Ed Regis

This book is scary but well-written. George Church has done a commendable job in taking us through the advances in synthetic biology.

When he speaks of transhumans or "Humans +", then you realise we are on the cusp of changes that may alter us. Will the changes be good, or bad? No one knows.

His structuring is excellent, starting from prehistoric times, and taking us into the future.

The explanations are lucid, and the book is well-written.

However, he glosses over the dangers of the advances happening in this field. This attitude is a weakness of the book.… (mais)

The dated nature of the science in this book made for a fascinating snapshot of the time at which I was starting to pay attention to what was going on in the wider world of mathematics, and for that I greatly appreciated it.

The book recognises that its subjects are not perfect, and that at best it is scraping the surface of what it could be discussing. Each chapter foregrounds an individual from the Institute, which worked well to give a feel for how things were, without being entirely tedious.

The writing flows, the subject matter is interesting, the individuals range from infuriating to fascinating, and it was worth reading. I had originally intended to pass this one on after reading, but I think I'm going to keep it, because the discussion about what was going on with some of the researchers and their special topics at the time (Mandelbrot, Wolfram come to mind, but there was at least one other) I may well want to revisit.… (mais)