Publisher's Synopsis
Biological science saves lives, improves health, grows more food, preserves nature and provides pleasure. It also presents problems. Does an emphasis on ecology make the author an ecofreak --- or even an ecoterrorist? Should physicians treat the body as a machine and teachers regard the brain as a computer? Are people only apes? Are apes (almost) human? Are women fit by their biology only for the kitchen and the nursery? Is a gene in a test tube the equivalent of a genie in a bottle? Does biology support the fashionable misanthropy which presents human beings as incurably nasty because of their evolution? The Science of Life is a beautifully written, erudite and humane book about the science of biology, about life in all of its glorious forms. From the smallest microbe to the human species, Tony Barnett shows how all living organisms interact with each other and the environment. He follows the development of our understanding of life and introduces us to the scientists whose imaginations have expanded our knowledge of the biological world. And he reminds us just how exciting ideas and scientific discovery can be.;He also explains how evolution has brought us to a stage where we, alone on the planet, have an urgent responsibility to protect an increasingly fragile biosphere and how, by using existing knowledge and by confronting the current popular biological myths, we can solve the problems that face us.
