Just Finished Reading: Ultra-Processed People – Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn't Food... and Why Can't We Stop? By Chris van Tulleken (FP: 2023) 

Growing up my mother cooked most of our meals from scratch (wonderful substance and SO versatile). She'd be in the kitchen chopping, mixing, heating and produce decent filling meals. She was never a great cook – except maybe for her scones which I miss to this day – but we never went hungry no matter the circumstance. Of course, some of the food was more processed, coming in tins (how could we possibly live without Heinz baked beans?) and sometimes packets (when ready meals started coming out in the later 70's and mother & I started experimenting with curries (which my older brother called 'foreign muck'!) and chillies. But it was only later, when I went to university in the early 80's that I started having what would probably be called ULTRA processed food - essentially 'food' that had more contact with a factory than it did with a farm. After we moved off campus in our 2nd year we ate some very questionable food essentially because it was dirt cheap. After reading this book I now understand more just why it was so cheap and exactly why we kept going back for more. 

In essence I am a lazy eater. Some of my friends are (or have been) very food focused and enjoy both preparing and eating food of a wide variety. Food, apart from the basic need of consuming it or dying, has never really interested me. Naturally there are foods I like to eat and some that I still miss after becoming a vegetarian 25+ years ago, but I don't obsess over it. My brother often said that if he could take a pill each day and didn't need to eat anything else he would do so. I'm not QUITE that bad but I appreciate where he's coming from. Although I do get some pleasure from food that pleasure is not my primary motivation for eating it. In essence, at least to me, food is mostly about fuelling the body. Anything else is, all joking aside, garnish. 

With that out of the way [grin] what has that got to do with this interesting and alarming book? I think that's there's two ways of looking at it – personal and global. From a global point of view, we've seen a significant increase in obesity just about everywhere as well as an increase in the number and severity of numerous other diet related health issues. At the same time (surely not coincidental) is the creation and explosive growth of 'food' that wouldn't be recognised as such by previous generations. Although it might be difficult to PROVE that one actually CAUSES the other – not unlike smoking despite the fact that the link between it and cancer has been clear for some time now – it's not too difficult to show the likelihood of a link. So, there's that... 

On a more personal level I don't think that my eating habits are producing any obvious health related issues. I've had eczema (for example) all of my life – it runs in the family – and these days any flare up is a rare occurrence and (normally) quickly relents. Nothing else comes to mind. I did gain weight from my 40's onwards – after being the same weight for decades no matter what I ate – but that's likely to be metabolism/age related rather than diet. I've gained some more weight since retiring but, again, I think that's mostly activity rather than diet related. Like most people I do eat 'junk' from time to time knowing that it's not 'real' food. I used to be a great fan of Pringles – which, interestingly, gets its own CHAPTER in this book – but haven't indulged in a while (and probably never will again after reading this!). I still eat crisps (or 'chips' to my American readers) probably more than I should but I think I need to odd 'vice' to tide me over. It's not like I'm living off them. So, although I do periodically indulge in UPF (Ultra-Processed Food) I think I do so in moderation. [Side note: despite knowing the chemical concoction that is the MacDonalds 'strawberry' milkshake I still low-level crave it every time I pass a MaccyD's....] 

One of the things I will be doing going forward is spending more time READING ingredients lists on the things I buy (or am thinking of buying). The author gives some rule-of-thumb ways (some I'm sure are a little tongue in cheek) for spotting UPF: It comes in a plastic bag; it has more than 5 ingredients [Side note: My local supermarket sells its own brand Tortilla chips that has 3 – Maize flour, Rapeseed oil & Salt... and they're SUPER cheap too!], it has a LONG shelf life, it contains flavours, colours or both. It's not hard and fast that its UPF if it has one or two of these but if it has more than two... it's probably not real food. 

I'm only really scratching the surface of what this book covers and I'm missing out evidence of environmental damage, transportation costs, pollution, unknown or long-term health risks, damage to existing local or indigenous food supplies, control of what we eat by a handful of GIANT corporations... and so it goes. I think that the fact we call it a food INDUSTRY kind of gives the game away. Although I don't think that this is as life changing or impactful as some of the blurb comments make out, I think it'll encourage people (including me) to ask many more questions about what we eat and what it's doing to us and our world. More on Food and Health to come (as they're two subjects I know FAR too little about). Recommended unless it might tip you into paranoia!  

Just Finished Reading: In Praise of Walking – The New Science of How We Walk and Why It’s Good For Us by Shane O’Mara (FP: 2019) [183pp] 

I’ve walked everywhere all of my life. I guess that part of that was because neither of my parents had learnt to dive and getting anywhere meant on my own two legs. My father was also a great walker. On weekends he’d take my older brother and I on LONG walks (I have clear memories of us kids both complaining and my dad saying – just around the NEXT corner) just about everywhere we could get to. As I grew up poor (but unaware of how poor we were) it was a very cheap day out. I liked it much more than my brother did which is probably why he did learn to drive as soon as possible and bought a car the moment he could afford one. 

We are an unusual species in the way we get around. Whilst other primates CAN walk for short distances and for particular reasons, we can walk mile after mile almost as efficiently as you can get. Through millennia of human evolution we have been designed to walk with minimal effort, and it shows in almost every facet of the human body. Once we learnt to walk (as a species) there was little that could stop us ultimately populating the planet. Distance certainly wasn’t any object. At a slow family pace of just 5km a day can cover 1500km in less than a year. To walk from the west coast of Liberia to the eastern Pacific coast of China – a distance of around 13,590km – would take a mere 9 year amble. So, it's not surprising that we spread far and fast once we started walking. 

The brain is wired to talk and walk. It is just a matter of time before bum shuffling becomes standing with assistance as nonsense words become language. I’m constantly amused when I see new walkers out in the world. I LOVE how indignant they get when a parent scoops them up or tries to persuade them back into their pushchair. They way they look (and complain) says VERY clearly: I learnt to WALK damn it! I’m going to walk everywhere at a snail's pace until I can RUN away from everyone! One thing that did honestly amaze me about toddlers learning to walk is that, on average, they fall something like 17 times an hour! If I did that today, in any other task, I’d have given up a LONG time ago. Toddlers are committed walkers. They’re tenacious! 

Going in I had assumed that it was obvious (and in obvious ways) that walking was good for your general health – cardio and all that. But it doesn’t stop there. Walking is, apparently, important for improving and maintaining your cognitive skills. One of the experiments that stuck out was were two groups of students (as usual) had been given some puzzles to solve. One group sat at a desk whilst the others took the test standing up. The second group scored consistently higher. Get them to take tests whilst walking – any test – and the scores go up again. The old idea of solving a problem by going for a walk has an increasingly understood scientific basis. 

Oh, I almost forgot... There's some pretty cool stuff in here about how we navigate and how to do it better!

For such a thin book this is PACKED with information and insight into an activity I’m sure that most of us take for granted. If you’re a walker already it’ll confirm many of the positive ideas you already have. If you’re a reluctance pedestrian it might change your mind about this simple pleasure with a built-in health benefit. Definitely recommended. You can thank me later.   

Just Finished Reading: Immortality – The Quest to Live Forever and How It Drives Civilisation by Stephen Cave (FP: 2012) [307pp] 

Here the author makes a rather sweeping proposition – that THE drive to civilisation since its very beginnings has been the unending search for ways to live forever. That’s quite the idea, so I was intrigued to see if he could pull it off.  

Essentially, he split the idea of immortality into four separate threads which each giving rise to different expansions of technology, ideas or beliefs each of which helped shape the world we inhabit. The first, logically, is actual physical immortality with the body and mind you were born with – mostly. This is the process where health is the primary outcome depending on medicine, vaccinations, food security and so on. Clearly such things might enhance longevity somewhat but not enough to live beyond our normal span. This means going further with progressively intrusive medical procedures, technological enhancements etc.. Going further still we have ideas such as transferring the human brain into indestructible robot bodies or ‘uploading’ minds into machines. Each step extends life a little, or a lot, further into the future. 

Then we have bodily reincarnation after death with the hope (dream?) of being brought back by future technical means or within a spiritual belief system. The next link in the chain encompasses various beliefs in ‘souls’ that are the essential you which, after bodily death, migrate into another reality or in some way re-engage with the material world for another round of life. Finally, we have the idea of living in the memories and culture of future generations as an historical figure through stories, icons and monuments left behind. 

Although the author does make some case for his thesis I don’t think he quite brings it off. I’d certainly go so far as saying that the idea of living forever – by whatever means – could be seen as ‘A’ driver behind various scientific endeavours and religious or philosophical belief systems I certainly wouldn’t go so far as to say it is ‘THE’ driver. On top of that I had a problem throughout by how the author defined immortality itself – taking it to the extreme with it meaning essentially outliving the Universe itself trillions of years hence with its predicted heat death. Personally, if someone could live for 10 THOUSAND years never mind 10 TRILLION years, I’d say that they’re as good as immortal at that point. 

But is immortality – ignoring the religious side of things – even possible? I think it's possible (or at least conceivable) that science can extend life a great deal. Even with present technology an average life expectancy of 100 years is achievable. Even something like 125-150 healthy years is probably not beyond us. Going much further will probably demand some radical breakthroughs beyond cloned organs and so on. With complete cloned bodies (or their replacing by – for want of a better term – androids) and an ‘uploaded’ consciousness we should be able to live a great deal longer. The only question would be – is that REALLY you? Is a copy of you – which is what we’re talking about here – really YOU isn’t just a philosophical question. It may look like you and might even feel like you from the inside but it's still a simulacrum. Somehow, I’m not sure if we can even get that far even in the reasonably far future – but who knows? This was an interesting dive into some rather fringe ideas (hopes?) with a scattering of religious belief and philosophy throughout. Reasonable. 

Just Finished Reading: The Art of Rest – How to Find Respite in the Modern Age by Claudia Hammond (FP: 2019) [264pp] 

I think I picked this up during a period of increased stress at work – or at least in the aftermath of a stressful time. I honestly don’t deal with stress very well and, as much as possible, avoid it where and when I can. I think I am pretty good at resting though! I don’t feel the pressure of constantly needing to DO something and most certainly don’t suffer (as some of my friends have done much to my bemusement) of FOMO – the ‘fear’ of ‘missing out’, which is something I’ve never really understood. Whatever and how much you do, you will ALWAYS be missing out on SOMETHING – so, get over it! 

Anyway, to the book itself. Rather typically it has taken me around 7 years to read it, which means I’ve actually been retired and living the LOW stress lifestyle for around 6 years now. But it was interesting to see what I could have done to lower or recover from stress by relaxing more. The contents of the book are based on the results of a global survey essentially asking people what they did to relax and then ranking them 1-10 in reverse order. Each section covered the relaxation strategy and, as much as possible, the scientific underpinnings of why and how it worked. I was somewhat surprised, although not completely, by how many of the 10 I actually practiced before reading this. Some of them I felt were pretty obvious whilst others seemed a bit more niche (if not exactly unique to me!). 

The 10th most popular made me laugh a little – Mindfulness. Although I’m aware of the ideas underpinning the idea, my only direct experience with it have been at work where we received advice and a few short training sessions to help us reduce our stress. Much cynicism resulted as we were all convinced that the ‘trendy’ idea was being used purely to tick boxes for Head Office. Number 7 was a Nice Hot Bath which made me smile. For speed and convenience throughout the week it was a shower for me. But on Sunday, as I had the time to take my time, I had a bath instead just to soak there and think about nothing in particular. Perfect. Number 4 was Listening to Music. This I do whenever I can and wherever I can. I used to wear headphones often, plugged into an MP3 player with my favourite downloaded music (or ripped from my CDs). It always made me feel like I was in an MTV music video. Music was on in my house during every waking moment – as it is at this very moment – and it certainly relaxes me (especially the Classical music I listen to 15 hours a day). The top method for relaxation honestly surprised me – Reading. It's not that I don’t think that reading IS relaxing – I certainly relax that way – but that so many people agree with me that it got to number ONE on so many people’s lists!  

So, if you’re struggling to relax and take time off from the daily grind this could be the book for you. It’ll certainly give you some ideas of how to wind down and may well help you achieve a slightly more relaxed outlook. Rather than buying it though I’d recommend you pick it up from your local library. Reasonable.   

Happy Birthday: Albert Einstein (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum theory. His mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2, which arises from special relativity, has been called "the world's most famous equation". He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for "his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect".

Born in the German Empire, Einstein moved to Switzerland in 1895, forsaking his German citizenship the following year. In 1897, at the age of seventeen, he enrolled in the mathematics and physics teaching diploma program at the Swiss federal polytechnic school in Zurich, graduating in 1900. He acquired Swiss citizenship a year later, which he kept for the rest of his life, and afterwards secured a permanent position at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern. In 1905, he submitted a successful PhD dissertation to the University of Zurich. In 1914, he moved to Berlin to join the Prussian Academy of Sciences and the Humboldt University of Berlin, becoming director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in 1917; he also became a German citizen again. In 1933, while Einstein was visiting the United States, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. Horrified by the Nazi persecution of his fellow Jews, he decided to remain in the US, and was granted American citizenship in 1940. On the eve of World War II, he endorsed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt alerting him to the potential German nuclear weapons program and recommending that the US begin similar research, later carried out as the Manhattan Project.

In 1905, sometimes described as his annus mirabilis (miracle year), he published four groundbreaking papers. In them, he outlined a theory of the photoelectric effect, explained Brownian motion, introduced his special theory of relativity, and demonstrated that if the special theory is correct, mass and energy are equivalent to each other. In 1915, he proposed a general theory of relativity that extended his system of mechanics to incorporate gravitation. A paper that he published the following year laid out the implications of general relativity for the modeling of the structure and evolution of the universe as a whole. It introduced the cosmological constant and is further regarded as the first step in the field of modern theoretical cosmology. In 1917, Einstein wrote a paper which introduced the concepts of spontaneous emission and stimulated emission, the latter of which is the core mechanism behind the laser and maser, and which contained a trove of information that would be beneficial to developments in physics later on, such as quantum electrodynamics and quantum optics.

In the middle part of his career, Einstein made important contributions to statistical mechanics and quantum theory. Especially notable was his work on the quantum physics of radiation, in which light consists of particles, subsequently called photons. With physicist Satyendra Nath Bose, he laid the groundwork for Bose–Einstein statistics. For much of the last phase of his academic life, Einstein worked on two endeavors that ultimately proved unsuccessful. First, he advocated against quantum theory's introduction of fundamental randomness into science's picture of the world, objecting that "God does not play dice". Second, he attempted to devise a unified field theory by generalizing his geometric theory of gravitation to include electromagnetism. As a result, he became increasingly isolated from mainstream modern physics. Many things are named after him, including the element Einsteinium. In 1999, he was named Time's Person of the Century.

Just Finished Reading: Forensics – The Anatomy of Crime by Val McDermid (FP: 2014) [295pp] 

There’re two main reasons I enjoy reading Crime novels – trying to figure out ‘Who Dunnit’ (hopefully before all in revealed) and the enjoyment of the process of finding out the ‘How Dunnit’ and maybe even the ‘Why Dunnit’ using the science of forensics. I always enjoy the detective or police officer piecing together clues from blood, hair and other items left at the scene – as Morse often said in the TV series (at least I *think* he said it) the murderer always takes something with him and always leaves something behind. More pithily “every contact leaves a trace”. 

As with all science based/related books this has slightly aged since its publication around 10 years ago. However, this is only really noticeable in the chapters on DNA evidence and the still interesting, if notably aged, section on digital forensics. Despite this inevitable result of waiting 10 years to finally read this (typical of me I’m afraid!) I still managed to learn (or re-learn) a great deal – over and above what I’d already managed to glean from movies and TV shows, which to be honest are known more for their exaggerated capabilities than their grasp of forensic reality (much to the annoyance of REAL cops). 

The flow of the book is from crime scene to courtroom starting with the basics and working through the various elements in the forensic toolkit. There is a scattering of US and other countries crimes used to illustrate various points and breakthroughs in forensic science, but this book largely focuses on crimes, techniques and legal angles particular to the UK (with Scottish law being notably different from English law at times).  

The first dive into the science looks at investigations of fire – either just straight arson or fire used in an attempt to cover up other crimes – LOTS of interesting stuff there. I did find it somewhat surprising at the kind of things survive a fire (including human remains) as well as the random nature of fire itself (it doesn’t always go where the criminal wants it to go). There’s an interesting section on bugs and how they help to determine time of death (NEVER as clear cut as TV shows would have you believe!) but I was largely aware of that from other reading. Likewise, the history of fingerprinting (it's amazing what can produce prints these days!) was a nice refresher but didn’t push my knowledge too much further. The section on Toxicology was fascinating especially how the scientists slowly developed tests for various toxic substances – sadly involving the deaths of LOTS of animals. I was particularly interested in the cosmetic use of radium in face powder and lipstick! Radium was considered a boon to health and was actually sold as a DRINK. I can’t help but wonder how many of its users rather oddly developed various forms of cancer...! 

Written by a best-selling crime novelist this was a quality look behind the scenes of her books. I particularly liked the scattering of interviews with the real-life forensic scientists who discussed their work including breakthroughs and the stress of cross-examination in court. Being the subject it is, there’s a fair amount of yuck factor throughout although no doubt much toned down from the harsh reality of death and destruction – so be BEWARE. But if you have a reasonably robust stomach and have an interest in the darker side of humanity, I think you’ll find this as interesting and informative as I did. Recommended.  

Happy Birthday: Edward Jenner (17 May 1749 – 26 January 1823) was an English physician and scientist who pioneered the concept of vaccines and created the smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine. The terms vaccine and vaccination are derived from Variolae vaccinae ('pustules of the cow'), the term devised by Jenner to denote cowpox. He used it in 1798 in the title of his Inquiry into the Variolae vaccinae known as the Cow Pox, in which he described the protective effect of cowpox against smallpox.

Jenner is often called "the father of immunology", and his work is said to have saved "more lives than any other man". In Jenner's time, smallpox killed around 10% of the global population, with the number as high as 20% in towns and cities where infection spread more easily. In 1821, he was appointed physician to King George IV, and was also made mayor of Berkeley and justice of the peace. He was a member of the Royal Society. In the field of zoology, he was among the first modern scholars to describe the brood parasitism of the cuckoo (Aristotle also noted this behaviour in his History of Animals). In 2002, Jenner was named in the BBC's list of the 100 Greatest Britons.

Just Finished Reading: Footmarks – A Journey into Our Restless Past by Jim Leary (FP: 2024) [238pp] 

The problem with digging up the deep past is that everything is static, dead, unmoving. Even Roman roads, ancient pathways, and drover's lanes are empty. Of course, when they were in daily use, they were anything but – that's the rub. How do you excavate a world on the move?  

That is the interesting question at the heart of this often-fascinating book. Humans move around a LOT and this was true thousands, indeed tens of thousands of years ago as it is today – except without continent spanning aircraft or ocean spanning liners. For much of our history if you wanted to go any great distance you walked there or, if you were lucky or rich, rode there on horseback. This is what we, and humanities predecessors, did. We got up and we walked out of Africa and across Eurasia and into both the America’s and Australia (although the last bit of that particular journey was by boat). 

There is a great deal of (growing) evidence for our mobile past from fossilised footprints (fascinating in and of themselves), to the very earliest bridges, river fords and more permanent constructions. To our very earliest boats of wood and leather to ocean going Viking craft. We have genetic evidence of grand movements of people, evidence of the spread of ideas, technology and burial beliefs over thousands of years and thousands of miles. All of this brings the dead, static, unmoving past to a more mobile, more visible, more human clarity. 

This is definitely a very different way of looking at the deep past. Despite some very good writing it did take me a little while to ‘reorientate’ myself (pun obviously intended!) to the author's vision but once I did a great deal of his arguments made perfect sense. Humans move – a LOT. So, viewing artifacts and structures with that in mind help us to understand why roads are where they are and go where they go. It helps to explain pilgrimages and religious sites, it helps to explain why coins and other artifacts are located in rivers, wells and other locations. It even explains the location of gates, doorways and walls. Seeing places without an occupying human community is only half the picture. This book helps being able to at least imagine, if not actually ‘see’ the other half. Full of interesting ideas, observations and discoveries. Definitely recommended for anyone interested in our very human mobile past.     

Just Finished Reading: First Steps – How Walking Upright Made Us Human by Jeremy Desilva (FP: 2021) [274pp] 

I have LONG been interested in Evolution since reading Dawkins back in my 20’s. Not surprisingly, I’m particularly interested in the evolution of my own species. One of the most signature differences between ourselves and our Ape cousins is the fact that we walk upright, we’re bipedal whereas the other apes move around, by and large, on all four limbs. So, what gives – and more importantly what’s the advantage of two legs over four. 

At first glance moving around on two legs rather than four is a distinct DISADVANTAGE. Not only can chimpanzees, for example, run much faster than we can they can also climb much faster than us. But with such obvious disadvantages how did we compete successfully with similar quadrupedal ancestors in the deep past? What use is two legs after all is said and done? One advantage is that an upright posture allows a much better survey of the ground locally. Seeing threats further off allows even slow pre-humans to make it to the nearest cover. Furthermore being ‘hands-free’ allows bipeds not only to carry things that our quadruped ancestors couldn’t - allowing more food to be carried over longer distances as well as the ability to throw things accurately over distances to ward off predators and enemies alike – which must have come in very handy at times (no pun intended!).  

Along with the advantages there were, inevitably, downsides. Standing upright meant a compromise between energy efficient walking – chimps typically expend FOUR times as much energy per mile travelled – and the ability to give birth relatively easily, most especially as our brains and heads expanded over the millennia. This was, and still is, a significant risk in being female. Interestingly, the difficulty of per-human birthing might very well have led to group co-operation which boosted not only individual survival rates but boosted the evolutionary fitness of the entire species. 

As the process of evolution has, of necessity, to work with what it has and modify it as it can, compromises must be made – even beyond the restrictions in the birth canal. Even today humans die by falling much more than you’d think. Added to that is the commonality of sprained ankles, dislocated kneecaps and torn ligaments. We are a cobbled together species and our bipedalism is no exception. 

I really enjoyed this book. Not only did I learn a great deal about our pre-human ancestors, but I realised that the number of them has increased greatly since I last checked in. Some of them were familiar (now much more familiar) to me but some were quite new. Another thing I found very interesting indeed were later chapters on the impact of shoe wearing and the health benefits of walking – both mental and physical. It made me want to put the book down and go for a walk! If you have a general interest in human evolution or a particular interest in the development of upright walking or even walking in general, this is definitely the book for you. Highly recommended and a highlight of the year.  

Just Finished Reading: Atom by Piers Bizony (FP: 2007) [194pp] 

The transition between the 19th and 20th centuries was an odd time in many ways. One of the strangest, and in hindsight one of the most amusing, was in the realm of Physics. As the 19th century ended students who expressed an interest in physics as a career were told that they were wasting their time and that most everything that could be discovered already had been at that anyone left in the profession would spend their, presumably bored, time finishing off a few left-over details. One of those ‘details’ was the structure of atoms. 

No one really knew very much about atomic structure in the Edwardian period. The prevailing ‘theory’ was that atoms (along with their electrons – then of disputed existence) existed in a kind of ‘cake-mix’ blob with the electrons playing the part of chocolate chips. As investigation progressed (using incredibly primitive and home-made equipment) it quickly became apparent that things were far more complex and that a ‘solar system’ model with electrons ‘orbiting’ the nucleus of the atom was a better representation of reality. But that idea created problems of its own. Such a model might work for Hydrogen but more complex atoms had multiple electrons in various ‘orbits’. How did the system maintain itself for more than a vanishingly short period without collapse? How did chemical reactions happen? The more they investigated the more complex and the more frankly bizarre it all became. We were moving into the age of Quantum Mechanics (QM). 

Anyone with even the barest ‘knowledge’ of QM will know how strange it is. In fact, the word ‘strange’ just doesn’t cover it. QM is honestly CRAZY. Albert Einstein himself – who was, to be honest, at least partially responsible for creating the field – never accepted the theory and spent a good deal of his life in opposition to it. Yet, time and time again, QM has been shown in theory, in experiments and in practice as being fundamentally correct – there's just a few little things presently unexplained that need to be cleared up...    

I’m not sure what I was expecting from this, maybe a quick refresher read and nothing more. Pleasantly it was rather more than that. This was FUN. Not only did the author have a very readable style he also managed to explain some very complex ideas that only once or twice pushed up against my ability to wrap my head around them – and for a book on QM that’s quite something! Another thing I really liked about this was the focus on the scientists doing the work and their portrayal as human beings – odd though many of them were. This grounded the experience at a human level. Looking at the beginnings of the ideas surrounding the atom, moving on to the race to create the atom bomb, debates on how stars burn for so long, the creation of heavy atoms in supernova, the Big Bang and much besides this was a great way into the worlds of the vanishing small and the cosmically BIG. If you’ve ever wondered what the fuss was all about but either didn’t know where to start or were afraid that reading up on the subject would fry your brain, this is the book for you. With barely an equation to be seen and very good explanations of the issues raised and their resolutions this will give you a good basic grounding on the subject and might even get you interested in reading further. Definitely recommended. 

Just Finished Reading: The Possibility of Life – Searching for Kinship in the Cosmos by Jaime Green (FP: 2023) [276pp] 

As far as we know, life on Earth emerged practically the moment conditions allowed. As soon as the crust was cool enough for liquid water – BAMM Life! That being the case I have long thought it likely (actually very likely) that life is everywhere in the cosmos although, like Brian Cox, I like to restrict myself to our galaxy which is plenty big enough to be getting on with. 

Starting by looking at the origin of life on Earth (still very much open for debate and further study) the author considers exactly what conditions had to exist to facilitate the leap from lifeless to living matter and how this process could have been replicated on other worlds both similar to and different from our own. Interestingly (again as Brian Cox has stated) there are likely to be BILLIONS of Earth-like worlds in the galaxy so, unless the odds for life are vanishing low, we can expect life elsewhere just on the basis of statistics. Although the Earth does seem to have some ‘unusual’ characteristics – a significantly larger moon that we’d expect – personally I don’t think that we’re odd enough to be anywhere like unique. 

Once the foundations are laid, the author moves onwards looking at planet formation (most stars seem to have at least a few planets) and relates what we can glean about other planetary systems orbiting a variety of star types (note: Red Dwarves last a LONG-ass time!). Then its time for the meat... Multicellular life. Whilst its true that for most of Earth’s history we were a world dominated by single cell life personally I don’t think that such a state is the universal default. If cells bunching together happened here – no matter how ‘late’ - I don’t see why it can’t happen elsewhere and possibly a whole lot quicker. Of course, operating with a single example – US! - its difficult to draw any firm conclusions. Hopefully such a state of affairs won’t last forever. Again, personally I’m betting for simple life on Mars and more complex (fish?) under the ice of Jupiter’s moons. Here’s hoping! 

Once you have complex life the next natural question is going to be about intelligence – could we recognise alien creatures as people? I’m not sure about this one. We humans are late arrivals in the grand scheme of things and its possible that we’re an aberration. We might just be alone in that regard. Of course, the other thing – especially if we’re hoping for some kind of communication if not actual hand/tentacle shakes is technology. The ability to send and receive messages over stellar distances is VERY new for us, so we might be checking out planets that haven’t invented radio yet or even have been scanned in the past during the height of the Roman Empire – proving that there are no intelligent beings here! 

Its still (very) early days and there are still lots of questions to be answered (or even posed). From what we know about our planet and our galaxy life SHOULD be reasonably common. Finding it is, of course, a whole other ball game. We haven’t been looking very long and we’re still working out exactly what we need to look for – water worlds, radio waves, mega-structures? - so I’m not particularly let down by the results so far. Jupiter’s moons are our best bet for finding additional life in our Solar system. What would be really nice is if we could establish early on that it emerged and developed completely independently of life on Earth. If life could begin in two places in the same system, then that would indicate that life is EVERYWHERE (crosses fingers). 

The author is obviously enthusiastic about the subject which really comes across. She also uses a LOT of Sci-Fi references – an important source of speculation about alien life – which is why I’ve added the SF label to the list. Such references certainly didn’t hinder my enjoyment of this work. If you’ve ever wondered about the subject and wanted an idea where the latest research and ideas are leading us then this is the book for you. Definitely recommended.

Just Finished Reading: This is Your Mind on Plants – Opium – Caffeine – Mescaline by Michael Pollan (FP: 2021) [247pp] 

This was another of those books that turned out to be not what I expected. Much like my previous book, I was expecting a somewhat scientific discussion about what various drugs/substances did to the human brain and contrasting the effects of two heavily regulated/illegal substances with the all too common one (caffeine!). 

That wasn’t what I got, though I was far from disappointed with the result. Logically the book was split into three sections – one on each ‘drug’. The first was more than a little odd. Essentially it was an upgraded version of an article the author had produced some years previously for Harper's Magazine about the so-called ‘War on Drugs’ and how, as part of that ‘conflict’ the US Government was trying to quietly eliminate the Poppy from American gardens. Fuelled by a misinformation campaign – asserting that opium poppies could not be grown in the US (they can) or that ‘normal’ poppies don’t produce opium (they do in varying quantities) and even prosecuting people who grow colourful flowers in their gardens not realising that they ‘could’ be used for opium production. The author also contrasted this failing war (and all of the ridiculous side effects of controlling seed catalogue contents) with the opioid crisis in no small part caused by ‘legitimate’ drug companies feeding doctors and patients false information about their products. Interesting stuff. The last chapter was broadly similar where the author looked at the strange history of mescaline use in the US and the fight by Native Americans to have access to it for their religious ceremonies. Again, very interesting stuff especially when the author and his wife tried mescaline during such a ceremony. 

As I haven’t taken (nor plan on taking) either substance, the section on caffeine was the most relatable. Rather than taking in the substance, something most of us do on a daily basis, the author tried to wean himself off coffee or tea for a whole three months – something I certainly couldn’t contemplate. The results were VERY interesting to say the least and even more so when he got back on the wagon with some expresso...! His speculation on the effects of coffee (and later tea) on 17th century Western civilisation certainly need more investigation, so I’ll be following up on that. One thing that did make me laugh was about the physical health benefits of the growing popularity of coffee houses. As they necessarily had to boil water to produce the brew, it meant that any bugs contained therein were effectively killed. So, largely risk-free mental stimulation. A win-win I think.  

I enjoyed this quite a lot and am looking forward to reading more from the author. He has a very cozy style and you feel that you’re learning things with almost no effort (I approve!). A fun quick read that will probably make you look at your morning coffee, as well as poppies and cacti, in a slightly different way. Recommended for an off-the-wall read.

Just Couldn’t Finished Reading: This is Your Brain on Music – Understanding a Human Obsession by Daniel Levitin (FP: 2006) [267pp] 

This was quite the disappointment. I’m not 100% sure just how long this had been languishing in one of my book piles but I was looking forward to finally reading it. Things did not start well as the author spent multiple pages defining various musical terms – melody, tempo, pitch etc. - to the point where I was lost or unsure about what anything meant. I think it would have been much better to sprinkle the explanations throughout the text, even if he had to repeat himself from time to time. What was sprinkled through the first part of the book was some interesting observations and speculations but, I found, too few and too widely spaced. 

Once we moved out of musical definitions and explanations things did improve but then, I think, we hit another issue – the age of the book. At 18 years old, despite the advances made in the understanding of the human brain in the preceding years, it was really showing its age. Although the author didn’t say so specifically it did seem that the fMRI scanner used in some of the work cited was still fairly new technology. On top of that many of the ideas used were at least somewhat speculative. I couldn’t help but wonder what, in the following 18 years of investigation, had been proven to be correct – or wrong. 

Listening to music has always been a big part of my life for as long as I can remember. First on the radio (and TV) and later on records, cassettes and ultimately CDs. One of the things that has long intrigued me is why I like certain music but not others. I’m sure part of that it just what I grew up hearing, which is understandable. I also imagine that at least some of the reason why I like certain types of music is an accident of how my brain is wired. The author certainly hints at this ‘answer’ to my question but what I would love to know is why my brain LOVED a piece of classical music the moment it heard it for the first time. What’s all THAT about? Is it the melody, the tempo, the pitch? It's a good question. Maybe a more modern book might be able to answer it? I did give it a good ‘go’ – 147pages if memory serves – but it just wasn’t for me.  

[Oh, and only my 2nd review of the year and already my 1st DNF. I do hope that’s not a sign for what’s coming this year....!]   

Just Finished Reading: Am I Normal? - The 200-Year Search for Normal People (And Why They Don’t Exist) by Sarah Chaney (FP: 2022) [268pp] 

If you’re anything like me, you have no doubt at some point in your life wondered if you’re ‘normal’. That question was certainly hovering in the back of my mind for a good chunky of my teenage years. But at some point, I, no doubt like many others, had to make a decision: Do I spend an increasing amount of mental energy trying to fit in with those around me (coupled with the resultant stress of wondering if my efforts would be good enough) or do I just say ‘Fuck It’ and decide to me more of myself – although never my WHOLE self – in public and let the chips fall where they may. You guessed correctly if you thought I went to route of increased authenticity...  

Apparently, hard as it is to believe, people in previous ages never questioned their normality nor thought of themselves as normal (or not). They certainly compared themselves to others around them but never held themselves up to a general standard of normality and tried to figure their degree of deviation from the norm. That is something quite new, quite recent, and only really goes back a few hundred years – at best. It also shouldn’t really exist. The well-known Bell curve or Normal Distribution was devised by astronomers to help plot the paths of celestial bodies. They were SO effective at this that statisticians in the 19th century began using them to plot other things, and quite effectively too (although they needed some ‘massaging’ from time to time to ‘fit’). It wasn’t long before human attributes were being charted and the growing insurance industry started using such curves to predict their liabilities and increase their profit margins. It wasn’t long after that that ‘normal’ or ‘average’ became optimal, preferred, something to be aimed at and attained. Normal was superior, anything else was inferior, wrong, abnormal. Less than average weight? Something is wrong. More than average weight? Some is, again, wrong. If you’ve ever been weighed in a doctor's office you’ll probably have been compared to a chart and told that your BMI (Body Mass Index) is too low or, more likely, too high. What they don’t tell you is that the BMI chart is largely based on data from middle-class, white, American males – and probably from some decades ago. BMI figures had to be modified to fit women, don’t apply to athletes and has great trouble applying to other racial groups. It's also far from alone in its divergence between normal/average and the real world. Simply put, the average human does not exist. The more attributes you measure, the smaller the likelihood that any one person will meet them. Sure, there are people of average height, but of average height, weight, skin tone, eye colour, age, education and.... Very quickly you eliminate everyone from the count. 

I’ve read a little bit about this before in ‘The End of Average – How to Succeed in a World that Values Sameness’ by Todd Rose where the author destroys the very idea of average anything. The problem with using the average or idea of the normal as a valuable target to be attained is its toxicity. If the Normal is the highest Good and very few people fit into that category then ‘normal’ becomes just a stick to beat people with and, of course, a BIG stick to beat yourself with. Are you ‘normal’ - whatever THAT means? Do you have a ‘normal’ body? Normal feelings? A normal mind? Is your sex life normal? Are your kids normal and, if not, is that your fault? No doubt you can feel the anxiety building already. In just one small example you can see what I mean – children's weight. One of the first things done to a new-born is being weighed. So, is the baby a ‘normal’ birthweight? Then is the baby gaining weight in line with normal expectations? Too slowly? Too much? I know that my mother was quite anxious to keep hitting that golden ‘normal’ growth line for my sister and, no doubt earlier for my brother and me. Obviously, no one ever questioned where exactly the chart came from and how the data was derived in the first place. But it's important to understand what is meant by this kind of normal especially when it hardly has anything much to do with messy reality. 

I enjoyed this a great deal. Much like the previous book by Todd Rose it made me question the very idea, the very concept, of normality. I’ve never really regarded myself as ‘normal’ in any particular sense. It was nice to see that the very idea of normality is a castle built in mid-air without any real foundation to speak of – most especially when ‘abnormal’ is SUCH a pejorative term. Definitely recommended for anyone who has ever struggled to be, or appear to be, normal... 

Happy Birthday: Carl Edward Sagan (November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is his research on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by exposure to light. He assembled the first physical messages sent into space, the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, which were universal messages that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them. He argued in favor of the hypothesis, which has since been accepted, that the high surface temperatures of Venus are the result of the greenhouse effect.

Initially an assistant professor at Harvard, Sagan later moved to Cornell University, where he spent most of his career. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books. He wrote many popular science books, such as The Dragons of Eden, Broca's Brain, Pale Blue Dot and The Demon-Haunted World. He also co-wrote and narrated the award-winning 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, which became the most widely watched series in the history of American public television: Cosmos has been seen by at least 500 million people in 60 countries. A book, also called Cosmos, was published to accompany the series. Sagan also wrote a science-fiction novel, published in 1985, called Contact, which became the basis for the 1997 film Contact. His papers, comprising 595,000 items, are archived in the Library of Congress.

Sagan was a popular public advocate of skeptical scientific inquiry and the scientific method; he pioneered the field of exobiology and promoted the search for extraterrestrial intelligent life (SETI). He spent most of his career as a professor of astronomy at Cornell University, where he directed the Laboratory for Planetary Studies. Sagan and his works received numerous awards and honors, including the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal, the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction (for his book The Dragons of Eden), and (for Cosmos: A Personal Voyage) two Emmy Awards, the Peabody Award, and the Hugo Award. He married three times and had five children. After developing myelodysplasia, Sagan died of pneumonia at the age of 62 on December 20, 1996.

[Cosmos, the TV series, had a HUGE impact on me - and millions of others - and really turned me on to all things cosmic, well that and reading copious amounts of SF. Sagan was an important part of me growing up...]

Just Finished Reading: Stopping the Next Pandemic – How Covid-19 Can Help Us Save Humanity by Debora MacKenzie (FP: 2020/2021) [331pp] 

It’s difficult to argue against the idea that the global pandemic caused by Covid-19 caught the world unprepared – the question is: Should it have caught us by surprise? From what I’ve read so far, including this often-excellent book, the answer is a resounding No. 

Whilst it's true that the last global pandemic to have the impact that Covid did was a century ago – The so-called ‘Spanish Flu’ (putting, of course, the on-going AIDS issue to one side) - it can’t be claimed that our collective memory simply failed us. In recent memory we’ve had SARS, MERS, Ebola, Zika and other more exotic viruses that have either become pandemic or very nearly so. So, why the apparent complacency? What’s worse of course is that we know, for certain, that the world will experience a deadly pandemic every year – it’s called The Flu. Although there are vaccines available at least in the prosperous countries [I had mine on Tuesday at a reasonably nearby pharmacy for £20 - from next year (when I hit 65) it’ll be free and at my local doctor's surgery which is a 5-minute walk away] So, again, why did Covid catch SO many countries by surprise? 

Part of that reason lies with China who, as we now know, covered up the original cases, downplayed the severity of the virus and delayed both the news that it was transmissible between people and the details of its genome. These delays, of at least a month if not longer, seriously hampered the global response. But it goes much further than that. It’s now been all but confirmed that what we call Covid-19 originated in bats. These bats, local to Wuhan, were known about and the epidemiological community knew about the chance that transmission to humans was more than possible. Indeed, locals to the bat cave were discovered to have antigens to Covid BEFORE it even became an epidemic in China and probably a year or more before it became a pandemic. So why was nothing done at that point? 

Naturally a big part of the problem – as with anything – is with the time, resources and money required to address known (and unknown!) problems. The bat researchers were operating on a shoestring and didn’t have the money to do much more than swab the bats and note the fact of the viruses (LOTS of them apparently bats being VERY interesting creatures in that regard – more later!) were there and needed someone to look into it. On top of this oversight was the fact that global surveillance of possible viral outbreaks had been drastically cutback just about everywhere. Non-profits and NGOs were left to take up some of the slack from the grossly underfunded WHO. In too many cases we didn’t see it coming for the simple reason that no one was looking. 

Being a global issue you would assume (as I naively did) that there would be global agencies (and not just the WHO) who monitor such things. There is instead a patchwork of agencies – government or otherwise – interested individuals and whistle-blowers who inform the rest of the world what’s happening on their small patch of global real-estate. Clearly that’s not good enough but the hope for an organisation with a truly global reach is probably dead-on-arrival especially with the recent election of Donald Trump. This means, as you are right to expect, more nasty surprises in our collective future. 

If one thing is certain it’s that Covid-19 was far from the last global pandemic we’re going to witness. With out constant ‘exploitation’ of previously untouched natural resources, climate change impacts and ever speedier global transportation the next pandemic is a matter of when rather than if – and they’re getting more frequent. The next one could be a mild one – barely worse than the seasonal flu. Or it could be another 1918 version, or it could be the Black Death. Covid had a fatality rate of around 1-2% globally (although this seemingly innocuous figure hides a LOT of variation and was still 10-20 times as lethal as flu) and we know the disruption and death toll it caused. Now imagine a new virus with a 10-20% fatality rate. How would a just-in-time global economy cope with a seriously compromised transport system and worse? Thinking about it too deeply is frightening – to say the least. Are we prepared for the next one? We’re better prepared, that’s true but are we prepared enough? Only time will tell. 

This is the last of a set of 4 Covid/pandemic related reads starting with a general introduction, the Spanish flu, Covid in the US and now both looking back and forward. It’s been a fascinating reading process and this book was definitely one of the highlights of the bunch. I learnt a LOT from this author (who is honestly a great communicator) not least about the *weirdness* of bat physiology and metabolism. I’m definitely going to be reading more about those creatures as well as staying the HELL away from them whenever possible! If you have a mind anything like me (if so, I do feel sorry for you) you will lap this up and be thrilled, fascinated and appalled. Highly recommended and another highlight of the year. 

Just Finished Reading: The Plague Year – America in the Time of Covid by Lawrence Wright (FP: 2021) [336pp] 

It was going to ‘go away’ like ‘a miracle’, but it didn’t. Indeed, per capita the US was in to top 3 worse hit countries in the world by Covid-19 – despite (arguably) being the most advanced and with some of the best medical minds on the planet. So, what went wrong? A lot actually. 

As seems to be the usual case, authoritarian China first covered up the outbreak, played down the consequences, denied that it could be transmitted between people, delayed the publication of the gene sequence and refused any help from the WHO or CDC. Only weeks after up to 5 million people had already left the province did the Chinese authorities finally act. When they did, they were highly effective but multiple cats were already out of the bag and travelling across the world on international flights. 

Despite clear warnings, the US was slow to react. When travel from China was finally restricted it was already too late. The virus was already in the US (and indeed the rest of the world) and spreading – largely undetected. Mistakes were made. The CDC ‘tests’ were giving questionable results and that took weeks to resolve. Even when they were working as advertised there were far too few of them to do much good in the general population. The results came back in days – or sometimes weeks – making the whole process essentially pointless. Better, quicker, tests were needed. Some of these were available in Europe but only US manufactured tests were authorised. The emergency stockpiles of PPE and other medical equipment – including ventilators – had been run-down due to chronic underfunding over years. When investigated the cupboard was almost bare and what was there was either out of date or snapped up immediately. Rather than acting as a centralised authority – as it was supposed to – the Federal government essentially told the States that they were on their own and would need to source their own equipment. When they did so it was sometimes simply snagged by Washington and disappeared. Future purchases happened in secret.  

But you know the story... We all lived through it or at least the ones who lived did. America was certainly not alone in showing the world a master class of how NOT to handle a pandemic but it certainly gave it a very good run for its money. The Covid plague hit the US much harder than it should have done and kept hitting it much longer than it should have done. A few notable countries, the ones that actually had their shit together (I’m definitely NOT counting the UK here) like South Korea and New Zealand acted swiftly and decisively – without the need for dictatorial powers – and contained it, thereby suffering few deaths and little economic disruption. The US death toll was staggering, unnecessary and far from evenly distributed. A very good indicator of your chances of survival were not just age – but race and poverty. Essential workers especially, and health care workers in particular, died significantly more often than many others. 

Told with passion, and quite a bit of anger, this is the tale of an unprepared country (that should have been far more prepared than it was) coping very badly with a disease its own scientists had been warning about for over a decade – at least. Not all of the fault lay at the door of the Trump administration in the Whitehouse – there was certainly enough blame to go around elsewhere – but Washington did precious little to help where it could and did much to hinder the responses of others more competent than themselves. Although there was probably little new here that we either didn’t know from news reports and later investigations this was still an interesting read which covered a lot of the bases. Definitely a recommended read if you want a big-picture as well as street level look at a year (or two) few of us will forget. One more pandemic book to come – for a while.  

Just Finished Reading: Pale Rider – The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World by Laura Spinney (FP: 2017) [295pp] 

At first, they thought it was just the Flu, something ordinary, something familiar no matter how annoying. Anyway, there was a war on so a few sniffles, a few sick men was neither here nor there. There was no way in hell that they could quarantine a port or stop the troop ships sailing to France. The fate of the West was at stake. Even when the sick began to overwhelm the medics and soldiers, young, fit, men began to die in ever greater numbers the trains still picked up the apparently heathy from the training camps and crammed them into transports. As the outbreak spread across war-torn Europe it hit the Germans HARD. After 4 years of war and the effects of the British naval blockade both the soldiers and civilians were using up their last reserves of just about everything.  

When the war finally ended and soldiers began returning home – including millions of prisoners of war long held in unhealthy camps – the ‘Spanish’ flu (so-called because of its early reports in uncensored Spanish newspapers) spread across the world. The mortality rate varied widely but was generally agreed upon as roughly 2% overall. This doesn’t seem very much, but 2% was around 50-100 million dead across the globe. The rather large range estimate reflects the lack of records, the fact that the number of dead in Russia (which was going through the start of its Civil War at the time) might never be known, the number of Indian dead (likewise) may never be known because of lax record keeping in that British ‘protectorate’ and China was in a state of political and civil upheaval and this, probably, is where the majority of the deaths occurred. The flu killed more than the Great War and possibly killed more than the Second World War that followed it. At the top of the estimate figures it is even conceivable that the Spanish flu killed more people than BOTH World Wars combined. The death toll was far from being evenly distributed. Whilst New York suffered 0.5% deaths Rio suffered three times as many at 1.6%. Zamora in Spain doubled that at 3% whilst Gujarat in India doubled that again at 6%. Worst was to come in isolated communities such as Bristol Bay in Alaska that suffered 40% mortality. 

Interestingly, the Spanish flu had numerous similarities to the recent Covid-19 pandemic. Governments played down its impact (in this case so as not to ‘undermine the war effort’), argued about the cause and exactly where it came from. This was especially problematic at the time because viruses were essentially theoretical in 1918. Some cities in the US or countries elsewhere instituted basic public health measures like social distancing, masks, the closing of schools and stopping of public gatherings. Other places did not, or only did so half-heartedly. Once the war was over several US cities allowed parades and paid the price in the increased backlog at mortuaries. I did find it especially interesting that there were many reports of long-term impacts of the disease even after people had recovered. Examples of heart damage, fatigue and psychological problems possibly cause by brain damage exploded in the medical records of the time. Loss of smell, temporary loss of colour vision and much else was experienced. So-called ‘Long Covid’ no longer seems in the least as ‘exaggerated’ as some have suggested. 

No longer ‘forgotten’ after our recent experience of global pandemic, the Spanish flu had a significant global impact that is all too often overlooked in the shadow of the Great War. It must have been quite terrifying at the time (again compared to Covid) and I think we can learn quite a bit from the virus itself and how the world coped (and didn’t) with the disease. This was definitely one of the Science/History highlights of the year for me. Not only is it very well written but the author explores far more that the outbreak itself looking at its short-term and long-term impacts of humanity and human history. Fascinating and highly recommended – if you can handle the flashbacks to 2020!   

Just Finished Reading: The Pandemic Century – A History of Global Contagion from the Spanish Flu to Covid-19 by Mark Honigsbaum (FP: 2019/2020) [293pp] 

Bad as it was, the recent Covid-19 pandemic wasn’t our first rodeo, not by a long way. Indeed Covid-19 arrived almost on time to recreate the (almost forgotten at the time) 1918 Spanish Flu which, depending on which guesstimate you go with was responsible for more deaths than the World War it followed, more than WW2 or even (at the top of the estimates) more than both combined – making it the deadliest disease outbreak in human history. With that as a basis this fascinating work moves onto the Los Angeles plague (yup, THE plague) in the 1920’s, Parrot fever in the 1930’s, Legionnaires Disease in the 1970’s, HIV/AIDS in the 1980’s, SARS in the 1990’s, Ebola in the 2010’s as well as Zika in that same decade. Only the final chapter, briefly, looks at Covid-19 as no doubt the hardback was published just as the pandemic hit and the paperback version (which I read) had to be updated with the latest information to play catch-up. 

One of the things I found most interesting, apart from putting Covid in historical context, was to see from 1918 to the present, many of the social and political effects and attitudes repeat themselves including misinformation, disinformation, ignorance, resistance, quackery, exploitation, political point scoring, as well as governments and the medical establishment struggling to keep up with events and, all too often, fighting amongst themselves whilst in the spotlight (and being widely reported in the press for doing so). Nothing, it seems, is new under the sun. 

The Spanish Flu (so-called because Spain didn’t have newspaper censorship at the time unlike the rest of the West including the US so as not to give information to the Central Powers that they could use against them) was particularly interesting, especially because they had NO idea what they were fighting. The very existence of viruses was only confirmed only a decade or more later so medical experts argued over even the reality of the disease itself. The different responses to the disease, indeed ALL of the pandemics discussed here, was very instructive. Some countries did little or nothing to stop the spread – in some cases simply because they COULD do nothing. Other countries responded with draconian measures – often misplaced or directed at despised minorities – with limited effect. Some places, very few it turned out, missed the pandemic completely by a strict policy of isolation/quarantine. 

Overall, this was an interesting and informative read. While mostly looking at things from a heavily American perspective it did manage to delve into African, South American and Chinese experiences too. The historical lens was, I thought, its most useful aspect though I did appreciate the details especially surrounding the initial reported Legionnaires Disease outbreak and the epidemiological detective work that took place searching for its origin. Definitely recommended to anyone interested in global health issues or those who want to put Covid-19 into context. More Pandemics to come – and books about them as well...    

Happy Birthday: Neil deGrasse Tyson (born October 5, 1958) is an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator. Tyson studied at Harvard University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Columbia University. From 1991 to 1994, he was a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University. In 1994, he joined the Hayden Planetarium as a staff scientist and the Princeton faculty as a visiting research scientist and lecturer. In 1996, he became director of the planetarium and oversaw its $210 million reconstruction project, which was completed in 2000. Since 1996, he has been the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City. The center is part of the American Museum of Natural History, where Tyson founded the Department of Astrophysics in 1997 and has been a research associate in the department since 2003.

From 1995 to 2005, Tyson wrote monthly essays in the "Universe" column for Natural History magazine, some of which were later published in his books Death by Black Hole (2007) and Astrophysics for People in a Hurry (2017). During the same period, he wrote a monthly column in StarDate magazine, answering questions about the universe under the pen name "Merlin". Material from the column appeared in his books Merlin's Tour of the Universe (1998) and Just Visiting This Planet (1998). Tyson served on a 2001 government commission on the future of the U.S. aerospace industry and on the 2004 Moon, Mars and Beyond commission. He was awarded the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal in the same year. From 2006 to 2011, he hosted the television show NOVA ScienceNow on PBS. Since 2009, Tyson has hosted the weekly podcast StarTalk. A spin-off, also called StarTalk, began airing on National Geographic in 2015. In 2014, he hosted the television series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, a successor to Carl Sagan's 1980 series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences awarded Tyson the Public Welfare Medal in 2015 for his "extraordinary role in exciting the public about the wonders of science".