Encouraging advances in biology delineated through accessible, inviting writing.
A survey of the new field of synthetic biology, “the science of building simple organisms or ‘biological apps’ to make manufacturing greener, energy production more sustainable, agriculture more robust and medicine more powerful and precise.”
In this energetic and optimistic book, Poznansky, former CEO of the Ontario Genomics Institute, shows how synthetic biology can be used to contend with major issues involving health, food, and the environment. This combination of engineering and molecular biology serves to design and build synthetic gene circuits and biomolecular components to reprogram organisms. The products are new life-forms, whether completely novel or partly modified. Examples include viruses that target specific diseased cells, genetically modified cells that remove heavy metals from lakes and rivers, and bacterium that take carbon out of the atmosphere. In layman’s terms, Poznansky explains this new world of unnatural selection and nonrandom mutation, evolution by human design. Although he is profoundly enthusiastic about the prospects of genomics technologies and engineering, he recognizes that we are at the beginning of a process that requires the safest and most appropriate approaches: genetic manipulation incorporating safety switches to ensure containment, further understanding of gene editing, insertion, and expression, and the avoidance of the new gene being identified as a foreign substance. With sensible language and peer-reviewed research, the author explores the present and coming needs regarding global health care, food security, and pollution and examines the history of genetically modified organisms. Of special concern are the roles of ethics and regulation regarding safety, public interest, risk vs. reward, and the potential detrimental interference of political skulduggery, special-interest groups, and large corporations. Poznansky also takes to task anti-vaxxers and those that doubt the severity of climate change, while lauding the grassroots efforts—“the democratization of science”—that have already shown some promising results.
Encouraging advances in biology delineated through accessible, inviting writing.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77041-535-5
Page Count: 300
Publisher: ECW Press
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
An above-average celebrity memoir from an intriguing spirit.
The longtime Hollywood actor looks back.
“What does it mean to be a ham?” asks the author, rhetorically. “Was I a ham? I was naturally and inordinately theatrical. I liked to carry on. I liked attention. I liked extravagant speech. I liked to emote. I liked to talk.” All of these qualities are abundantly evident in Kilmer’s memoir, which is as much a spiritual journey as it is a chronicle of his life and career. The author recounts the depth of his Christian Science faith, his formative years in a family of privilege in Los Angeles, his teenage romance with fellow actor Mare Winningham (“my first real girlfriend”), his training and rebellion at Juilliard, and his decision to leave Broadway for Hollywood. There, he writes, “I was not yet a burgeoning talent but ‘Cher’s lover,’ ” when she was in her mid-30s and he in his early-20s. After scoring big with Tom Cruise in Top Gun, Kilmer turned down Blue Velvet and Dirty Dancing: “Neither part spoke to me.” He played Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s The Doors, which he considers “one of the proudest moments of my career.” Marlon Brando and Sam Shepard went from being idols that Kilmer worshipped to becoming friends. He was slated to star as Batman in three films but jumped ship after Batman Forever, which he considers “so bad, it’s almost good.” He married and divorced British actor Joanne Whalley and wooed Daryl Hannah (“kind of the female me, only better”), and he wrote and starred in a one-man show as Mark Twain. When he was hospitalized for surgery due to his throat cancer, he prayed, he read Twain and Christian Science’s Mary Baker Eddy, and he “didn’t wrestle with my angels. I sang and danced with them.” Kilmer was never a shrinking violet, and he still refuses to wilt.
An above-average celebrity memoir from an intriguing spirit. (photos)Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-4489-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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