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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Speculative science, not science fiction., 4 Jan 2003
Darwin's Radio is a real eye-opener about molecular biology, evolution, and the condition of the human race, not just the human race of the present or the early humans who were the immediate descendants of the hominids, but the human race as it may soon become in the future. Bear himself, after researching the book, "came away with an unshakable sense that evolutionary biology is about to undergo a major upheaval--not in the next few decades, but in the next few years"!In a powerful and exciting narrative, Bear explores just this sort of evolutionary upheaval, as SHEVA, a retrovirus, begins to attack women, causing them to miscarry at three months, while, at the same time, causing them to begin spontaneously a new, ostensibly fatherless, pregnancy within a month. Kaye Lang, a highly respected molecular biologist, and Mitch Rafelson, a disgraced anthropologist, are involved in research to contain SHEVA, studying DNA and its coding, various immune responses to bacteria and viruses, genetic mutations, and the possibility that SHEVA is not a new phenomenon at all. As the virus starts to spread and thousands of women find themselves infected, public safety is endangered, riots occur, shootings result in deaths, and the government starts to panic, requiring SHEVA-infected women to register their pregnancies, and their second stage babies, if delivered alive, to be turned over to the government. Bear does a masterful job of depicting both the personal traumas and the petty jealousies which surface when people in power recognize that a genuine emergency can also provide opportunities for personal advancement. Conflicts on both the personal and professional level are astutely presented and heighten the tension and immediacy of the SHEVA crisis. Remarkably, Bear never reduces issues or individual behavior to the level of black and white, carefully preserving the grays which are involved in all ethical and moral inquiry. The science here is dense and challenging to someone (like me) who is not a scientist, but the human story and its implications for the future are so clearly presented and intriguing, that I became thoroughly engrossed in the possibilities of new directions in evolution. Mary Whipple
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