Customer Reviews

The Epic History Of Biology

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This fascingating and readable account of the history of biology, from ancient times through genetic engineering, should be really inspirational to those with an interest in the science. The author does a great job of giving the right amount of detail, with coverage of people and concepts brief enough to make it highly readable. Also high marks to the author for writing in an accessible style that is inviting and unintimidating. This is one of the best and most enjoyable history of biology books available, and for those who want to understand how we got to where we are in the field, this is a great place to start looking.

This book offers a fast-paced dive into the players and cultural influences throughout the ages that contributed to biology. Anthony Serafini captures reader interest with vignettes that include the major accomplishments coupled with peripheral factors that offer the reader a better understanding of the thinking and influences rampant so many years ago, e.g., Aristotlean philosophy and how it influenced the views of such luminaries as Anton van Leeuwenhoek. This book caused me to step outside my usual thinking - rather like when I travel to a foreign country - except Serafini was taking me into the past. He made me wonder just what influences today are propelling us forward, holding us in limbo, and even causing us to slide back. It is a book that appeals to me on many levels as I gained from it greater insight into history, science, and creativity.

I was motivated to find and read this book because it seemed counterintuitive that while biology has made such extraordinary advancements, at the same time, the living systems of the planet have come under threat as never before. It seemed that somewhere biology had taken a wrong turn. Why was its first priority not to understand the biosphere and guide the activities of humanity to keep it healthy for the benefit of all?

This book answers these questions as it leads us through the history of biology, beginning with its powerful religious roots, which affect it to this day. The denial of the animal as a sentient living creature linked to us by evolutionary continuity was basic. Animals were considered instead as mechanical automatons, which over the centuries has been highly convenient, as is seen in modern agribusiness, medicine, and millions of often trivial scientific experiments which ignore animal suffering and their biological needs.

Biology focused its attention inward, first through cutting up animals, alive or dead, continuously probing deeper and deeper into their most minute workings. With the discovery of the microscope, cellular functions could be analysed, and experimented with, and eventually DNA and its make-up and the possibilities for changing it, became biology's crowning achievement.

The wider study of the interactions of the millions of life forms that make up the biospere was essentially ignored, with the result that biology has failed to protect us from the ecological crisis now upon us.

This is a very enlightening book. A must read when wondering how the world evolved into its current state.