I like the fact that all the characters have been genetically altered in some way. They may all be special cases but I think that’s where we’re headed as a species.
• Orbital mechanics. I love the vision of the alien “mother ship” navigating a virtual Sargasso Sea of objects. Still, key points in the story are punctuated by the reality that if you’re in orbit around a body you sometimes may disappear from the view of another observer.
  

In summary, I didn’t like the characters, and I didn’t like the prose, but the ideas and story  were more than enough to keep my attention. Highly recommended if you want a challenging, thoughtful read!

• Copyright (c) 2008 by Dennis D. McDonald
• Thanks to Lisa Junker for recommending this book to me!
  

This little volume is packed with an amazing amount of readable information about the history of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment,  libel, privacy, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press.

The most important point made about these topics is that freedoms we in the U.S. now take for granted were developed painfully and slowly over many years through difficult legislative battles and creative and thoughtful judicial interpretations of the law.

Early in U.S. history it was not unheard of for political opponents to be imprisoned for speaking out and publishing anti-government opinions. Such august figures as Thomas Jefferson participated in what we would now define as anti-democratic persecution. Over time, the right of people to speak out against the government, even in times of war, has evolved. But it has not been easy, given the receptiveness so many people have to the “giving aid to the enemy” accusation.

One interesting aspect of the book is that the author also intertwines his discussion of freedom of the press and freedom of speech with a consideration of libel and the right to privacy. This is a difficult feat, and the author seems to prefer a concept of “balance” that weighs speech against the issues of libel and privacy concerns.

I have a couple of observations based on my reading of this book, the first “legal” book I’ve read in quite a while:

1. Some of the repressive government behaviors we in the U.S. lecture other countries about were not so uncommon here not so long ago.
2. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press, the way the author writes about them, are not identical. Many of the “press” issues he describes (and the related legal precedents) are specifically related to organized publishing entities such as newspapers. The relationship between the two is not always clear.
3. Given so much attention to freedom of the press, I kept wondering about the extension of these principles to less “institutional” purveyors of political opinions such as independent blogs and web sites. The author does not address this.

• Copyright (c) 2008 by Dennis D. McDonald

I assigned these tags to this book review:

1. History. The book traces the multitude of military campaigns and wars that took place during the Middle Ages that pitted the forces of the “Latin Church” against Islamic and a variety of other opponents.
2. Religion. The fundamental, but by no means only, rationale for these campaigns and wars was the opposition of different religious beliefs. This opposition was sometimes between Christians and Muslims, sometimes between Christians and other “heretical” Christians, and sometimes between Christians and “pagans.”
3. War. Sometimes the battles were between opposing forces on battlefields, sometimes they were betwen armies sieging opponents behind the walls of fortresses or cities, and sometimes they involved the slaughter of men, women, and children for reasons related to differences in religious faith.

Most of the book is a dry recitation of campaigns and battles grouped into major categories or groups. Chapters include:

• The Holy Land
• The Iberian Peninsula
• Northeastern Europe
• Crusades Against Heretics
• Crusades Against Ottoman Turks

In the final chapter “Conclusion: The Impact of Crusading on History” we finally read the author’s analysis of the significance and continuing effects of the details she supplied in the preceding chapters.

One interesting comment she makes is that the funding of the Crusades may have forcibly led to improved systems of administration (and taxation) which in turn set the stage for the growth of modern governments. After all, a lot of resources were required to supply the multitudes of military campaigns and expeditions that often required time-consuming travel from distant points in Europe and the Middle East.

While the theme of religion underlies much of the history that is recounted here, it isn’t the whole story. Yes, the occupation of the Holy Land by Muslims did stimulate  a variety of Christian campaigns, some victorious, some failures. But intertwined among the various religions themes and the promise of “indulgences” by the Popes to the Crusaders as one inducement for civic involvement were politics and commerce. Kings and lords used the wars to secure land and political power. Commerce was expanded via the establishment of ports in remote locations.

The fundamental headscratcher is that the Catholic Church (called the “Latin” Church here) either actively promoted the crusades or indirectly supported them through the offering of “indulgences” in return for participation. How did an organization founded on ideas of peace and love come to justify the extensive uses of military force that are documented in this book?

This question is raised but never directly answered. Perhaps the answer is simply that the Church was a creature of its times, and Medieval times were brutal.

One could probably ask similar questions of other violent movements throughout history that involved some sort of religious or cultural foundation that seemed to contradict the underlying beliefs that were being promoted through violent acts.

As the details are presented in this book, one cannot help but appreciate the way that faith and politics were combined. Threatening one sphere of influence threatened the other. This in turn resulted in a violent response — as was common to the times.

We are still dealing with the consequences as the author points out in her analyses.

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Here are links to other book reviews on this web site:

• History
• Non Fiction
• Religion
• War

Cloning, evolution, and the Human Genome Project are often in the news. One of my 2008 New Years’ Resolutions was to learn more about genetics and molecular biology. I had resolved to “get smarter” about DNA and its role in evolution and in generation-to-generation stability and inheritance.

Despite its brevity, this book manages to be profound, clear, and extraordinarily thought provoking. Published in 2000 by Harvard University Press, it looks back on a century of genetic research that started with ponderings about the mechanisms of inheritance, exploded in mid-century with the description of the helical structure and role of DNA, and concluded with the dawning realization that much of what we thought we understood about DNA and molecular biology was either wrong or incomplete.

Keller writes that the role of DNA in reproduction is significantly more complex than had been thought in the 1950’s and the 1960’s. Based on her meticulous research and a focus on a series of important questions, she shows how the notion that helical DNA functions as a simple recorded “template” for generational transmission of biological characteristics is a gross oversimplification. In fact, how DNA operates and is controlled in reproductive processes is so complex and mysterious that the very nature of the existence of “genes” is called into question.

I’ve italicized “and is controlled” since that question lurks behind much of this book. What is the mechanism that controls how DNA operates? The author discusses in clear and elegant prose a lengthy list of research findings that seem to show that we do not yet know.

This is not, however, a negative or pessimistic book. It is, instead, an intelligent assessment of our state of knowledge about one of the most profound and mysterious phenomena in the natural world. Reading about DNA related operations, in the light of current [circa 2000] knowledge, I could not help but shake my head at the astonishing complexity of the mechanisms that evolution has delivered.

At the same time, I cannot help but be encouraged at the intelligence and creativity of those who study and advance humankind’s knowledge of such phenomena. I shall therefore attempt to continue my reading in this field; hopefully additional books of this calibre are available.

“Captain” Alatriste is an ex-soldier in 17th Century Madrid who scratches out a living via odd jobs and spends part of his time gabbing and drinking at a local bar. An old “friend” tosses him a job which is initially to scare a pair of English travelers but turns out to be a contract for murder.

Thus this novel starts, seemingly inauspiciously. But as things progress we learn more about Alatriste’s character, Madrid society, 17th Century European politics, religious and political intrigue, Spanish cultural navel-gazing, and the intrigues of royalty.

There’s not a lot of swordplay but the novel skillfully sets up the characters for further adventures and sequels, which I intend to read. As with the same author’s The Nautical Chart,  the translation seems a bit flat. Still, this is an enjoyable read.

Late 17th Century London and the Royal Society provide the setting for this book. It concentrates on the “great men” who created modern Western science.

It is mostly the “great men” we learn about. Towards the end of the book the author does uncover some details of women who were involved in scientific advances but who did not  receive the credit they deserved.

What is most fascinating about this book is how the author intertwines the social, political, and personal details of the age. Anyone who just knows high level details of the accomplishments of famous names like Huygens, van Leeuwenhoek, Newton, and Wren will come away from this book with an improved understanding of the times in which “natural philosophy,” engineering, mathematics, biology, and physiology began to emerge in the West.

Interspersed are fascinating details of how secrecy, professional jealousy, international politics, natural disasters, personality, financial competition, and international trade impacted the advance of science and technology. The common thread is the professional and social networks surrounding the London based Royal Society, a group of well-connected intellectuals who, sometimes for entertainment purposes, staged public displays of new and untried experiments.

Not all experiments worked. Some of the descriptions of how animals were experimented on are grisly. Still, the process of publication and peer evaluation that surrounded this truly international organization reflects an orientation towards professional communications that extends to this day.

Another interesting set of details is the importance of instrumentation. Optics, surveying, microscopy, and astronomy depended greatly on the interplay of theory, observation, and manufacturing skill. Those most skilled in manufacturing were not always mathematically or creatively inclined. The relationships among people in these different groups were not always smooth.

New to me was the emphasis on the collection, organization, and graphic description in book form of animal and plant species. A great deal of time and energy was devoted to collecting and categorizing unusual or foreign plant species, sometimes in the hope of discovering patentable medical substances that could remove dependence on expensive foreign sources. This activity helped promote advances in chemistry and medicine. It also, as I am discovering via another book (Jim Enderby’s “A Guinea Pig’s History of Biology”) led to serious 19th Century efforts to scientifically understand heredity and genetics.

This novel follows several Confederate and Union solders during the two days of the 1862 battle of Shiloh in Tennessee.  This is not a view of politics and grand strategy. This is the view from the ground from the soldiers’ perspective. Each speaks in a different voice that varies with education, social status, and age. All are honest, detailed, and real.

I’m always depressed when I read books like this about the Civil War. It’s hard believing that state loyalties could lead to citizens taking up arms against each other; but the result was real and ferocious. The other impact of this novel is its universal representation of soldiers in combat. Foote captures real details and real personalities, with nearly every paragraph showing evidence of detailed research. The characters themselves may be fictitious but the people and situations they come into contact with ache of death and reality.

My only complaint: the book lacks maps. True, the descriptions of place and time are crisp and clear, but locating the events on a map would have helped.

• For other reviews of war books click here.
• For other reviews of history books, click here.
  
• For reviews of war movies click here.