Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 9, 1994 TAG: 9410140049
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
By the Editors and Reporters of Science Times. Times Books. $25.
This long book with the long name is a compendium of articles culled from the pages of The New York Times's Science Section. Divided into nine sections, 111 articles attributed to 28 authors cover the pop science scene by describing a uranium dump in Germany, calculating volume of disposable diapers present in a landfill, the attempts to restore the Kissimmee river to its banks after being channeled into the C-38 canal by the Army Corps of Engineers (these are the guys who are planning the channeling of the Roanoke River for flood control purposes), and questioning if it is cost effective to save oil-coated sea otters - $80,000 per otter at the Prince William Sound oil spill. Like all collections of such articles, this book can't be read at a single sitting. It must be read one entry at a time as the entries were originally written. This makes reading the book a long journey, but when reflecting on the trip at the destination, a pleasing one.
- LARRY SHIELD
Defying the Gods: Inside the New Frontiers of Organ Transplants.
By Scott McCartney. Macmillan. $22.
Judging by his list of honors, Scott McCartney is a cut above the average newspaper reporter. This book will only enhance his reputation. Three years after his sister-in-law succumbed to infectious complications of a multi-organ transplant, McCartney returned to Baylor to follow the liver transplant team on its daily rounds. He uses the fine reportorial device of following several patients through the process of selection, surgery and outcome to illustrate the intricacies of liver transplantation. That provides the human-interest aspect for a story that would be as try and abstruse as the current debate on health care and its financing.
While the human outcomes are the foundation on which the edifice of transplantation rests, the vigor of the debate rages around its place in a system that all but excludes some others from very basic care. McCartney doesn't duck the issues, a sign of a good reporter. So, the pros and cons of transplantation come under scrutiny. At the time of his writing, Oklahoma City had as many liver programs as New York City. Can that be appropriate?
There are many other issues as well. How are organs allocated? Who has first claim on a liver suitable for transplantation: the patient across town in the local program or another who is an airplane flight and three states away but who has been waiting longer and who already flirts with death? Transplant programs demand money up front - a lot of money. What of those with inadequate or no insurance? The waiting list grows long but the supply of organs is limited, thanks in part to seat-belt use. Where are the organs to come from? And what of the alcoholic who has ruined his own liver with drink? Where does he stand in line compared to a child with a progressive congenital disorder?
Hard questions all! McCartney covers them in smooth serviceable prose. There are no simple answers but the pros and cons, the strong points and their counterpoints are fairly made.
- SIDNEY BARRITT
The Next Dominant Species.
By Milo Lawrence. Altos. $19.95.
According to this novel, "The Next Dominant Species" could well be a form of computerized robot. The secret, it would seem. is to imbue the computer program with a sense of awareness and to come up with something like the "HAL" computer character from Arthur C. Clarke's "2001: A Space Odyssey" and its sequels.
But this story takes place in the apparent present and, while it is long on ideas, it falls short in characterization. Even so, Lawrence gives a good sense of what kind of struggles go on in the funding of new research projects. As in much of Ayn Rand's fiction, the characters seem to exist mainly to give voice to the ideas involved in the story.
In the end, the computer intelligence known as "Ben" is probably more engaging to the reader than the flawed hero, abused-wife heroine, lecturing Luddites and sinister big-corporation conspirators that surround "him."
- PAUL DELLINGER
The Civil War Years: A Day By Day Chronicle of the Life of a Nation.
By Robert E. Denney. Sterling. $24.95.
Having read the title, the first question becomes, "Which nation?" Having read the book, and seen its biases, the answer is obvious: "The USA, not the CSA."
Robert Denney, a retired veteran and former president of the Civil War Round Table of Washington, has written a book that would make an ideal text for the Granola School of Civil War Studies. There's a date here, a chip there and a flake somewhere else. Each date snatches a slice out of somebody's life or action and presents it seemingly at random.
It's interesting, but like granola, not wholly satisfying. It's also an ideal book for those looking for some overlooked piece of grit from the war, or even a nit to pick. Barksdale's Mississippians faced north, not west, as Denney claims, in the early part of the Battle of Fredericksburg in December, 1862. That sort of thing.
- ROBERT HILLDRUP
Larry Shield trains dogs and horses in Franklin County.
Sidney Barritt is a Roanoke physician.
Paul Dellinger reports on Southwest Virginia from Pulaski.
Robert Hilldrup is a Richmond writer and former newspaperman.
by CNB