Building Blocks of Human Life: Understanding Mature Cells and Stem Cells by John K. Young

Building Blocks of Human Life: Understanding Mature Cells and Stem Cells by John K Young was published under Recorded books modern scholar series.

It is an in depth set of lectures on human cells by John K. Young, professor of medicine at Howard University.

This book would serve well for someone looking for a review of human molecular biology, or for someone who wants to get a bit familiar with the terms, but the book failed in terms of making cell biology interesting. Young talks like someone who wants to make the material interesting, but fails. It is a common dilemma for professors.

Still the book does cover the cell functions, from composition of our organs, to our brains, nervous system, hormones, reproduction, and lastly, aging. It was a good book to have playing in the background and catch snippets.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

This is a bad land for Gods

American Gods by Neil Gaiman is a novel that is searching for the soul of America through Shadow, an quiet hero, who takes his encounters with all the ancient Gods he meets in stride and with good humor.

Gaiman's research is impressive, he recalls God's that have been all but forgotten: Odin, Eostre, Mama-Ji, Czernobog, Golem, Nancy, Ibis, and lots more. All these old Gods are pitted against the new Gods of the age, T.V., cars, airplanes, computers, the internet. All the God's want to same thing, they want people to believe in them, they want people to make sacrifices to them, and all of them know that in America, Gods come and go, people change where they place their faith quickly, leaving the God's neglected and on the brink of being forgotten.

Religions are, by definition, metaphors, after all: God is a dream, a hope, a woman, an ironist, a father, a city, a house of many rooms, a watchmaker who left his prize chronometer in the desert, someone who loves you — even, perhaps, against all evidence, a celestial being whose only interest is to make sure your football team, army, business, or marriage thrives, prospers, and triumphs over all opposition.
Religions are places to stand and look and act, vantage points from which to view the world.

People believe, thought Shadow. It's what people do. They believe. And then they will not take responsibility for their beliefs; they conjure things, and do not trust the conjurations. People populate the darkness; with ghosts, with gods, with electrons, with tales. People imagine, and people believe: and it is that belief, that rock-solid belief, that makes things happen.


The novel causes us to question where we place our faith, and to what do we make our sacrifices? What gives us strength? What do we believe in? Whatever it is, that is our God. Is it money? People do say money is God in America, people sacrifice nearly everything to money: their time, their families, their values. Like all Gods you can never sacrifice enough to appease money, and truth be told, it can perform great miracles.

Maybe our God is our ego? The thing we always have to feed, to pamper, to sacrifice too. We put our faith in ourselves, in our struggles.

Zen Buddhism would hold that we must sacrifice our egos to be free, to the God of the world that is all sentient beings.

Or is our faith in science? Or our children? (yikes!) It is a good question to keep in mind as Americans: Where do I put my faith? You can also ask: What is the best God for me? What can I place my faith in that would give me the most strength and self-discipline to complete my challenges? To make me the best me I can be, for myself and society.

Buy American Gods: A Novel from Amazon.com

Project Gutenberg Top 100 List

Project Gutenberg provides downloads of books which are in the public domain. Since the copywrite on books generally expires after 100 years, the Gutenberg collection has quite a few great scientific works.

As an extra service, the gutenberg website provides a daily list of their top 100 downloads. Here is a sampling of today's list.

1. The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4) by J. Arthur Thomson (833)


2. Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period by P. L. Jacob (685)


3. Illustrated History of Furniture by Frederick Litchfield (496)


4. Searchlights on Health by B. G. Jefferis and J. L. Nichols (398)



5. The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana by Vatsyayana (354)


6. History of the United States by Charles A. Beard and Mary Ritter Beard (337)


7. Inaugural Presidential Address by Barack Obama (316)


8. Our Day by William Ambrose Spicer (305)


9. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (293)


10. The Atlas of Ancient and Classical Geography by Samuel Butler (285)


11. The Beginner's American History by D. H. Montgomery (274)


12. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (270)


13. The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English by Ray Vaughn Pierce (261)



14. Woman as Decoration by Emily Burbank (259)


15. General Science by Bertha M. Clark (254)


16. Nouvelles histoires extraordinaires by Edgar Allan Poe (254)


17. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (214)


18. The Iliad by Homer (214)


19. Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome by E.M. Berens (214)


20. The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed (211)


21. Sex by Henry Stanton (208)


22. Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany by Douglas Houghton Campbell (207)



23. The Mafulu by Robert Wood Williamson (199)


24. Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney (195)


25. The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — Complete by Leonardo da Vinci (195)

Wow, the Illustrated History of Furniture was number 3 yesterday, and it is kind of depressing it was more popular than the Notebooks of Leonard Da Vinci, but that is the modern age, and why not?

How to Grow Old - By Sherwin B. Nuland

I just finished reading Sherwin Nuland's essay, How to Grow Old, and I find myself provoked, stimulated, and faintly amused.

The essay starts with a brief history of medical attempts toward rejuvenation therapies and then turns into an all out debate between medical and lifestyle approaches to healthy aging.

Nuland writes:
Aging is not a disease. It is the condition upon which we have been given life. The aging and eventual death of each of us is as important to the ecosystem of our planet as the changing of the seasons.

This is a deeply mistaken belief and the record has to be set straight. Aging is a disease, and it is not, in any way, a genetic advantage. Claiming that aging is an essential part of a species survival conveniently, and mysteriously, overlooks the fact that evolution is a survival of the fittest and not the survival of the diseased. Species compete for scarce resources, that is how evolution works. Developed nations are developed because of sanitation, proper nutrition, and medicine all which extend lifespan. Who would argue that developed countries with longer lifespans are more strapped for resources than developing countries where people still die off at age 40?

Nuland also writes:
When William Haseltine, PDH, the brilliant biotechnology entrepreneur who is the CEO of Human Genome Sciences, says, "I believe our generation is the first to be able to map a possible route to individual immortality," we should cringe with distaste and even fear, not only at the hubris of such a statement but also at the danger it poses to the very concept of what it means to be human. The current biomedical campaign against the natural process of aging is but part of a much larger conception of humankind's future, in which it is thought by some that parents may one day order up the IQ, complexion, and stature of their intended offspring by manipulation their DNA.

Dr. Nuland goes on to argue that the solution to aging is not some biomedical therapy, but lifestyle changes, and what he is failing to grasp another great misconception about human aging: Lifestyle changes slow the disease of aging, but do not cure it. It is the same battle between focusing on treating the symptoms and not preventing the disease in the first place. The irony here is that it's the pills which provide the prevention, and it's the lifestyle changes which treat the symptoms.

Dr. Nuland seems to believe that rejuvenation therapies are going to extend our lives into decrepitude and destroy our ecosystem, and he overlooks that staying young would greatly free resources on our health care system, and allow people to live long enough to create very smart technologies, and maybe get around to solving some troubling mysteries like: What is consciousness? How did life begin? Why do we exist? And if it is just for DNA, why does DNA exist? It seems to me worthwhile to support rejuvenation therapies for that promise alone. People have plenty to live for besides passing on some genetic strand of DNA, and fulfilling nature's grand scheme.

Dr. Nuland's essay How to Grow Old is available in The Best American Science Writing 2004 at Amazon.com

The Elements of Style - William Strunk and E.B. White

Writing is like music and drawing in that learning comes primarily through practice and less through instruction. That said, it is nice to have a clear and concise set of rules to guide us, and this is exactly what The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White provides.

Strunk was the 1919 Cornell English professor of E.B. White and wrote The Elements of Style as a textbook for his students. The book was never published till E.B. White revived it, edited it, added a chapter, and published it. Since then The Elements of Style has become the handbook of professional writers, notably, Stephen King.

The book is small, short, and could fit in your pocket. Strunk writes just 65 pages, and White adds 20 more. The book adheres strongly to Strunk's 17th rule: Omit Needless Words. The book is refreshing to read. It is like Listerine for your mind, washing out the bad odors of chewy bits of reading gone foul.

This book had me laughing, which is surprising for a book that is intended to be so technical. Nothing can be more pleasurable than an idea intimated through good writing. Writing is extremely intimate. Whatever molecular processes make everything function in our bodies, writing and language are what bring it out in our soul, and Strunk has mastered writing so that even in a technical book, he can create humor through the interplay of his ideas.

Half-way through the book I knew that it would be a book that I would read again and again. Everyone should read this book again and again, and keep it on hand as a reference towards better writing.

Get The Elements of Style (4th Edition) from Amazon.com

Dune - Frank Herbert

A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct.

Thus begins Frank Herbert's epic novel: Dune, the story of a hero rallying against an empire that has betrayed him. Set across multiple planets with advanced technology and characters that echo ancient Roman and Arab cultures, the story's main themes revolve around leadership, wisdom, courage, legend, purpose, extra-sensory powers, drug addiction, political struggle, social movements, eugenics, and zen buddhism.

Leadership, Wisdom, and Courage

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

The eye that looks ahead to the safe course is closed forever.

The theme of courage and stoicism pervade throughout the novel. Those who can calm their emotions and think logically for the most profitable solution prosper. Thus it is that threatening enemies are often kept alive to be used later, and for those found in life or death situations it is the cool headed which survive.

Even when Paul, the hero, is put in a complete losing situation he doesn't let fear and despair enter his life, he doesn't settle for mediocrity, for doing so would surely mean his doom.

Legend and Purpose

Do you wrestle with dreams?
Do you contend with shadows?
Do you move in a kind of sleep?
Time has slipped away.
Your life is stolen.
You tarried with trifles.
Victim of your folly.

As the story progresses we see the coming of age of a teenage boy into a leader, a chosen prophet who must fulfill his destiny. We see through the eyes of Paul how he was purposefully bred to this position, part of a plan by the Bene Gesserit who are seeking to breed a person which can see all pasts and futures, who can traverse time and be used for power. In this we see that Paul (Muad'Dib) must accept the responsibility of his fate, and regain control of his life for the greater good.

Think you of the fact that a deaf person cannot hear. Then, what deafness may we not all possess? What senses do we lack that we cannot see and cannot hear another world all around us?

As we learn of Paul's extra sensory powers it leads us to wonder what we don't perceive in our own lives. This idea is emphasized with the prevalence of drugs which heighten awareness and consciousness. Drugs also act as a source of power to those who can harvest and sell it. From this theme, also stems the theme of dependence. We see how the drugs create dependencies after being introduced into a user's life and how that user's life depends on continued use of the drug. This concept is even compared to air and water which give us the ability of consciousness in our own lives, and for which we could not live without. This thought could even be extended further to items like cars and internet, both of which we don't really need to live, but for which we find it extremely difficult to do without after they have been introduced into our lives.

Zen Buddhism

Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.

The proper teaching is recognized with ease. You can know it without fail because it awakens within you that sensations which tells you this is something you've always known.

Dune also touches on themes of reincarnation and an underlying transcendental sense of purpose that can only be felt from our inherited memory. Paul is filled with memories he cannot explain, and the Reverend Mothers are bodies who contain the consciousness of more than one being, passed down through the generations. Besides strong ties to buddhist teaching the thought also provides interesting food for thought as to what memories we have in our own mind that we cannot account for. Maybe hunting on the plains, or sleeping in a cave?

Wisdom

How often it is that the angry man rages denial of what his inner self is telling him.

Muad'Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It's shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Muad'Dib knew that every experience carries its lesson.

Frank Herbert saturated Dune with lines of appealing and thought provoking wisdom. It is the wisdom in each character's action that inspires the most admiration. Their own thoughts and insights are the best weapons they have, the best tools they can use to increase their chances for success. The wisdom in the book is what makes it an inspirational read, and a book worth reading again and again.

Any road followed precisely to its end leads precisely nowhere. Climb the mountain just a little bit to test that it's a mountain. From the top of the mountain, you cannot see the mountain.

Think of sight. You have eyes, yet cannot see without light. If you are on the floor of a valley, you cannot see beyond your valley. Just so, Muad'Dib could not always choose to look across the mysterious terrain. He tells us that a single obscure decision of prophecy, perhaps the choice of one word over another, could change the entire aspect of the future. He tells us "The vision of time is broad, but when you pass through it, time becomes a narrow door." And always, he fought the temptation to choose a clear, safe course, warning "That path leads ever down into stagnation."



Get Dune from Amazon.com