Natural Acts : A Sidelong View of Science and Nature

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David Quammen is a naturalist, writer, and literary scholar who can turn from William Faulkner to theories of demographic stochasticity on a dime--or a comma. Natural Acts, a collection of Quammen's columns by the same name from Outside magazine, highlights his many interests. In its pages, he touches on Malthusian population dynamics, the mating habits of butterflies and snakes, Tycho Brahe's quest for the stars, magnolia trees, whales, and deserts--to name just a few of the matters that pass beneath his bemused gaze. This is humanely wrought science writing at its best. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

Have you ever wondered: What are the merits, if any, of mosquitos? Why is the act of sex fatal for some species of salmon? What are the bimbos of the natural world? Why are there 300,000 species of beetles? Are crows too smart? David Quammen has.

He answers these questions and more in this remarkable book, which explores the mysteries and patterns of the natural world with extraordinary perception and beauty. Though about science, this collection of essays was not written by a scientist. In Natural Acts, David Quammen allows us a unique view of a world "on the fringe" of science.

Customer Reviews:

not painful.......2001-02-22

Science writing is rarely both illuminating and entertaining, and that is why this book is exceptional.

Should be 6 Stars.......... Simply Great.......2001-01-12

Having read many science and nature writers, this was my first experience reading Quammen. I was thrilled. Quammen is a fabulous writer. This book is a collection of Quammen's essays on topics ranging from Sea Cucumber to cockroaches to crows to amimal rights to deserts to rivers to turtles and much more. I doubt if you'll find such a rich, diverse and eclectic collection of natural writings anywhere else. Must read and own.

Great, for what it is.......2000-07-08

Quammen's first work in book form is merely a collection of his various magazine articles. You may be slightly annoyed when reading the book in a couple days because some subjects are repeated. But when you realize they appeared 2 or 3 yrs apart in a magazine, its easily excusable. Especially when the writing is so superb, timely (actually ahead of its time, since much of it was written 20+ years ago), interesting and educational. Some of the more dire environmental predictions havent exactly come true (YET), but that does not diminish the urgency of our ecological nightmare.

Read this book as a primer, then read Quammen's "Song of the Dodo," to gain some true knowledge.

Good subway reading.......1998-02-12

As one whose lack of knowledge in all things scientific is appalling, I picked up this book for one reason only: to be entertained. That happened without my stopping to think about it, but I actually learned a few things along the way-- things which may never serve any purpose in my professional life but which have come in handy in conversation lapses at parties. For instance, what is the one malady shared by sea cucumbers and humans-- and which animal is better equipped to deal with it? In World War II, why did the U.S. send thousands of bats plummeting to their deaths? Which animal has the most free time? And how about those timid octopi? Why so shy? This was such an enjoyable book. I didn't have to run for the dictionary once, I laughed out loud on occasion, and my friends think I know the strangest facts.

Natural Acts, A Sidelong View of Science and Nature

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Natural Acts, A Sidelong View of Science and Nature
David QUAMMEN
Manufacturer: Nick Lyons Books/Schocken Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OPKY6G

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Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature
David Quammen
Manufacturer: Schocken Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000IOJH5C

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Natural Acts a Sidelong View of Science and Nature
David Quammen
Manufacturer: Nick Lyons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000X6E2XM

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Natural Acts. A Sidelong View of Science and Nature
David Quammen
Manufacturer: Dell Publishing Co. Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000I3388A

Customer Reviews:

Very Helpful.......2007-02-11

I'm new to North Carolina and wanted help choosing and visiting the beaches. This book gives a lot of good information, especially about avoiding the crowds, getting around in traffic, and where to park. An essential guide to NC beaches.

Book Description

Seventeen-year-old Kate writes all of her dreams and thoughts in a set of three secret notebooks. In each of these journals, she records her daily life, from caring for her baby niece and making friends to dealing with the loss of parents and yearning for the future. Through reading, writing, and experiencing teenage life, Kate discovers love, friendship, and her own ambitions. This beautifully written portrait of a girl in her last year of school explores the universal stresses, joys, confusions, and observations of life as a teenager.

REALITY SANDWICHES 1953-60 (THE POCKET POETS SERIES) "Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for yr own joy"

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REALITY SANDWICHES 1953-60 (THE POCKET POETS SERIES) "Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for yr own joy"

Manufacturer: CITY LIGHTS BOOKS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000FRTOD2

Book Description

Praise for the Series:
"In perusing these chapters, I found much of interest. It is worth investigating."
--P. Brickell in Biotechnology and Applied Biochemistry
"Full of interest not only for the molecular biologist - for whom the numerous references will be invaluable - but will also appeal to a much wider circle of biologists, and in fact to all those who are concerned with the living cell."
--British Medical Journal

Key Features
* Provides a forum for discussion of new discoveries, approaches, and ideas in molecular biology
* Contributions from leaders in their fields
* Abundant references

Progress in Nucleic Acid Research and Molecular Biology, Volume 55 (Progress in Nucleic Acid Research and Molecular Biology)

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Progress in Nucleic Acid Research and Molecular Biology, Volume 55 (Progress in Nucleic Acid Research and Molecular Biology)
Academic Press
Manufacturer: Academic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OHVVL6

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Polyethers: A symposium sponsored by the Division of Polymer Chemistry at the 167th meeting of the American Chemical Society, Los Angeles, Calif., April 2, 1974 (ACS symposium series ; 6)

Manufacturer: American Chemical Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General & Reference | Chemistry | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
General | Organic | Chemistry | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0841202281

Book Description

This book is an attempt to coax Roman history closer to the bone, to the breath and matter of the living being. Drawing from a remarkable array of ancient and modern sources, Carlin Barton offers the most complex understanding to date of the emotional and spiritual life of the ancient Romans. Her provocative and original inquiry focuses on the sentiments of honor that shaped the Romans' sense of themselves and their society. Speaking directly to the concerns and curiosities of the contemporary reader, Barton brings Roman society to life, elucidating the complex relation between the inner life of its citizens and its social fabric.
Though thoroughly grounded in the ancient writings--especially the work of Seneca, Cicero, and Livy--this book also draws from contemporary theories of the self and social theory to deepen our understanding of ancient Rome. Barton explores the relation between inner desires and social behavior through an evocative analysis of the operation, in Roman society, of contests and ordeals, acts of supplication and confession, and the sense of shame. As she fleshes out Roman physical and psychological life, she particularly sheds new light on the consequential transition from republic to empire as a watershed of Roman social relations.
Barton's ability to build productively on both old and new scholarship on Roman history, society, and culture and her imaginative use of a wide range of work in such fields as anthropology, sociology, psychology, modern history, and popular culture will make this book appealing for readers interested in many subjects. This beautifully written work not only generates insight into Roman history, but also uses that insight to bring us to a new understanding of ourselves, our modern codes of honor, and why it is that we think and act the way we do.

Customer Reviews:

A Very Strange and Very Fine Book.......2007-01-24

This is one weird book. Barton bounces back between ancient Roman speeches, comments on Freud, French films, rock bands, Christian origins and cracker barrel philosophy. She sometimes writes like the Camille Paglia of classical philology. Her footnotes, which are helpfully printed on the page they annotate, often read like a series of asides. Her parenthetical remarks -- particularly those which have little or nothing to do with Roman histody (like her claim that American free speech is based on the premise that we can say whatever comes into our heads) are often tendentious and almost always provcative. Barton has a "dump truck" mind -- if she thinks of something, she can't help putting it into her hopper and pouring it on the page.

And yet it works. First, Barton has a wonderful command of Latin -- she would be a terrific, if idiosyncratic, translator. I have rarely read an author more comfortable with her sources. Second (and related), she can tease out what the Roman writers are getting at behind what they say. Third, she offers a wonderfully fresh view of the Romans as passionate, insecure, and rather histrionic creatures, far removed from the stoic supermen idolized by Livy and Cato. Of course Barton probably overstates her case and at times simply gets it wrong. But what is important about this book is her demonstration that the traditional view of the Romans not only needs revision but is sometimes 180 degrees off. One cannot help but wonder who Barton is (and, frankly, why we haven't heard more about her). Even if the book lacks focus and does not come to a conclusion (or rather coes to about 20 of them), her eclectic style of analysis is worth 50 more "responsible" monographs. I want to hear more from her.

Thoroughly researched and very well-written.......2001-12-04

Dr. Barton has done a magnificent job of introducing the Roman world to the modern reader. Throughout the book, she makes reference to the differences between modern culture and that of the Romans without simplification. This was not an easy task, since the book will probably not be a disappointment either to a well-read Classics scholar or a beginner in both its clarity and thoroughness. Dr. Barton did a great job in weaving together the various texts of the Roman world into a complete picture that is captivating. Yet, I never felt lost, even as a beginner in this area. For me, 'Roman Honor' was a real eye-opener, not only to the Roman world but to my own. I think Dr. Barton offers marvelous insights into the roots of modern society while exploring an ancient culture. One of the best books I've read in a long time.

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A Great Book Of A Very Fascinating Man!

Long, superb as a primary source, but has problems..

It's Amazing That Governments Can Accomplish Anything

Great Story from a Great Man!

the best book ive ever read

Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department
Dean Acheson
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Relations | International | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made

Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War

American Diplomacy (Walgreen Foundation Lectures)

Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created the American World

Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of American National Security Policy during the Cold War

ASIN: 0393304124

Amazon.com

Dean Acheson joined the U.S. Department of State in 1941 as an assistant secretary for economic affairs. Shortly after the end of World War II, he attempted to resign, but was persuaded to come back as under secretary of state; Harry Truman eventually rewarded Acheson's loyalty by picking him to run the State Department during his second term (1949 to 1953).

"The period covered in this book was one of great obscurity to those who lived through it," Acheson wrote at the beginning of his memoirs, first published in 1969. "The period was marked by the disappearance of world powers and empires ... and from this wreckage emerged a multiplicity of states, most of them new, all of them largely underdeveloped politically and economically. Overshadowing all loomed two dangers to all--the Soviet Union's new-found power and expansive imperialism, and the development of nuclear weapons." Present at the Creation is a densely detailed account of Acheson's diplomatic career, delineated in intricately eloquent prose. Going over the origins of the cold war--the drawing of lines among the superpowers in Europe, the conflict in Korea--Acheson discusses how he and his colleagues came to realize "that the whole world structure and order that we had inherited from the nineteenth century was gone," and that the old methods of foreign policy would no longer apply. Among the accolades Acheson garnered for his candid self-assessment was the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for history.

Customer Reviews:

A Great Book Of A Very Fascinating Man!.......2006-12-18

I rememeber doing a 60-page research paper on Dean Acheson while I was an undergraduate at UCLA; and this book was one of the primary sources of material that I used in my research. The book is a fascinating insight into a man who before, and during the Cold War, was truly 'Present at the Creation.' Dean Acheson was Harry Truman's Secretary of State during one of the most tumultuous periods in American history. As secretary of state, he was one of the primary movers who helped shape and guide the nation's foreign policy for many years to come. Dean Acheson was not only one of the most important men during this postwar period, but as one who helped shape a major part of this country's policies; and he gives a fascinating insight into the policies and decision makers in the government.

In the book, Dean Acheson describes how decisions were made and then eventually implemented. The book, which is Acheson's memoirs of his years in the state department is not dry; but instead a very insightful a engaging read. If you are interested in politics, or history, and wonder how decisions were made that impacted the American foreign policies during the Cold War, then this book is an important read. Moreover, what he discusses in the book has not changed at all in terms of how the government goes about implemeting polices, and those who try and thwart the process: either through political gain or ignorance. Or in some cases a little bit of both.

You might ask yourself, "Why should I care about this man, and his memoirs?" Well the answer would be [from me anyway] that the polices he helped shape are with us today. [Many anyway]. The political structure of the postwar period was primarily designed to contain communism. And as such, the creation of NATO was one of the most important decisions enacted during the cold war era. His insistence [along with Truman] that Western Europe had to be revived and restructered as a thwart to Soviet Russia is an extremely important chapter in our nations history. This book is highly recommended, and belongs in your library.

Long, superb as a primary source, but has problems.........2006-05-24

I respect that this book has a Pulitzer for History, and it has a wealth of information for scholars, but for the lay reader, it is too long by 100 pages or so and goes into minute governmental procedures and such, obscuring the good parts of the book. Acheson manages to be hawkish, critical of both parties, but makes a lot of sense too about containment, and realistically looking at the Soviets. I take his comments with a grain of salt, as this is part memoir and apologia. I would have liked to see more of his take on the years after Truman's presidency. And yes, this book did help me appriciate Truman's character more.

It's Amazing That Governments Can Accomplish Anything.......2006-02-02

A generally enjoyable and interesting book. I hold Dean Acheson in very high regard along with Harry Truman and George Marshall. As other reviewers have stated, those three men (and several others) initiated policies that shaped world history for the next 50 years.

That said, the most fascinating aspect of the book for me was the back-stabbing, political posturing, stonewalling, and unresponsiveness that Acheson described throughout all the various government bureaucracies (both foreign and domestic) - Congress, the Defense Department, Foreign Ministries, Treasury, etc. It drives home to the reader just how difficult it is to get ANYTHING done in government! And it also reminds the reader that the political animosity and disfunction we see in modern government isn't a new phenomenon at all...

Great Story from a Great Man!.......2004-07-23

Dean Acheson, one of "The Wise Men" who crafted foreign policy from Truman to Johnson, was a great American. I assume it could be debated just how correct our Cold War policy was, but we're all still here to debate the point so that in itself says volumes. President Truman was wise indeed for the trust and extreme confidence that he placed in Dean Acheson. Great reading!

the best book ive ever read.......2003-03-21

I'm a 16 year old sophmore in high school and have an interest in all history, especially history that took place during the 1930's to around 1965. this book gave very deep and detailed insight into the inerworkings of the stae department after world war 2, and displayed the type of men it took to rebuild governments around the world into well oiled democratic machines. i would HIGHLY reccomend this book to anyone interested in learning a great deal about the state department under truman and acheson, as well as a person just interested in a good read.

Present at the Creation My Years in the State Department

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Present at the Creation My Years in the State Department
Dean Acheson
Manufacturer: W.W.Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: B000F9JDWM

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PRESENT AT THE CREATION My Years in the State Department

Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000ICNZBG

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Present at the Creation. My Years in the State Department
Dean Acheson
Manufacturer: Hamilton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OQ5NJ8

PRESENT AT THE CREATION. My Years in the State Department. Signed by author

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PRESENT AT THE CREATION. My Years in the State Department. Signed by author

Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000I712BG

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Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department
Dean Acheson
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IVGD70

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The Costly Mediterranean Diversion

Contends that the Normandy campaign was unduly costly

Backwater War: The Allied Campaign in Italy, 1943-45 (Stackpole Military History)
Edwin Palmer Hoyt
Manufacturer: Stackpole Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books
General | World War II | Military | History | Subjects | Books
Europe | World War II | Military | History | Subjects | Books
General | Italy | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

German Defeat in the East, 1944-45 (Stackpole Military History)

Exit Rommel: The Tunisian Campaign, 1942-43 (Stackpole Military History)

Retreat to the Reich: The German Defeat in France, 1944 (Stackpole Military History)

D-Day to Berlin: The Northwest Europe Campaign, 1944-45 (Stackpole Military History)

Colossal Cracks: Montgomery's 21st Army Group in Northwest Europe, 1944-45 (Stackpole Military History)

ASIN: 0811733823

Book Description

A year before the much-heralded second front was opened in Normandy in 1944, the Allies waged a campaign in Sicily and Italy--an assault that was marked by intra-Allied argument and dissent from beginning to end. This is the story of the "backwater war" that resulted: a fierce, drawn-out campaign that began with the invasion of Sicily, continued with the landings at Salerno and Anzio in Italy, and included the controversial bombing of Monte Cassino.

Customer Reviews:

The Costly Mediterranean Diversion.......2003-02-14

Mr.Hoyt's book is a welcome and needed history of the conflict in Italy. Discussion of the motives,tactics,and deployment are thourough. What is of great interest to me is the enormous amount of discord regarding this operation among the allies-- Churchill was for it, Ike was at best lukewarm, the british generals wanted to run it as did the americans. Ultimately, the allies proceeded with it because of Italy's collapse and the perception of an easy victory, plus the inability to open a front in the west in 1943. What occured, unfortunately, was a very long war of attrition against a worthy opponent -- Field Marshall Kesselring and some of the better components of the wehrmacht. The germans were able to contain the allies in superb defensive positions at Cassino and also at Anzio, where inadequate numbers and lackluster leadership led to bloody stalemate. Despite winning the war elsewhere, Italy was indeed the "backwater" of the war with more troops and munitions going to the war in the west as well as public attention--the capture of Rome becoming a historical footnote on the day before D-day. General Clark's portrayal as a glory hound and someone more than willing to use his soldiers in the pursuit of this[Rapido River is a good, but not the only example ] is evident in this book. The campaign remained costly in human lives and suffering for objectives increasingly of questionable strategic value until the end of the war. It would appear in retrospect the campaign was the product of misguided British ambition and American indecision and naievity, a quagmire that once entered, they could not extricate themselves from. In addition, one has to wonder if the men and material expended could not have been used more judisciously elsewhere in the ETO. That is what I think Mr. Hoyt conveyed in this landmark work on the war in Italy. It should be in every military historians' armamentarium without a doubt. I might add that the individual heroism of american and other allied soldiers is not questioned - quite the contrary - only their use by allied leaders in Italy.

Contends that the Normandy campaign was unduly costly.......2002-11-07

Backwater War: The Allied Campaign in Italy, 1943-1945 by independent historian and author Edwin P. Hoyt is a meticulous and exacting survey and analysis of the campaign waged by Allied forces in Sicily and Italy. Combining extensive detail and military theory, Hoyt forcefully contends that the Normandy campaign was both unduly costly and ultimately unnecessary, and that in the final analysis it lengthened an already devastating war. An intriguing analysis, Backwater War is an impressive and welcome contribution to personal reading lists and Military History collections.

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Backwater War : The Allied Campaign in Italy, 1943-1945
Edwin P. Hoyt
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ORFFH2

Book Description

Few topics have inspired as much international furor and misinformation as the development and distribution of genetically altered foods. For thousands of years, farmers have bred crops for their resistance to disease, productivity, and nutritional value; and over the past century, scientists have used increasingly more sophisticated methods for modifying them at the genetic level. But only since the 1970s have advances in biotechnology (or gene-splicing to be more precise) upped the ante, with the promise of dramatically improved agricultural products--and public resistance far out of synch with the potential risks. In this provocative and meticulously researched book, Henry Miller and Gregory Conko trace the origins of gene-splicing, its applications, and the backlash from consumer groups and government agencies against so-called "Frankenfoods"--from America to Zimbabwe. They explain how a "happy conspiracy" of anti-technology activism, bureaucratic over-reach, and business lobbying has resulted in a regulatory framework in which there is an inverse relationship between the degree of product risk and degree of regulatory scrutiny. The net result, they argue, is a combination of public confusion, political manipulation, ill-conceived regulation (from such agencies as the USDA, EPA, and FDA), and ultimately, the obstruction of one of the safest and most promising technologies ever developed--with profoundly negative consequences for the environment and starving people around the world. The authors go on to suggest a way to emerge from this morass, proposing a variety of business and policy reforms that can unlock the potential of this cutting-edge science, while ensuring appropriate safeguards and moving environmentally friendly products into the hands of farmers and consumers. This book is guaranteed to fuel the ongoing debate over the future of biotech and its cultural, economic, and political implications.

Customer Reviews:

The Politics of Science.......2005-09-20

Henry I. Miller has navigated successfully a very challenging course as a popular writer: weaving together a basic education in bioscience and biotechnology and an orientation to the public policy arena and its responses to scientific advance for a general audience. His book could not possibly be more timely for those of us living in Sonoma County, California as we are facing a ballot initiative in November, 2005 which would ban GMO products and research in our county. This initiative was conceived and is being pushed by the very forces identified and analyzed so well in The Frankenfood Myth. Without this excellent resource, we might have entered this contest unarmed. The book is necessarily detailed and needs to be followed closely. It is not a light read, but then the subject is inherently complex and needs to be treated with appropriate sobriety and seriousness. We are living through an exciting new stage in the evolution of agriculture. The Frankenfood Myth invites us to study and understand that evolution and gives us the means to avoid the fears and terrors which sometimes accompany rapid change while keeping our political balance.

Unique View of Ag Biotech Regulation.......2005-02-17

The Frankenfood Myth provides, rather colorfully, a history of the regulation of food and drugs in the U.S. and an interesting insider's take on the motivation of the federal employees doing that regulating. It also represents a different point of view in the debate over agricultural genetic engineering. Its authors disagree not only with the not-for-profit organizations like Environmental Defense and Greenpeace, but also with companies in the biotech industry like Monsanto and Novartis, about how to appropriately regulate the products of this "new biotechnology." More middle-of-the-road and consumer-oriented organizations, like the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, aren't approaching it correctly either, the authors contend. Even the National Academy of Sciences, at least in its reports released since genetically engineered crops have been commercialized anyway, has it wrong! Miller and Conko's position may, in fact, be unique.

But their main point--that gene-spliced organisms, particularly crop plants produced for food and drugs, are being regulated too stringently in the United States--is not, in my opinion, adequately documented or otherwise substantiated enough to be convincing. And some of their supporting issues--such as those related to process vs. product, the adequacy of post-market policing, the effects of labeling--struck me as inconsistent as well.

For example, the authors claim, with no citation, that the "regulatory requirements for gene-spliced plants and foods have been ratcheted up steadily for nearly twenty years...." But, over the last nearly twelve years, the USDA has reduced, not "ratcheted up," much of its regulation of gene-spliced organisms--at least of those intended for food (as opposed to drug) production. It created a simplified notification procedure for some varieties of gene-spliced corn, cotton, potato, soybean, tobacco and tomato in 1993, for example, and in 1997 it extended that notification procedure to include all non-weed plants. And, as mentioned in the book, the FDA rigorously regulated the bacterial protein present in every cell of the first, commercialized, whole, gene-spliced food as a "food additive." Going from that level of regulation to the voluntary system FDA uses today doesn't support the authors' "ratcheted up" description either.

Miller and Conko also claim that the "voluntary consultation procedure" currently in effect at the FDA is "voluntary in name only" because "in fact every gene-spliced plant variety commercialized so far has undergone premarketing review." But they give no reference to back up this important claim. And, given that the system is voluntary, it may be impossible to actually establish it as fact.

As to the EPA, which regulates gene-spliced organisms that produce pesticides, and the USDA's oversight of drug-producing crops, the authors' "ratcheted up" regulation comment still doesn't seem to support their broader thesis of "unwarranted regulatory oppression." Over the last decade, all the regulatory "incidents" involving gene-spliced crops--like the putative allergen that got into our food supply, and the animal vaccine that contaminated a soybean crop--occurred in spite of the "oversight" of these two agencies. For EPA and USDA to have "ratcheted up" their regulatory requirements in response to these kinds of incidents seems both warranted and appropriate.

In sum, The Frankenfood Myth outlines problems with the way gene-spliced organisms are regulated in the U.S. It does so using adjectives like "witless" and nouns like "nincompoopery," and so may be especially entertaining for people who like that sort of thing. But Miller and Conko's case for less regulation being the solution to these problems was, for me, too often inconsistent and inadequately documented to be persuasive.

Comfort Food.......2004-10-11

The authors do a masterful job of exposing the misapprehension -- spread by regulators and activists, and abetted by the media -- that "genetic modification" is untested, unproven or unregulated. In fact, it is none of these things, but rather is a more precise tool than earlier techniques that can be used to craft various, extraordinarily useful plants, microbes and animals. That is, it could be used for all these things if over-regulation and the objections of activists can be overcome.

The book is not a defense of biotechnology as much as it is a demand for public policy that is based on science and common sense. It is very readable and very persuasive.

Honest reading.......2004-10-07

Miller and Conko deserve much credit for their painstaking presentation and research. They document and present the issues of what has gone wrong with biotechnology regulation and public confusion and unawareness of the issues. A MUST for anyone who has any interest in thinking about our world.

Some needed fresh air to lend to a stale debate.......2004-09-28

Dr. Miller and Mr. Conko have done a tremendous service to all of those who care about intellectual honesty. This is a no-holds barred, gloves-off attack, not of the critics of biotechnology, but of the intellectual dishonesty and rampant hucksterism that passes for enlightened debate about issues of complexity nowadays.

Some readers will find the frank, prescriptive nature of some parts of the book unsettling. Good. That is precisely what is required today, to balance the gusher of not-so-frank, less than honest and dictatorial "information" and policy recommendations coming from the other side of the debate.

This book is long overdue, and I cannot recommend it more highly. Miller and Conko challenge you to disagree, and you should feel free to do so. Just make sure you have facts and empirically-based arguments, rather than vague principles in hand, before you venture forth.

States of Fear.(The Frankenfood Myth: How Protest and Politics Threaten the Biotech Revolution )(book)(Book Review): An article from: Regulation

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States of Fear.(The Frankenfood Myth: How Protest and Politics Threaten the Biotech Revolution )(book)(Book Review): An article from: Regulation
Susan Dudley , and Eileen Norcross
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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This digital document is an article from Regulation, published by Cato Institute on March 22, 2005. The length of the article is 2930 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: States of Fear.(The Frankenfood Myth: How Protest and Politics Threaten the Biotech Revolution )(book)(Book Review)
Author: Susan Dudley
Publication: Regulation (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2005
Publisher: Cato Institute
Volume: 28 Issue: 1 Page: 58(4)

Article Type: Book Review

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The Frankenfood Myth: How Protest and Politics Threaten the Biotech Revolution

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The Frankenfood Myth: How Protest and Politics Threaten the Biotech Revolution
Henry I.; Conko, Gregory Miller
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ORQDKU

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According to some estimates, at least 1.7 billion people do not have an adequate supply of drinking water and as many as 40% of the world's population face chronic shortages. Yet water scarcity is more than a matter of terrain, increased population, and climate. It can also be a byproduct or end result of water management, where the building of dams, canals, and complicated delivery systems provide water for some at the cost of others, and result in short-term gains that wreak long-term ecological havoc. Water scarcity can also be a product of the social systems in which we live.

Water, Culture, and Power presents a series of case studies from around the world that examine the complex culture and power dimensions of water resources and water resource management. Chapters describe highly contested and contentious cases that span the continuum of water management concerns from dam construction and hydroelectric power generation to water quality and potable water systems. Sections examine:

Impact of water resource development on indigenous peoples

Varied cultural meanings of water and water resources

Political process of funding and building water resource projects

Tensions between culture and power as they structure perceptions and experiences of water scarcity, transforming water from natural resource to social constructio.

Case studies include Lummi nation challenges to water rights in the Northwest United States; drinking water quality issues in Oaxaca de Juarez, Mexico; the effects of tourism development in the Bay Islands, Honduras; water scarcity on St. Thomas, the Virgin Islands; the role of water in the Arab-Israeli conflict; and other national and regional situations including those from Zimbabwe, Japan, and Bangladesh.

While places and cases vary, all chapters address the values and meanings associated with water and how changes in power result in changes in both meaning and in patterns of use, access, and control. Water, Culture, and Power provides an important look at water conflicts and crises and is essential reading for students, researchers, and anyone interested in the role of cultural factors as they affect the political economy of natural resource use and control.

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