From a brief survey of the unique, matriarchal society of mandrills to a hard-hitting critique of Africa's AIDS policy, this comprehensive anthology, the second in this series, boasts 23 articles culled from some of the nation's most preeminent periodicals—the New Yorker, National Geographic, Harper's, Scientific American
and the New York Times. These essays are in their finest form when they challenge the popular mindset and expose the politics that undermine scientific achievement. Debbie Bookchin and Jim Schumacher, for example, aptly summarize the conflict that has been raging since pathologist Michele Carbone suggested that an ordinarily harmless simian virus, introduced into the human gene pool through contaminated polio vaccines, may be the cause of some cancers. Richard Preston's lengthy overview of the race to decode the human genome, on the other hand, pointedly highlights the politics and petty rivalries (most notably between Nobel Prize–recipient James Watson and Celera's senior scientist, Craig Venter) that both impeded and accelerated the decoding process. Several of the remaining entries will alternately amuse and intrigue the reader. Joel Achenbach speculates about extraterrestrial life by examining the conditions that limit the emergence of life; Andrew Sullivan's intimate account surveys the role of testosterone in society; and Stephen Jay Gould reveals the medieval origin and treatment of syphilis (bleeding and purging by spittle). Despite the occasional weak entry—such as Freeman J. Dyson's unsubstantiated, rosy predictions about the future of "green technology" (or biotechnology)—this anthology of lucid, eloquent essays will satisfy popular science enthusiasts. (Oct. 1)
