Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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This is a beautiful book with a sensitive subject

Fox: A Circle of Life Story by Isabel Thomas

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I was thinking Fox: A Circle of Life Story was going to be more about the cycle of trees, plants, the seasons, the forest and not about the cycle of life of a mother fox. Isabel Thomas created a poetic, beautiful story of life and death. We follow a fox as she wanders the woods, crossing the human road, and her unfortunate end. The concept of death is lightly presented, but also nothing is held back. It is a serious look at the cycle of life.

Due to the death of the animal and the way it dies, this book is not for a sensitive reader. It would be a perfect for a science class, even with the more romantic presentation. It also could be used to help talk about loss or the death of a non-pet animal seen by side of the road, in wooded areas, and so forth.

Daniel Egneus continues the imaginative elements with boldly colored illustrations. This kid friendly text is complimented with their kid friendly images. While this is a book about death, it is more than that. It is a tastefully presented work of art. This duo are also the creators of Moth: An Evolution Story. Both science-filled stories are clever and emotionally can cause a connection. While for older children, all ages can come away from these picture books with something. Adults as well can learn as well as enjoy the art of these books.

While researching about other tiles Thomas has done, I noticed they have several more traditional non-fiction science books and some historical biographies I might want to look into.

Professional Science Gets Ugly

The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson

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Bingo 4: People

In addition to the cover being of a person, this is also a book about people on several levels, down to the genetics. On the surface it’s the biography of one of the winners of the 2020 Nobel Prize in chemistry, Jennifer Doudna for her work with the CRISPR. The thing is, that’s actually not totally accurate. This book is also an introduction to bio-engineering and general molecular biology, an expose on academic science world and how it’s shifted to more business and profit focus as well as the friendly and not so friendly competition for publications and patents, a history of science, gender in science and academia, and also a look at how research science and medicine interact.

In spite of the highly technical subject, this is actually pretty readable. In some ways, this works. The language is usually either pretty everyday or else it’s explained. The problem though is that sometimes the science bits are actually kind of shallow or not given as much attention as they might need. I’ve read the whole thing, understood most of it, but I can’t tell you what CRISPR actually stands for or the details of how it works, even though that information is given in the book. I can tell you that it’s a process in which a certain kind of RNA has the natural ability to cut bits out of DNA and replace it with other DNA.

There’s the history of science stuff, from the discovery of genes, then DNA, then RNA, and then bits of RNA and DNA and how they work. There’s also a lot of people working on similar things, which can lead to similar scientific discoveries at the same time (look up the history of calculus for another example; it was independently figured out by Isaac Newton and someone else at almost the same time, but someone gets more public credit). This is the other major thread of the book; there are a lot of people involved over a pretty long period of time. Some of them work together, some work almost against each other. Sometimes there’s personal animosity, and often professional. The author does occasionally take sides here, but it’s usually pretty inobtrusive. All the personal stuff sometimes gets away from the science just enough that it breaks whatever narrative is going on, and for me at least, that got distracting. There are so many stories and so many characters that it gets really hard to keep track of people, relationships, and events. I’m now very glad I’m not a part of the science part of the academy; wow, is there a lot of office politics and personal drama. Also, much sexism and generally quite a few people I don’t think I’d want to spend time around.

Then there is the connection of CRISPR to scientific ethics and the potential for medical uses as well as citizen scientists, or at least those not directly associated with an institution, be it academic, corporate, or government. This all relates to the COVID-19 pandemic and the vaccines that use the RNA-based technology. The last few chapters of the book get into this part, and even though it’s so recent, it feels like an add-on. There’s so much more detail about the virus and the vaccines that would make that part of the story much more interesting; granted that’s at least a whole other 500+ page book, but if you’re going to bring it up, the rather shallow treatment kind of does a bit of a disservice to the history of vaccines, plagues, pandemics, and medicine.

My conclusion: this is current and generally approachable science, but I wouldn’t want someone else to spend the $35 that this thing costs off the shelf. I’m glad I didn’t pay that much (yay for coupons!), but I’m still slightly irritated I didn’t just get this from the library.

My mind is blown, and not because I’ve been sampling magic mushrooms

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make our Worlds, Change our Minds, and Shape our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake

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I have read many books on science and natural history, but few have made me stop reading every few pages to look up and declare to whomever is within hearing distance (currently, my husband and cats, because we’re in a pandemic), “This is fascinating.” I don’t care if you’ve never read a book about nature in all your previous existence. Entangled Life will ensorcel you with tales of carnivorous mushrooms, zombie fungi, acid trips, and superhero microorganisms that could end up saving the planet.

If all that doesn’t intrigue you, then consider that the author is a biologist with a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge whose name couldn’t be more British if Charles Dickens had dreamed it up while watching Benedict Cumberbatch eat sticky toffee pudding in Middle Earth after teaching a potions class at Hogwarts.

 

Don’t forget corgis and a spot of tea.

In addition to being an accomplished biologist in the field of tropical ecology, author Merlin Sheldrake is a skilled writer. Entangled Life is his first book, yet he has already mastered the ability to share information about potentially dry subject matter in a way that’s both accessible and entertaining.

Sheldrake starts by presenting the many tools fungi have for survival, such as the deliciously pungent truffle’s ability to emit a scent so strong that it can be detected above the “olfactory racket” of the forest. That scent is what prompts forest critters to dig up and eat the truffles, the spores of which are then distributed to different parts of the forest through the animals’ feces. That lovely aroma of a $100 per ounce truffle being grated over your pasta is a simple survival tactic for the fungi.

Brought to you by animal poop!

Another fungus, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, has developed a more creative (eh, some might say horrifying) method of dispersing its spores. Known as a “zombie fungus,” this organism infects carpenter ants, compelling the ants leave the safety of their nests and climb the nearest plant. Sheldrake explains how, “In due course the fungus forces the ant to clamp its jaws around the plant in a ‘death grip.’ Mycelium grows from the ant’s feet and stitches them to the plant’s surface. The fungus then digests the ant’s body and sprouts a stalk out of its head, from which spores shower down on ants passing below.” If you’re having trouble envisioning this, don’t worry, Sheldrake has provided photos complete with stalks of fungal-fruiting bodies sprouting from ants’ heads. Or you could just go back and rewatch the 1956 classic horror film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Paging Wes Craven

While most fungi get their nutrients from decaying material, some enjoy fresher fare. Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus) produce toxic droplets that paralyze nematodes (a classification of small worms), giving the fungus time to digest their prey. Let me reiterate that in plain speech: oyster mushrooms eat worms. They aren’t alone, either. Hundreds of worm-eating species of fungus use different methods to trap and digest worms, sometimes issuing a chemical signal when they sense nematodes are close by.

Murdering bastards

We can’t really talk about fungi without addressing the most well-known brain-altering group: psilocybin mushrooms, nature’s LSD. Psilocybin works by reducing activity in the brain’s default mode network, or DMN. The DMN is what keeps law and order in your brain, alternately described by researchers as the “capital city” or the “corporate executive.” Reducing activity in the DMN allows the brain to explore thoughts and ideas without the stodgy old DMN trying to keep it on a leash. As Sheldrake explains, “Cerebral connectivity explodes, and a tumult of new neuronal pathways arise.” Studies from the early 2000s, as well as those from the 1950s and 1960s, suggest that psilocybin can be used to treat depression and anxiety. While the psychological effects of psilocybin can be addictive, the substance itself is not, and everybody was pretty chill about psilocybin until Timothy Leary went from respected Harvard professor to self-appointed poster child for magic mushrooms.

Please, stop trying to help.

It’s taken a long time for psilocybin to work its way back into the public’s good graces; however, controlled studies are taking place to analyze the effects of LSD on creativity and problem solving. In November, Oregon became the first U.S. state to legalize psilocybin for therapeutic use.

We may not think about fungus affecting our lives very often, except perhaps to express a like or dislike of mushrooms, yet fungi impact us every day. One of the most obvious ways that fungi have helped humankind is in Alexander Fleming’s 1928 discovery that penicillin, a chemical produced by a mold, could kill bacteria. This revelation was a boon to modern medicine, but it’s only one small way that fungi are friends of the earth. As masters of decomposition, fungi break down the bodies of dead organisms they encounter; if fungi were to suddenly disappear, we’d be buried in piles of dead animals and plants. Everybody knows that plants are critical to our survival because they supply us with oxygen, but we take for granted that most plants, in turn, rely on fungi. Living in the soil, fungi create networks that exchange carbon and nutrients between trees in what has become charmingly known as “The Wood Wide Web.” In 1997, a Canadian Ph.d. student named Suzanne Simard published the first study suggesting that carbon passed between plants in a natural setting (i.e., not a lab study). She found that distribution occurs between plants that have an excess of resources to those in need, even when those plants are of different species. This might initially suggest that more fortunate plants are selflessly helping those less fortunate ones, which is something of a problem since evolution doesn’t generally favor the altruistic. Lucky for evolutionary theory, the altruism interpretation only works if we take a plant-centric view. If we think in terms of the fungi and what they require, then it makes sense that the fungi would distribute the resources in such a way to ensure that the most plants survive.

Looking out for #1, bitches!

I’ve barely scratched the surface of the amazing qualities of fungi. Scientific studies are demonstrating that these under-appreciated organisms may hold the key to helping bees survive colony collapse disorder. They may also save humans from our own disposable lifestyle, as one recent study demonstrated that the omnivorous Pleurotus mycelium can thrive on a diet of used diapers. And if that’s the most alarming use of diapers you’ve ever heard, I’m guessing you’ve never been to a baby shower.

Kill me now.

For years, mycology has languished as one of the most under-studied sciences. Until the 1960s, fungi were classified as plants, and although they now comprise their own kingdom, the standard Linnaean system of taxonomy still poses problems. As Sheldrake observes, “a single species of fungus can grow into forms that bear no resemblance to each other whatsoever.” In other words, a horse always grows into a horse, and a bird always grows into a bird, but the same can’t be said of a fungus. On top of that, only 56 species of fungi have had their conservation status evaluated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), as opposed to more than 25,000 plants and 68,000 animals.

For such a critical resource on which everything else depends, fungi have certainly been neglected by humankind. We can correct that, though, and the first step is to read this amazing book. Whether you’re into mind-controlling zombies or saving the world, you won’t regret it.

 

“I can remember how grown-up I felt then, and earlier, since about nine. Because we age one way, in one direction, every age we are is the most grown-up we’ve ever been.”

Animal: The Autobiography of a Female Body by Sara Pascoe

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Sara Pascoe is here for you. There is no stone she won’t turn over and no story she won’t tell, because she is going to use her embarrassments, misunderstandings, failures, and larks to help you learn.

If you are looking for a medical textbook on what it means to be a human woman then go ahead and look elsewhere. If you want a smart and unflinching comedian to share her life story with you while looking back through biology, history, and cultural norms in order to explain what it is like to grow up female then this is the book for you!

Pascoe is straight, cis, and white- and she makes a point (multiple times, actually) to say that she is not speaking for all female-identifying folks, nor is she speaking on behalf of all human beings regardless of their sexuality while talking about the (ancient) patterns that helped to shape how we feel about whom and what we do with those feelings. If you feel female, then you are female.

Am I rambling? Yes! The time spent listening to this audio book was a delight; Pascoe is smart, warm, honest, and cheeky. Luckily, she narrates the book herself, so you get to hear her tell you about the research rabbit holes that she fell into while also sharing the stories of first loves, bad sex, stand-up comedy, abortion, and having her mom shout to everyone in the checkout line that they were buying supplies for her first period.

I wish that this book had been around when I was a teen; it puts a lot of difficult feelings into perspective without being self-deprecating or twee. She is honest, fierce, and funny; it doesn’t matter if she’s laying out backwards medical ideas of the past, horror stories of her own life, or the disaster that is how modern society handles consent and sexuality. She does not back down, and she will not give up on you.

 

 

Science Lesson Via Storytelling

Cells at Work! Vol. 5 by Akane Shmizu

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It seems like Cells at Work! 5 was a surprise as in it was surprising that this was the apparently last entries in the original series; I had seen the pre-order for a vol. 6 that apparently got canceled for vague reasons. There does appear to be a spin off though, so the series isn’t exactly over. I don’t know what happened there, but vol. 5 does kind of seem like someone may have gotten a little tired or distracted by another project because it suddenly switches perspectives and it picks up a story-line that had already concluded, but apparently not really.

The premise of the series is pretty solid if you haven’t heard of it; it’s the biologically accurate inner-workings of the human body personified as the various cells go about their daily work. For most of the series, you follow Red Blood Cell, who is kind of a ditz, gets lost all the time, but generally means well and takes her job and her friends seriously. One of these friends is White Blood Cell, who is almost always covered in gore from having just slaughtered whatever germ he was just destroying. Vol. 5 actually focuses mostly on White Blood Cell, with Red Blood Cell making a token appearance towards the end of the volume.

As a character, White Blood Cell actually has a little depth to him, since his job is to protect the body by killing invaders, but he seems to have empathy sometimes, since one of the 2 main adventures he has involves re-encountering a cancer invasion from a previous volume. The cancer cell actually says at one point if he has to die, he’d rather it be done by someone he liked, like White Blood Cell. White Blood Cell actually listens to the backstories etc sometimes, and he also tries to play peacemaker between the Killer T Cell and NK (Natural Killer) Cell who are hunting the cancer along with him.

The actual character names are the cell types, and there are plenty of side-bar notes explaining the biology of the cell or process currently being mentioned or presented. I saw a Youtube video of an actual physician watching an episode, and he said it was actually pretty accurate in terms of the science and explanations.

The other story arc that kind of intertwines with the cancer hunt is that of a newish character, an ordinary cell of unspecified kind, who finds some cute bacteria and tries to protect them since he’s worried the likes of White Blood Cell will want to kill them. White Blood Cell does find him and his hidden bacteria pals, but it turns out they are good bacteria who just wandered away from their groups. The adventure then is to see each one back to its own kind, which naturally must involved getting into trouble that said bacteria can help with.

The anthropomorphicizing actually works, and you kind of learn some biology, even if you do have to roll your eyes a little at the clichéd nature of some of the characterizations and interactions. It’s part of the fun. The author of this series totally needs to design a textbook using the stories and characters; I’d be so into that. I’m almost, almost sorry I’m not a biology teacher, because this series would be absolutely perfect for class use, either as the book or the anime which I think just got a second season; hopefully that actually happens.

Even slime molds find their way better than I do

Supernavigators: Exploring the Wonders of How Animals Find Their Way by David Barrie

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My friends, I have a condition. I suppose the commonly used term for it is “directionally challenged.” When I go back east to visit my family, my husband has to navigate even if we are driving in an area where I grew up, because his ability to remember where we are is so far superior to mine, even though he’d never been to the area before we met. When I go to a shopping mall or a medical complex, the only way I can find my car is to carefully memorize landmarks, i.e.: Turn left at Bath & BodyWorks, then there is a pedestrian door next to the soda machine. Go down escalator to P2, walk past parking office, and turn right 3 rows down. In a strange building, when I get off an elevator, I turn the wrong way. Every time.

People with even minimal directional sense have no idea how lucky they are to not have to worry about getting lost in a restaurant because they turned left instead of right when exiting the bathroom. So imagine my dismay at learning that slime molds are more successful at finding their way than I am, and that they follow pretty much the same strategy as I do in parking garages.  Author David Barrie (no relation to humorist Dave Barry, but great-great-nephew to playwright J.M. Barrie) writes, “These simple organisms can slowly but surely ooze their way toward a supply of glucose hidden at the bottom of a U-shaped trap. To do so, they employ a simple kind of memory that enables them to avoid revisiting places they have already explored.” In writing this review, I searched online for info about slime molds and I found videos of them solving mazes, which most people will find fascinating, but I interpreted as a personal insult.

Incidentally, a note under the video indicates that the mold was more efficient at finding the fastest route than a graduate student. . .so solidarity, I guess?

My people

Not only are slime molds good at finding their way, they are able to design an efficient railway network. In one study, researchers distributed oat flakes (yummy slime mold treats) in patterns that mimicked the layout of cities around Tokyo and then let the slime molds loose. The slime molds built networks to distribute the nutrients that eventually. . . wait for it. . . looked strikingly similar to Tokyo’s actual rail system.

The entire Japanese engineering corp was later fired and replaced by a collection of fungal spores.

This is all fascinating, so maybe the reason I  didn’t enjoy Supernavigators as much as I expected is because I’m bitter. More likely, though, it’s because the book is more a collection of interesting facts than a deep dive into animal navigation. When I read, I tag passages that I find interesting so I can reference them in my review, and I tagged quite a few interesting tidbits. Some examples:

  • Fish have what’s called a lateral line organ, which is a collection of pressure-sensitive pores that help them detect movement and change direction in unison. (Think of a school of fish that turn with the synchronization of a well-rehearsed dance troupe. They are able to do that because of that lateral line organ.)
  • Dung beetles are able to roll their balls of dung in a straight line, even though they are pushing backwards, which is incredibly hard to do. For comparison, humans who are blindfolded and don’t have any additional sensory clues (such as sound) typically can’t walk a straight line for more than 8 seconds.
  • While some migratory birds learn travel routes from adults, cuckoos don’t have that advantage, because they are parasite nesters and are born in a nest not “owned” by their parent. One theory is that cuckoos have an internal “clock and compass” system that helps them reach the right area. What’s so remarkable, though, is that in a recent study of cuckoos, they followed such a narrow corridor that the average distance between individual birds was about 100 miles.

These are all interesting facts, but somehow the overall narrative of the book didn’t engage me as much as I hoped. Perhaps the subject is too broad and Barrie might have narrowed down to a few prime examples rather than tackling the entirety of animal navigation in 300 pages. Still, as I said, there are interesting nuggets, and I was especially happy to discover that there is a name for my condition: Developmental Topographical Disorientation (DTD). DTD sufferers, the majority of whom are women (as self-identified through an online survey), are worse than controls “. . . at tasks involving orientation, landmark recognition, and retracing their steps, though they were just as good at face and object recognition. It is not yet clear . . . whether women really are more prone to it than men; perhaps they are simply more willing to admit to having a problem.”

I don’t need to stop for directions!



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