Cary Neeper's Blog: Reviewing World-changing Nonfiction, page 6

Reviewing THE VITAL QUESTION by Nick Lane, New York, W. W. Norton, 2015

In this book author Nick Lane, biochemist at University College, London, defines in exacting logic where life may have begun on Earth, why archaea and bacteria got stuck "... at the bacterial level of complexity for more than two billion years," and why the jump to complex eukaryotic life, to critters like us, was made possible by difficult, perhaps unique, endosymbiosis events—the engulfing of one microbe by another.

All this is of interest in our search for exolife. If we understood how life began on Earth, we would know better how to look for life elsewhere. The author goes into great detail describing the alkaline hydrothermal vents on Earth's ocean floor. They most likely provided the ideal environment for harnessing the proton exchange required to get simple life started here. We would do well to learn more about those vents before we study possible life-starting environments on Europa, Titan, and Enceladus.

He points out that RNA is far too complex a molecule to start with. He stresses the need to consider the energy requirements of cellular and genomic activity. He describes in detail the alkaline hydrothermal vents and how they could provide the gentle environment to get simple prokaryotic life (the archaea and bacteria) started.

As a result of endosymbiosis between simple organisms on a 2-billion-year-old Earth, cells that became complex eukaryotes plus endosymbionts: mitochondria or (later) chloroplasts (to make plants). Lane says, "...the singular origin of complex life might have depended on their acquisition..." because this endosymbiosis provided energy efficiency.

The author does a masterful job of introducing and exploring critical questions. Why did the bacteria never evolve into more complex critters? Perhaps they stayed stuck due to a "constrained structure" that limited their ability to capture energy.

The uniqueness of complex life in the universe was suggested in Ward and Brownlee's RARE EARTH. They give us many geologic and astronomic reasons why Earth lucked out in the effort to produce complex life. Now we have Lane's bioenergetic arguments to add to our luck.

Reviewing Men On Strike and The Lessons of History

Men On Strike: Why Men Are Boycotting Marriage, Fatherhood, and the American Dream—and Why It Matters by Helen Smith, New York, Encounter Books, 2013. The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant, New York, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 1968, 1996)Will Durant 1968

Page 73 tells Smith’s tale and suggests more clues to the 2016 election. On page 73 she reproduced a graph of Median Earnings of men 25 to 64. Whether they were working full time or not, their wages rose from 1965 to 1975, then dropped dramatically and were still dropping in 2010. (U.S. Census data and the Bookings Institute Hamilton Project).

This and other observations suggest why our productivity has risen but all its profits have gone to the wealthy. The solutions to the frustrations and rage this engenders become obvious as you read Will and Ariel Durant’s observations in their book The Lessons of History (New York, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 1968, 1996). Note those dates.

Here’s a quote from page 92: “Taxes may be moved to the point of discouraging capital investment and production stimulus…[However,] The concentration of wealth may disrupt the nation in class or race war.”

The answer is clear—a reasoned balance between what is called “progressive” or “conservative.” We can’t let those labels keep us from finding workable compromises. Integrity, not identity, should be a personal goal so that minds and hearts can find a way to a secure future.

The Durants end their little book with this: “If our economy of freedom fails to distribute wealth as ably as it has credited it, the road to dictatorship will be open to any man who can persuasively promise security to all; and a martial government will engulf the democratic world.

Reviewing The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court

The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin, New York, Anchor Books, 2007,8.
A legal analyst on CNN, a master storyteller, and a historian is Jeffrey Toobian, staff writer for The New Yorker. He begins by taking us up the magnificent staircase of the new (in 1928) Supreme Court Building, “…a physical manifestation of the American March to justice,” he says.

Our hopes and fears for justice rise and fall as he reviews the personalities, the convictions, and the lives of the justices, the decisions they make, and the opinions they wrote.

Soon we begin to know the justices as brilliant legal experts dealing with personal challenges as well as the major intellectual puzzles that the court demands. How do we interpret the Constitution—as an aging guide for a changing world or as sacred words to be taken literally as expressed in their time?

With a mystery-writer’s skill, Toobin reviews the justices’ thinking, even some changes in their opinions. Who will act as the swing vote now that O’ Conner has retired? Will anyone look to Europe or to worldviews, or is that still off limits? How will a new member change the orientation of the entire court, which was swinging to the right in 2008 when this book was published?

His story has continued into the Obama years with The Oath: The Obama White House and the Court “The Roberts Court has put itself squarely at the center.” Stay tuned. Toobin is worth reading as our current drama unfolds.

Don't miss this one: Astrobiology—a Very Short Introduction

Astrobiology—a Very Short Introduction by David C. Catling, Oxford University Press, 2013
I hesitate to review this extraordinary book because it is so good. Somehow, David Catling, Professor in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences and the Astrobiology Program at the University of Washington, Seattle, has written a beautifully written, clear summary of all the basic biology and astronomy you need to now to understand current findings in astrobiology—“…a branch of science concerned with the study of the origin and evolution of life on Earth and the possible variety of life elsewhere.” (his definition.)

After a short review of other definitions and the earliest history (Thales C.600 B.C.) questioning whether “…we’re alone in the universe,” Catling discusses attempts to define life, then leads us gently into what we know about planets, stars, biochemistry, genetics and energy required for life. In the end he brings us up to date on exoplanets and possibilities for life beyond Earth.

Here’s the spoiler: Europa is his choice as “…the best prospect for life” in our solar system. Why? Read this wonderful book to review or get acquainted with the science involved in the search for the nature of our existence. He has convinced us that “Astrobiology is here to stay.”

For readers of my blog “Who’s Out there on astronaut.com: In coming blogs, I will be updating and reviewing the various topics he covers.

Reviewing Chaser: Unlocking the Genius of the Dog Who Knows a Thousand Words by John W. Pilley

Chaser: Unlocking the Genius of the Dog Who Knows a Thousand Words by John W. Pilley with Hilary Hinzmann, New York, Houghton Mifflin, 2014.

Retired psychology professor John Pilley treats us to a personal story that includes a detailed accounting of how he used play and enthusiastic praise to train a border collie pup to pick out toys by name, to recognize when an addition was made by its new name, and to act on short requests like "To Pop-Pop (Pilley), take Big Ball."

We learn how to train a puppy, how to stretch the abilities of a talented youngster, and to keep engaged an older dog eager to learn something new and able to invent her own games. The book is a delight to read, while we are engaged in enough detail to carry away with us lessons learned—not only about training details, but about sensing a dog's mental state.

We also have an insiders view of problems faced and solved in getting published by scientific journals, then on handling fame and high demand when the news of Chaser's large vocabulary goes viral. The list of 1000+ names remembered is added to the back of the book. The word Genius is well-deserved by both dog and trainer, for Pilley's dedication to detail and timing and repetition and careful wording is certainly responsible for Chaser's enthusiasm and accurate performance.

Pilley joins the many current authors like de Waals who have recognized that we humans are not alone in our appreciation of animal sentience. How difficult it has been to overcome the statement of Rene Descartes, 17th century mathematician and philosopher: "...nonhuman animals cannot reason or feel but are...machines made out of meat." We have good evidence to the contrary, and our behavior is beginning to change, thanks to the dedication of ethologists like John Pilley.

Review of "Coal Wars" by Richard Martin

Coal Wars: the Future of Energy and the Fate of the Planet by Richard Martin, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.

With good story telling, Martin paints a picture of coal's history—its hearth-warming blessings of cheap energy, its future-bashing dangers, and its slow demise, leaving too many lives disrupted. Meanwhile, our future is seriously compromised by an overdose of coal's signature, carbon dioxide.

Martin shares his personal experiences while visiting the coal country in Appalachia, Wyoming, Colorado, Ohio, and four areas in China. The picture he paints helps us understand the importance coal has played in human energy-dependent history, how it has created mining cultures whose roots go deep in China, Europe and the United States, and now why its demise is raising difficult questions.

The author doesn't preach answers at us. He makes a strong case, however, for recognizing that "market forces are going to kill off coal..." (Other sources have reported that there are more jobs now in solar than in coal, which is being out-sold by cheap gas.)

Three principles, he says, could lead to a "set of solutions." 1) Coal burning must shut down before carbon dioxide does us in: "A sustainable energy strategy requires making choices." 2) "We can't abandon the workers." They need a "GI bill" to provide support while acquiring education and training for new jobs. It would cost only 1 dollar per ton of coal. 3) "the Solution must be global," and the "...only mechanism...a price on carbon... [i.e.] stiff penalties for greenhouse gas emissions."

It's a dilemma not easily faced, for coal gave us the energy to build our technological cultures, and there is still a lot of it available. Like our dependence of gasoline and cars, it's hard to imagine how we could get along without it. But, unlike transportation, the alternatives are not only obvious but urgent, if we are to rescue the future.

Reviewing The Moral Arc by Michael Shermer

New York, Henry Holt, 2015

The author, founder of Skeptic Magazine, makes a good case for the rise of human morality over human history. The reason? Increased understanding due to the finding of science, information confirmed by being open to testing. Presenting precise definitions and detailed analysis, Shermer reviews ancient religions and morality, explores cognitive dissonance and the principle of interchangeable perspectives, animal rights, free ill, the death penalty , and prospects for future city-states and new technologies.

After all this convincing precision and analysis, Shermer claims that in the past 1000 years we were living in a zero-sum economics. Now its a nonzero world, when technology means "the gain of one often means the gain for others and ...an abundance of food and resources."

Seems to me he's got it backwards, given the current knowledge of resource limits, water shortages, global warming, and population overload. Shermer also gets carried away painting the future--forgetting the time, space, and energy required when he makes the outdated scifi case for the human colonization way beyond Earth throughout the galaxy and beyond. I hope this section doesn't turn readers away from his uplifting conclusions.

He makes a powerful case for his moral arc, convincing the reader with many examples and lots of data, how our ethics are truly realized at a higher level than ever before in history, because we depend now on good, tested information, not superstition and ancient thought patterns.

An Overview of The Archives of Varok Series

The Archives of Varok series will be expanding soon, and the fourth book, Shawne: An Alien's Quest will make them even more difficult to shelve. I can't in good faith call them Science Fiction, because the aliens placed in our solar system (as much as I love these dear old friends) are tools to help me explore some realistic human problems. Even the space travel is slow and agonizing.
Here are some early phrases that encapsulate the themes:
THE VIEW BEYOND EARTH--Self-actualization and personal growth
THE WEBS OF VAROK--
A picture of a steady state economy, its requirements and vulnerabilities.
THE ALIEN EFFECT--
Current human denial and challenges.
AN ALIEN'S QUEST--
Personal integrity and the meaning of existence.
THE UNHEARD SONG--
Dealing with communication problems and overpopulation stress (A history of the ellls encountering varoks for the first time.)

And here are the updated log lines and summary:
THE ARCHIVES OF VAROK
A series of five books set in a realistic mid-to-late 21st century,
in which Earth discovers sympathetic but challenging neighbors
who reflect a critical overview of human civilization.

What Is It All About? Book club and discussion topics:

Book 1- THE VIEW BEYOND EARTH—How would dispassionate Others view us?

Book 2-THE WEBS OF VAROK—What must we do to insure a satisfactory future?

Book 3-THE ALIEN EFFECT—Are we headed for extinction or can we evolve into something better?

Book 4-AN ALIEN'S QUEST—How can we find Meaning, when our lives are driven by unpredictable complexity?

Book 5-THE UNHEARD SONG (coming in 2017)—Inescapable certainties: to secure the future all populations must communicate and hold to steady numbers.

So is this Sociology? Psychology? Women's fiction? Literary fiction? (I don't think so.) YA or Adult? Action? Philosophy? Religion? What?

Five Favorite Nonfiction Books

Facing up to cognitive dissonance is not easy.


A clearly written story of the agony biologists went through to discover DNA and figure out how it works. Fascinating.


A nice complement to the search for meaning in my new book AN ALIENS QUEST



We really are more moral than ever--due to the gift of knowledge learned recently--which is awesome!


Here's one of those awesome things we've learned lately--that animals are conscious, even sentient, beings

Reviewing THE END OF NORMAL by James K. Galbraith

The End of Normal: The Great Crisis and the Future of Growth by James K. Galbraith, New York, Simon and Schuster, 2014.
This book came out at the same time steadystate.org was making a strong case that "Enough Is Enough." A book with that title by Rob Dietz and Dan O'Neill was published at the same time we released our fictional portrayal of how no-growth economics might work—the award-winner The Webs of Varok (http://archivesofvarok.com).

My shelves are full of excellent non-fiction written in the last four decades by experts in many fields that agree that we must learn to pull back, stabilize populations, and conserve resources—that economic growth is not sustainable in the long run.

Nowadays, no one dare talk about population limits, but it cannot be reasonably separated from our concern that resources are limited. We are already seeing water shortages. Surely we can now agree that classical economics is faulty in neglecting to apply resource availability and scarcity in their equations. Galbraith makes the detailed case, sharing how the equations lead to false conclusions.

He reviews the Soviet Union's demise and how it sends a shadow of parallel concerns with America's loss of post-World War II's booming economy. Things have changed, and we cannot expect to see business as usual. In the end, Galbraith preaches "slow growth," assuming that some economic growth is necessary because human greed and power drives must be assumed.

Given that assumption, I don't see much hope. I believe he is wrong. We are smarter than that. We know that nothing real grows forever. Given the chance for a decent existence, the human being is a remarkable creature, capable of selfless reasoning and brilliant creativity. Capable, even of saying, "Enough is enough."

We can understand how a population of germs can grown and prosper in a closed test tube filled with liquid nutrients. We seed the test tube with a few multiplying bacteria. We watch the population grow until the resources—the nutrient broth—is used up. We can understand why the population growth of the bacteria then slows, then drops to zero as the death rate increases. For a while a few mutants survive on the wastes, then they wink out.

Earth is our test tube, but we are know now that our resources are finite. Therefore, with willful restraint, we can keep them available over millennia by recycling and keeping count, by being watchful, resourceful and efficient in maintaining a comfortable status quo.

Already our population overload may seem overwhelming. It's true that technology will help, but only if it adds to our efficiency. It can't save us if we squander what Earth supplies. Growth—even slow growth—is not a long-term solution.

Neither is escaping to some other planet, for all but very few of us. Again, realism raises hard-to-grasp concepts. The time, energy and distances required to travel through the galaxy--even if we invent speed-of-light buses—are huge. We must take care of planet Earth, and tame our baser instincts to reproduce beyond reason.