Life as We Made It: How 50,000 Years of Human Innovation Refined―and Redefined―Nature

by Beth Shapiro

From the first dog to the first beefalo, from farming to CRISPR, the human history of remaking nature
 
When the 2020 Nobel Prize was awarded to the inventors of CRISPR, the revolutionary gene-editing tool, it underlined our amazing and apparently novel powers to alter nature. But as biologist Beth Shapiro argues in Life as We Made It, this phenomenon isn’t new. Humans have been reshaping the world around us for ages, from early dogs to modern bacteria modified to pump out insulin. Indeed, she claims, reshaping nature—resetting the course of evolution, ours and others’—is the essence of what our species does.
 
In exploring our evolutionary and cultural history, Shapiro finds a course for the future. If we have always been changing nature to help us survive and thrive, then we need to avoid naive arguments about how we might destroy it with our meddling, and instead ask how we can meddle better.
 
Brilliant and insightful, Life as We Made It is an essential book for the decades to come.
 

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, History, Anthropology, Biology, Audiobook, Environment

352 pages, Hardcover

First published October 19, 2021

About the author

Beth Shapiro is associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, and she received a MacArthur Award in 2009.

Reviews

[Howard · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 Stars for Life as We Know It: How 50,000 Years of Human Innovation Refined-and Redefined-Nature (audiobook) by Beth Shapiro.

This started out interesting and informative but ultimately it felt like it was a sales pitch for GMO’s.

[Cav · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life as We Made It was a super-interesting look into the topic. The author did a great job in bringing this big-picture story to the reader here.

Author Beth Alison Shapiro is an American evolutionary molecular biologist. She is a Professor in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Shapiro's work has centered on the analysis of ancient DNA.

Beth Shapiro:


A welcome change for a science book; Shapiro writes with an easy and engaging style, making the book very readable. She opens with a decent intro, and then begins the writing in the book proper by talking about the excitement surrounding "ancient DNA" and the Bison.

The formatting of the book was also well done. It is broken into broad chapters, and the writing in each chapter; into segmented blurbs with a header at the top. I always appreciate effective formatting like this. The audiobook version I have was also read by the author; another nice touch. Off to a good start so far!

Written in a manner that will be accessible to even the scientifically illiterate layperson, Shapiro can be commended, again, for the writing here. Many of the other science books I've read tend to be overly dry, technical, arduous treks. Science books written by scientists, for other scientists. This is thankfully not the case here. More points awarded, as I feel that science should be written in a manner that will be accessible to the layperson. If the goal is to make the average person more interested in science, then making your book overly technical and complex will not work towards that end...

The book moves in a somewhat chronological fashion, and its scope is quite broad. Shapiro covers these myriad topics in a competent, effective fashion here as she goes.

Shapiro also deserves credit for the straightforward, factual manner in which she talks about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) here. The subject of much misguided public outrage, Shapiro correctly notes that the world's population will soon reach 9-10 billion people, and conventional agriculture will not be able to feed that number of people alone.
She also tells the reader about some of the advantages GM foods can offer to the consumer: better taste, and a more consistent, aesthetically pleasing, nutritious product, that is often better for the environment than its conventional counterparts. She mentions Golden Rice, which was engineered to produce vitamin A. Much of the world suffers from vitamin A deficiency, which can lead to childhood blindness.
She also mentions an edited apple and mushroom, that had its "browning" gene modified.

Much (or even most) of the fear surrounding GMOs are from those who are largely scientifically illiterate. GMOs represent a strange new technology that they don't understand, and people fear what they don't understand. Historically, people were similarly outraged/scared when travel by train and automobile was introduced, as well as when electricity was first implemented.
You can find many (now) hilariously hyperbolic advertisements and write-ups, detailing the "dangers" of these new, unnatural technologies. I have included a cartoon below.
It is my personal opinion that much of the opposition to these foods also comes from triggering people's disgust mechanisms.
Books like this, and other straightforward science communication can help people overcome their irrational fear of GMOs.

An anti-electricity cartoon from the 1900s:


Some of what is covered here includes:
• Early hominids; Australopithecus, Denisovans, Neanderthals.
• The extinction of animals; the Dodo and a few others are mentioned.
• The domestication of animals; mutualism.
• The mutation of a single gene that allowed humans to digest lactose.
• The passenger pigeon; its eventual extinction. The Florida panther is also mentioned.
• Cloning.
• Recombinant DNA; insulin.
• Calgene's "Flavr Savr" GM tomato.
• Gene drives.
• Microplastics in the ocean; bacteria that metabolize plastics.
• The first genetically-edited human by a Chinese scientist.

********************

I enjoyed this one. Shapiro did a great job in the research, writing and overall presentation.
Her super-effective science communication earns this one a 5-star rating from me.

[Thom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was excited to receive this book from the library, and the audiobook is read by the author - always a plus.

The author provides a lot of detail, and this includes and excellent index and references. The chapter on bison, Bone Mining, and the follow up chapter Intended Consequences are in the author's field, and both well done. I listened to the audiobook and followed references from the physical book, both from the local library. I thought the author's conclusions in the final chapter - what would it take for humans to accept genetic modifications - were spot on.

While the information is nicely collected, the storytelling is not as well done in the other chapters - which also lacked the anecdotes and humor from the bison and mammoth stories. I believe some pictures and graphics would have helped. Whether more information or a better connected story - I just wanted more.

Maybe that's the pop-science aspect of the book. Malcolm Gladwell tells several stories, not really connected. Beth Shapiro is trying to connect her stories and draw conclusions - and maybe that's the failing. I liked the book - I just didn't love it.

[The Inquisitive Biologist · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ancient DNA specialist Beth Shapiro examines our past impact on evolution, showcasing science communication at its finest, while her look to the future stimulated me to reflect critically on the role of biotechnology. See my full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2021...

[✨ Aaron Jeffery ✨]

DNF @ 37%

[Elisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very interesting look into how humans have modified their environment from the beginning, sometimes for good but also for evil. We’ve caused whole species to go extinct, but we also have the capacity to use our powers for good. Shapiro shows this, as well as the new tools at our disposal that make saving the world a little easier. She clearly makes an effort to show different points of view but I think it’s obvious what side she’s on and I happen to share her opinion (if I was starving and someone gave me a tomato, would I care if it was transgenic?) Some scientific explanations were too technical for me to follow, but in general her language is easy to understand. I liked the historical background and possible futures. Let’s hope we choose wisely.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Perseus Books, Basic Books!

[Elentarri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 3.75 stars

A bit of history, a bit of science. Very interesting. Unfortunately not terribly detailed or in-depth, and lacking diagrams. Then again, it is a popular science book that disseminates information very nicely and I enjoyed reading it.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too many stories that I was already familiar with.

> Wolbachia don’t kill the insects that they infect but they do cause fertility problems. When an uninfected female mosquito breeds with an infected male, their offspring don’t survive … it’s difficult to produce only males in a laboratory environment. Because offspring of Wolbachia-infected females survive, the accidental release of Wolbachia-infected females along with males would allow Wolbachia to spread through the population, ruining its potential as a mosquito sterilizer. Second, any reduction of the mosquito population might not last very long if, for example, mosquitoes can easily recolonize from nearby. Finally, Wolbachia are already present in some of the most important disease-vector species, meaning that this approach simply won’t work to control them.

> The self-limiting aspect of the sterility gene works like this: Males that develop from OX5034 eggs have a copy of tTAV on both of their chromosomes. When they mate with wild females, all their offspring inherit one chromosome with tTAV. The female offspring will express tTAV and die, and the males will develop normally. When these males, which have one normal chromosome and one with tTAV, breed with wild females, half their offspring inherit tTAV. Of this half, the females die and the males develop normally. After ten or so generations during each of which the proportion of males in the population with tTAV is reduced by half, tTAV will disappear. Because the number of individuals carrying tTAV reduces in every generation, the population-reducing effect of self-limiting sterility declines over time. This strategy nevertheless has a much longer-term impact than one that requires repeated releases of sterile males.

> The gene-edited moth competed successfully with wild-type diamondback moths, and many fewer caterpillars were produced compared to control fields. Oxitec has also developed self-limiting strains of the fall armyworm, the soybean looper moth, and several other agricultural pests. The self-limiting sterility approach to reducing populations of crop pests could save farmers billions of dollars of losses globally every year while also reducing reliance on chemical pesticides. Intriguingly, it may also help shift the conversation around genetically engineered food, since genetically engineered crop pests (which people don’t eat) could be used in place of genetically engineered, insect-resistant crops with similar gains in crop yield.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solid History, Perhaps A Bit Too Optimistic On Future Tech. In showing the history of how humans have been using crude genetic engineering essentially since we first began interacting with the world - both plant and animal - and in showing how our more modern techniques - including CRSPR - came to be, Shapiro does a great job in showing just how much humans have *already* shaped the evolution of non-human life on this planet. In the ancient world, she uses a lot of her own experiences as a scientist in that exact field, and even in the more modern cases she is discussing techniques she mentions in the earlier sections as having used extensively. On these points, Shapiro is truly excellent.

Where she stumbles a bit - not enough for a star deduction, but enough for a bit of commentary - is that she is perhaps a bit too optimistic about how genetic tinkering will be used in the future. Yes, she discusses the various quandaries, but even in such discussions- *even when discussing the GMO humans created in China a couple of years ago* - Shapiro tends to just hand wave over the negative, darker sides of the technology even while acknowledging their potentially cataclysmic power. This is where a solid dose of science fiction is useful, showing that even when scientists such as Shapiro have the best of intentions... things may not always turn out the way they think, and thus caution truly is warranted. (Yes, I'm thinking of a specific book in this particular example, but the reveal that GMO is used within it is a *massive* spoiler, and thus I'm not naming it here. I *will* note that it is by the same author and indeed part of the spoiler is that it uses some of the same tech as described in HUNGER by Jeremy Robinson, which is another cautionary tale of the "benefits" of genetic modification.)

Still, for what it is and for what the description claims it sets out to do, this truly is a solid examination of the history and current state of the field, and for this it is very much recommended.

[Tanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

...it is clear that our actions not only alter the evolutionary trajectories of the species that go extinct (as an understatement), but also fundamentally change the evolutionary landscape in which other species, including our own, live. [loc. 1096]

This book -- subtitled 'How 50,000 Years of Human Innovation Refined — and Redefined — Nature' -- is very much a book of two halves: first, Shapiro (an evolutionary biologist specialising in ancient DNA) explores the ways in which human activity has affected ecosystems for millennia; then she describes recent advances in genetic engineering and editing, discusses the notion of de-extinction, and suggests ways in which biotechnology could revolutionise food production, benefit the environment and save endangered species.

I found the first half much more engaging than the second, though Shapiro is good at explaining scientific concepts and methods, and leavens her arguments with lots of fascinating factoids. (I did not know until reading Life as We Made It that a female elephant will regrow her hymen after giving birth. Ouch. And why?) There's a lot, too, about her early experiences in paleogenetics, and cheerful anecdotes about various embarrassing errors. Some of the most fascinating parts of the book were about ecosystems, their delicacy, and how easily humans or human-adjacent animals (rats, for example) can destroy a natural balance that's evolved over millions of years. I also learnt more about using genetics -- human and rat -- to trace prehistoric migration patterns, and about why passenger pigeons thrived in flocks of millions or even billions. And Shapiro stresses that prehistoric human-related extinctions were not deliberate (unlike some modern examples, where overhunting or overfishing has continued in spite of dwindling populations) and may have been exacerbated by other factors. 

Shapiro is broadly in favour of genetic modification, and critical of those who hold 'unscientific' beliefs about it: she points out 'the hypocrisy of ignoring the thousands of uncharacterized and random genetic alterations that emerge through mutation breeding while excluding products from the market that contain few, specific, and deliberately induced mutations on the grounds that unintended consequences of these mutations might turn out to be dangerous.' But she does sound a note of caution, arguing that social and cultural changes are as vital as genetic editing if famine, climate change and environmental degradation are to be countered.

There were some issues that should have been caught by an editor, several involving incorrect units of measurement ('[Elephants] produce 100 kilometers (220 lb) of manure daily') or typos ('white-footed mouse populations in Aotearoa/New England'). For a book so favourably reviewed in the scientific as well as the popular press, this sort of error is embarrassing.

Fulfils the ‘extract’ rubric of the Annual Non-Fiction Reading Challenge -- extracting and combining genetic material...

[Degenerate Chemist · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up. This was a new purchase at my library. It still has the new book smell.

Evolutionary Biologist Beth Shapiro has combined natural history and the new gene editing technology to argue that humans have always been changing and adapting their environment and the new gene editing technology is nothing to fear.

The first 130ish pages are an overview of the past activity of the human race including anecdotes from Shapiro's own career. She focuses mainly on the ways that human activity has driven extinction, less so on the ways humans have modified flora and fauna to its benefit.

The final 120ish pages Shapiro talks about the experiments and advances in gene editing and cloning that can be used to save endangered species or bring back species that were recently extinct due to human interference. She also lists ideas for how these techniques could be used to control populations of invasive species.

I think this is an excellent pop science book and a great introduction for the topic for someone who doesn't quite understand what GMO actually is. Shapiro has some great ideas and offers workable solutions to serious problems.

The one issue I have is the optimism. Legal standards always run behind technology of this sort. A few years ago in the US I watched as our 80 year old lawmakers struggled to understand how the internet worked. Greed and the human need for immediate solutions for problems that will take time to fix will work against any of these solutions. As Shapiro herself notes people don't like change and they like to maintain their comforts.

[Gendou · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has two parts. First personal stories in which Shapiro tells her first hand story of braving the mud of melting permafrost to hunt for mummified bison, and the harrowing tale of touching a woolly rhino tusk with her bare hands.

Second she makes a well researched if reserved case for GE crops and livestock.

The two are tenuously related at best. But both worth reading.

[YouMo Mi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book. There are many anecdotes that other reviewers have already covered so won't repeat in detail, but on a high level, Shapiro's thesis is that humans have influenced our environment's makeup for longer than human history, providing ample evidence of conservation efforts by humans with the bison and black-footed ferrets (as well as lesser-known modern initiatives such as with certain walnut trees which I wasn't aware of). Rather than fear and shutdown using modern technologies such as gene-editing, it would be wiser to understand this as a tool (albeit far more powerful) in a regulated fashion to help both humans and the environment in a positive way such as promoting genetic diversity in endangered species or controlling mosquito populations through gene-edited species in a far less destructive manner to the environment.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love well written and crafted books by scientists. Properly enjoyable and only very occasionally too taxing for a normie like me. Learnt so much! The first half of the book is very much about "natural" evolution and the second half is part philosophy, part speculation on the possibilities ahead for using bio-technology to save the world. It gave me hope! It also gave me millions of anecdotes about bison🦬

[Brent McCollister · Rating 5 out of 5]

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley:

I really enjoyed reading this book. I have been fascinated by ancient DNA for many years so to read from a scientist who has worked in the field was excellent. From detailing her work with ancient bison DNA and other DNA projects to the discussion of genetic engineering, the author presented in a clear manner the science behind the work and the ethical quandaries that it holds. From explaining how humans have been genetically modifying nature for tens of thousands of years through breeding, farming and habitat transformation, the book then turns to the controversy of GMOs where she gives a balanced view of both sides of the conflict. Like the author, I feel there is too much good that can come from genetic engineering to stop using it altogether, but it does need regulation to prevent unintended consequences. Overall, a very engaging and informational read.

[Tiago Moraes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente!! Pra quem quer imaginar o futuro, não tem como fugir da engenharia genética! Levamos milhares de anos pra transformar Lobos em Pugs, Auroques em Vacas, extinguimos espécies, mas o poder que descobrimos com a manipulação genética agora é uma bomba atômica que vai explodir ainda na nossa geração! 💥

Veremos suas consequências boas e ruins! Tudo depende do que faremos com ela. Recriaremos Mamutes? reduziremos crueldade animal? ou criaremos humanos geneticamente programados para determinadas funções? Tem possibilidades terríveis e incríveis!

A Natureza segue seu curso.. mas o humano egoísta, desvia, e pode destruir toda a beleza do aleatório. Minha esperança é sua utilização na solução de problemas, na redução do sofrimento e na evolução da consciência! 🌌

[eyes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shapiro is a talented researcher leading the field of ancient DNA and conservation genomics, and Life as We Made It is a fantastic, well written survey of many of the more technical achievements of both ancient DNA sequencing and genetic engineering. The book is fairly accessible to those outside of biology, although readers should expect quite a bit of biological content, to the point that even those working in genomics research can hope to learn a thing or two.

With subjects spanning extinct woolly rhinos to transgenic fish, Life as We Made It is never slow nor dry, and the occasional anecdotes from Shapiro's past research add a refreshing amount of personality to the read.

However, Shapiro blithely ignores the crucial role of indigenous communities in conservation, the ecological and biodiversity consequences of colonialism, and the disparate impact climate change has and will continue to have on racialized and marginalized groups. More specifically, there is a total lack of awareness that white colonizers have been and remain as the principal anthropogenic threat to ecosystems and conservation, while indigenous and racialized groups are the primary if not sole human bearers of ecological harm (e.g. Dunbar-Ortiz's An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States).

The past and present, hard-fought activism by indigenous conservation groups is absent, yet Shapiro celebrates the "first" (white) conservationists at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. This is despite the reality that eugenics and white supremacy were the dominant inspiration of "conservationists" like Madison Grant, whose naïvety and racism solidified a system that generates near-constant California wildfires and other conservation disasters (Grant is omitted entirely while many of his associates are lionized; consider Painter's The History of White People if you would like to read about this history).

In summary, Life as We Made It is grievously eurocentric, and despite Shapiro's fascinating science and well-thought prose, it's painfully unaware of the harms its colorblind narrative proselytizes. The We in Life as We Made It is not humanity as a whole; it's privileged academicians and other benefactors of white supremacy.

[Joshua Hedlund · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting combination of the history and science of humanity's impact on other species, with a focus on DNA. The history in the book was pretty interesting. Genome sequencing has advanced enough that "ancient DNA" can be mined for all sorts of information, like pinpointing the migration patterns and near-extinction cycles of the American bison by the relationships and diversity between DNA remains of bones from different times and places as well as living creatures. The book's main purpose, however, seems to be an apologetic defense of gene modification, lobbying for its great potential benefits while arguing that, while aspects of it can seem disturbing, it's really only the latest tool in a long, long history of humans modifying nature for our benefit - getting to the essence of what makes us human, unlike any other creature on this planet and wielding dominion over them. At times I found Shapiro too naive about potential risks and downsides (some of her arguments actually made me more concerned... like a dismissive conclusion that there was "only" a 1/1000 risk of a food with antibiotic DNA affecting gut bacteria), with an almost utopian faith in the ability of advances in science and technology to solve all our problems. I was unaware both of how far back human efforts at gene modification (into the 1980's, with clever breakthroughs, well before genomes were fully sequenceable) and of how weird some of the advances in recent years have already gotten.

A lot of it is genuinely exciting and encouraging, like copying existing alleles from one subspecies to another to make domestic cattle more resilient to diseases or solve the inbreeding health problems faced by certain dog breeds. I found myself most disturbed by the existence of modified animals with corporate branded names, and yet at the same time it's hard to refute Shapiro's overall thesis, since the modern factory farming that we don't like to think about is already pretty disturbing, and it seems likely that any reforms to this system, to reduce animal suffering and improve human health, while still feeding eight billion people, is going to require more technology, not less. Indeed, I can already hear the disappointed voices reacting that we can't solve our planet's problems with more of the same, that we need to dismantle and reconstruct into some more preferred ideology, but the realist in me sees all this as the only realistic path forward. Even if it's unsettling, it's good to be aware of what's happening, because it's only going to get weirder - and fast. We just better hope we don't unleash new problems faster than we think we're solving them...

[Madeleine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is so ambitious, and I greatly admire its breadth in trying to tackle a massive topic: using the whole of human development and the natural history of the antropocene as a springboard for the argument for humankind to accept responsibility, to use the biotechnology tools at our disposal, to fix our messes--and moreover-- improve life.
I adore the first half of this book ("The Way It Is") as someone who loves ancient DNA and natural history. Its a great spooling together of narratives of human history, history of the organisms affected by us, and the author's own personal history! This is done very well and sets the stage nicely for the greater thrust of the book.
However, I think the second half of the book ("The Way it Could Be") could be expanded! I'm not sure how effective it currently is in convincing a biotechnology skeptic to endorse genetic engineering. I think it's extremely strong when it pre-empts fears of technology use with caveats and equally strong views of an irresponsible future alongside the visionary one. Shapiro does this expertly with mentioning the human twins illegally engineered and born in 2018, almost at the end of the book. This recognition and anticipation of problems makes the argument sounder.
By contrast, the introduction obliquely alludes to public distrust of genetic engineering with a reference to intellectual property. This is never followed up on in the later chapter about genetic engineering in agriculture, disinformation, and public distrust. While I understand that patent legal battles are not the focus of this book, it seems like leaving the story with 'then Monsanto bought Flavr Savr; the end' and 'some activists who were wrong were mad' is reductive for a time of real legal uncertainty and real fallout from these technologies. It would require a bit of a tangent but I think it weakens the argument to ignore the power biotech companies with patent lawyers wield. Many putative ideas for helpfully engineered crops and animals are raised, but there is not much attention to the legal questions of who owns those organisms, really (and their progeny, intentional or accidental, or outbred!). This does seem odd given that this has been an issue historically, but again, perhaps is just outside the scope of an obviously science-driven book.
Overall a fantastic read, for any biologist or just for someone who's resolution is to finally find out what CRISPR's all about, or even learn some hopeful conservation news. Or just someone who likes bisons and mammoths! Because who doesn't :)

[Socraticgadfly · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with several others, this was for me a 3/4 star book. Not that in-depth, not much that new.

But, it fell to 3 because she commits sins of both omission and commission on Golden Rice that are a credibility issue. (Personal "qualifications": I reject "frankenfoods" and tell people to read the excellent series of brief articles by Grist several years ago.)

That said, the sin of omission on Golden Rice? Until relatively recently, its actual field yields were WELL below conventional rice. Hard to deliver Vitamin A to Southeast Asia when you can't grow it. And, no, per my "qualifications," it's not nutters saying this. The Genetic Literacy Project admitted this and more three years ago. The other main "admission" was that Golden Rice's development time was, by insinuation at least, vastly oversold, itself a problem. And, per GLP referencing a "yield drag," this may be a problem with other GMO crops.

The sin of commission? Shapiro says that the developers were getting the beta-carotene genes from daffodils. The same GLP link says not true; they've been replaced with maize genes in "Golden Rice 2." Shapiro should know this.

(Side note: The GLP link itself is a bit problematic; Michael Pollan may overstate the problem in overcoming crop monoculture, but it is an issue that needs to be addressed around the world, whether in SE Asia, or Europe/North America.)

Also missing? GMO crops created specifically to be herbicide tolerant, which increases chemical input usage, etc. (The word "Roundup" isn't even in the index.)

And, there's little real information about the origin of agriculture, just a conventional origin story that's not that deep and also probably not 100 percent true. She doesn't even discuss "non-sedentary agriculture," talked about in detail in Against the Grain.

So, that's why we're at 3 stars.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is divided into two parts, the first about the past, how we as humans have altered animals and plants since we came onto the scene in the paleolithic, whether through extermination or selective breeding and domestication, while the second half covered modern day synthetic biotechnology and the editing of genes for various purposes. While the first part I found very readable and well written in summarizing human impact on the natural world, the second was drier and unavoidably more technical, despite best efforts of the author to explain in simple terms. Such is the complexity of modern genomic research and applications that one can only get the bare concepts unless one is also academically trained as Shapiro undoubtedly is, being involved in numerous projects from creating novel food plants to the controversial de-extinction of megafauna.

One can be against the use of technology to 'meddle with nature' as it were, and the lack of complete and thorough understanding of the process by the public at large certainly does not help the case. However, the author argues correctly that the current direct manipulation at the cellular and genetic level of organisms is just a continuation and advancement of our history of selectively breeding species for desired traits. Obviously one can't expect anything different coming from a person with vested interest, shall we say, in these technologies. The logic, though seemingly sound, still could not rid me of the uneasiness associated with gene manipulation. I suppose it is similar with A.I. where we simply cannot foresee the endpoint of developments.

[Janel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first heard Beth Shapiro on the JRE podcast and was completely entertained and found her so engaging and full of interesting stories and information. When I first heard Colossal was bringing back dire wolves and looking into resurrecting other creatures I was skeptical and found it ethically challenging to endorse to say the least but by the end of the podcast, I’m like: bring on the mammoths! The first half of this book had a fun, anecdotal and somewhat hopeful undertone. There were funny stories, a lot about bison, and frustration about humans and their impact but, also showing how there’s an awareness in our consciousness that happened along the way, illustrated by the bison story and how with intervention they were brought back from the brink. I enjoyed learning about ice age animals and the gold town where her team would look for fossils and would look up the creatures and towns and the things she wrote about and learned so much. The second part really lost that spark for me. It became very technical and there was much science jargon where I found myself scanning,- the reading version of fast forwarding. I know humans are to blame for so many things but I started to feel hopeless and frustrated as I kept reading. There was a lot of talk about GMOs and food editing which was somewhat interesting but hey, I wanted to hear more about the mammoths! All in all a good read but not quite what I was hoping for. Shapiro is an amazing speaker though and I think it would be fun to hear her on her own podcast someday.

[Thu Nguyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook version read by the author and found it very entertaining in spite of the difficult bits about ancient DNA, biotechnology, genes cutting and editing, etc that are way over my head. I like archaeology and human evolution in general and that was what prompted me to listen to this book, but it is not only about the long ago past but also today's real world stories of genes engineered plants and animals.
There are stories of how scientists pieced together so many evidences to prove theories like who killed the last mammoths, why all the passenger pigeons died, how homo sapiens spread across the globe, etc. Then there are stories of the first modified genes tomatoes, can we bring mammoths back to life, can we have dairy cows with no horns. They are all insiders' tales with details about what job done in which lab, what regulatory government body assessing what experiment, so on and so on.
The overall tone is of course pro-science with the prediction that given enough pressure, human will eventually ended up editing our own genes. But there are a few cautionary tales included here. And as of today, even right after a global pandemic, we're still not at that pressure point yet, in both the why and the how.

[Ed Bernard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beth Shapiro is what is called an evolutionary geneticist, somewhat well known for a book about cloning a woolly mammoth. This book reviews humanity’s past using genetic data, and also shows how humans have influenced other species and generally shaped the world. Then, in the second part, Shapiro describes how science around genetics and genetic engineering might shape our future and perhaps save the species and our planet. I love science books like this, which take an area I barely knew existed and provide an accessible overview of what it is, how it works and why it’s important, without ever getting bogged down in details that are only interesting to practitioners or those deep under the hood. Shapiro is an adept and facile writer, bringing knowledge and enthusiasm to her subject, as well as a clear eyed vision of its current limitation. She fully embraces the use of genetic technology for our future, so if you have some fuzzy notion that, say, genetically engineered crops are somehow bad for you, prepare to be gently ridiculed or at least called out for lack of scientific rigor. Either way, Shapiro does us a great service by making complex material both understandable and important.

Grade: A

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging, erudite history of the large effects man has had on other organisms over the last 50,000 years, not only through hunting, the use of fire, and agriculture, but also directly through breeding. Genetic engineering is another powerful tool to shape the world. Like other tools, it can be misused, but there are major problems in urgent need of solutions than genetic engineering can provide. A great example is the Enviropig developed in Canada to more efficiently absorb phosphorus in its diet. As a result, it needs much less phosphorus in its food, resulting in much less phosphorus in its waste. Delays in approval caused the project to run out of money so pig farms continue to pollute as before. Shapiro does not ignore the pitfalls of genetic engineering, but warns that politicized scare-mongering and our uneasiness about what is “unnatural” is delaying advances that can solve real significant problems better than alternate approaches. Genetic engineering is unnatural, but so are weapons, farming, breeding…. Some suggest that a conservation ethic – not always getting what we want would be better than constant technofixes. I agree, but I don’t see how in a democratic society we can ensure a conservation ethic.
Errata: p.85 “by the time people were living in Bluefish caves [24000 years ago], a 4000km wide ice sheet…blocked any human dispersal out of Beringia until the climate warmed” but footprints recently found in the US southwest dated to over 21,000 years old suggest that someone took a boat past the ice. Remains in Monte Verde in Chile dated to 17000 years ago have for years suggested the same thing.
p.94 “Haast’s eagle…could pick up a moa…” Although it had a 3 metre wing span, it could only pick up moas much smaller than the 250kg size mentioned. A recent article suggests that the eagle knocked moas over and killed them with a bite to the back of the neck.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The closing scene of a plastic litter-strewn back seat in the author's private car is precisely why 'life as we made it' will become 'life as we killed it'.

There are plenty of truths on human's tool-weilding impacts on the ecological and genetic landscape of our planet. It is essentially a long elaboration on the Anthropocene. Some of the biotechnologies in the Hollywood science lab may even hold hope.

But wizz-bang-pop solutions to natural problems didn't reassure me. Fewer people, less meat (the part on the Incredible burger came straight from a Texan rancher), zero plastic and simple circular economies get short shrift. Instead we are told to pin our hopes on gene-splicing and modification, which it is assumed (without any explanation why) will (if not now, sometime) be put through enough control trials to come up with answers to waste and climate change.

Perhaps, but after being told about the series of human-caused extinctions and vast large country-sized rafts of floating plastic on our oceans, what makes Shapiro think next time will be different?

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating book with the premise that man changes his natural environment wherever he goes. The book starts tens of thousands of years ago and describes the natural effects on the bison, but then how man intruded (and then sought to prevent them from going extinct). There is a lot covered on the evolution of humans that I did not know, and how our actions led to the extinction of various animals such as the wooly mammoth and passenger pigeon, to name a few.

Not only animals are highlighted, but plants too. The emergence of efforts to protect endangered species and even attempts to resurrect extinct animals are also covered. Finally, bringing us right up-to-date biotechnology is covered with GMO crops, engineered meats, and the ability to genetically modify animals and humans.

Sometimes the science went over my head but I persevered and was glad I did. So much information that I did not know.

Wow! Mind boggling! Recommended!

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Dr. Beth Shapiro put together a great story about human modification of nature, whether accidental or intentional. She writes with a very conversational tone and with a sense of humor, while explaining science very well. She also tells some very funny anecdotes, with me laughing out loud on occasion. The footnotes are also worth reading. This is the second book by Dr. Shapiro that I’ve read. “How to clone a mammoth” was also a great read.

I strongly recommend “Life as we made it” for anyone interested in the topic and I hope that Dr. Shapiro will continue to write popular science books. Thank you to Netgalley and Perseus Books, Basic Books for the advance reader copy.

[Kalyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sticks to the title and theme of the book. I find it interesting, learnt about new events, cultures and human evolution.

I am still at Chaper 6 of Chapter 15, book keeps me interested to move forward.

I am done with listening this book now.

Last chapter was the the best part. I like a book which has less number and more a narrative, more connection of dots, simple to the point narration, contemporary. This book has it all and as a bonus, the author read the book; Beth's voice and narration was exceptional.

Do you like listening to this book: Yes
Do you want to reread/relisten this book: Yes
Do you want your children (youth) to read this book: Yes
Do you want to own this book: Yes.

Beth if you are reading this, you should be proud of your work. I will email you when I am in California and see if I can shake hand with you, take a picture and introduce my children to you and your work.

Good job Beth!

[Lucy Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, but wow it made me feel dumb haha. it is very scientific, to the point where I had to google a couple of things as someone who has only recently began to study science again. shapiro makes a lot of interesting points, but i did feel like the book jumped all over the place with the topics instead of following the linear type of thing i usually prefer. it was also very north american focused, and i would have appreciated a bit more of a global perspective (not just for the negative things or researchers). highly recommend if you’re into evolutionary biology or history from a science perspective, i think it was just too sciencey and not thoroughly explained enough for me to give it more than 3.5/5