Deborah Blum's The Poisoners Handbook takes a grim but entertaining trip back to jazz age New York City to the first professional Forensic Lab run by Charles Norris and toxicologist Alexander Gettler.
They solve crimes using tools developed in the lab. They experience successes and failures as juries struggle to understand the new science and cleaver criminals are sometimes one step ahead.
The era of prohibition also factors into the story as people turn to alternate methods of getting less than safe contaminated alcoholic beverages.
We owe debt to the people working in these labs by transforming the role of a Coroner from a political appointee to a professional scientifically based position.
Robert Greenberg's Music as a Mirror of History goes behind the scenes to the politics and people behind some of the greatest orchestral works. He offers strong opinions with well researched history. We get to experience the music and composer's motivation.
This is an excellent deep introduction to both political and musical history in a thoroughly entertaining presentation.
I am listening to the audio book version of William MacAskill's book What We Owe The Future. At first I was disappointed in the discussion that covered the idea that our current decisions should focus on the effect of seven generations from our current one. There are no disagreements with this approach but I have known about this approach for over twenty years and wanted additional insight. Fortunately the rest of the book did not disappoint.
The author focuses on long term ism. What threats pose existential threats to the survival of the people on our planet. When the comet Shoemaker-Levy - 9 crashed into Jupiter in 1994 that got the world's attention and we developed the Center for Near Earth Orbit Studies to track space objects that may collide with the earth and cause significant damage.
He discusses the danger of bioengineered agents that could kill a large part of our population. Outbreaks linked to breaches in biosecurity at a lab caused an outbreak of hoof and mouth disease in the UK twice with decaying plumbing as the source. The former Soviet Union had releases of anthrax, small pox and other bioweapons.
The small changes in birth rate produces large changes in the world population. With the exception of Africa most countries do not have replacement birthrates and will begin to have significant declines in population.
There are dangers in locking in ideology or approaches to problems. He noted that the uniform international resistance to early human testing of the covid vaccine on humans even with the fast development probably resulted in the unnecessary deaths of at least a million people. If one country would have taken the risk, we could have learned from their experience. This does point to the benefit of different states and countries trying different solutions to a problem. We should not be too hasty when we want to drive toward a uniform solution.
What is Longtermism? - 9 minutes
What are the most important moral issues of our time - 12 minutes
Each chapter covers a different benefit of music in our lives backed by scientific research. The graphics are colorful. The author sprinkles quotes and interviews with musical artist throughout the book.
The book describes the benefits of music for individuals with dementia showing how Tony Bennett came alive when he would sing. At a Christmas gathering this year, I mentioned this to a health care worker who observed the same effect on a patient who was a former church organist. The woman was generally unresponsive but came alive when they played church Christmas music. According to research cited in the book musical memories are often one of the most conserved in the brain.
Music can also help us get through difficult times such as the sadness from the break up of a relationship. The authors recommend selecting music that reflects the current mood and gradually changing the selection to music that guides a person from the current emotional state to one that allows recovery.
For me and colleagues at work, music helps get through mundane tasks of pouring plates, typing up data tables and analyzing samples. It also brings joy through movement in dance.
Peter Gabriel talks Reverberations with the author - 30 minutes
Peter Gabriel and Kevin Blanchard on Reverberations - 53 minutes
