Michael L. Martin Jr. | Author of Fantasy Novels

tetw:

The Worst Mistake in History by Jared Diamond - Could it be that civilisation itself is a crisis measure, a result of the overpoulation brought about by the unique sucess humanity? A fascinating new perspective on progress.

To Have is To Owe by David Graeber - Does anyone know what the green stuff really is? David Graeber cuts through centuries of monetary mythology to give an unusually credible answer.

The Origin of Aids by Tom Curtis - Disturbing evidence suggesting that AIDS epidemic may have been unintentionally caused by large scale vacination programmes.

Plastic Ocean by Susan Casey - Where does all the plastic go? To a giant whirlpool in the middle of the pacific. And from there, who knows?

Bystanders to Genocide by Samantha Power - Never again? Maybe not. This standout piece of in-depth reporting asks why the US goverment refused to intervene during the Rwandan genocide despite knowing about the unfolding atrocities.

What if It’s All Been a Big Fat Lie? by Gary Taubes - Is fat our enemy, or is it a lie dreamt up by the processed food industry so they can sell us branded carbs? Gary Taubes takes a look at the evidence.

The Oil We Eat by Richard Manning - A great piece of journalism exploring the relationship between food production and energy, an issue that will define the coming century.

The Wisdom of Saint Marshall, the Holy Fool by Gary Wolf - Believe the hype… Marshall McLuhan is arguably one of the most important thinkers of the information age. Here a brief but insightful introduction to his work.

Israel: The Alternative by Tony Judt - A rare voice of reason in a debate railroaded by fanatics, Tony Judt proposes a real soultion that nobody seems ready to hear.

tetw:

Liking Is for Cowards by Jonathan Franzen - Is clicking buttons a way to avoid real commitment? A beautiful piece about our fear of real connections.

The Vietnam Syndrome by Christopher Hitchens - Hitchens exposes the ongoing tragedy of Agent Orange with a power that only a few writers can muster.

My Secret Life of crime by Geoff Dyer - Narrow esacpes from death, imprisonment and grevious bodily harm. A trio of life changing events that never were.

The Accidental Rebel by Paul Auster - Our narrator gets caught up in heady days of the late 1960s and ends up occupying a university building. I’m sure we’ve ll been there.

The Rise of the Essay by Zadie Smith - Why novelists love writing essays. Explained by a novelist in an essay, of course.

The Rumor by John Updike - A rumour takes on a life of its own. A great story that manages to feel both real and imagined at the same time.

Living With Geese by Paul Theroux - As well as getting to the heart of Goose psychology, the author launches a scathing offensive against the needy, anthropomorphising animal lover.

tetw:

How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read by Pierre Bayard - Not reading is our main way of relating to most literature, find out how to make the most of your ignorance.

The Birth of ‘The New Journalism’ by Tom Wolfe - Who put the ‘I’ in journalism - Tom Wolfe seems to think that he and his friends were responsbile.

jtotheizzoe:

Gene therapy (the replacement of a malfunctioning gene with a healthy one, usually through the use of mostly harmless viruses) for a deadly immune disorder is approaching the effectiveness of traditional therapies, despite some early speedbumps. This is good news for a field I am very much a fan of.

When it was first used in the 1990s to treat an immune deficiency, gene therapy — treating diseases by correcting a patient’s faulty genes — was touted as a breakthrough that was likely to cure scores of hereditary diseases. But when 18-year-old Jessie Gelsinger died in 1999 after having a corrected gene injected to treat his liver disease, the field became wary, and researchers found it difficult to fix the problems associated with the technique.

Now, more than 20 years later, long-term survival data are giving researchers hope that gene therapy might still fulfil its potential. Two studies published today in Science Translational Medicine show that 13 of 16 children treated with gene therapy for severe combined immune deficiency, or SCID, have had their immune systems restored, and one other is in remission for leukemia that developed due to the gene therapy treatment.

Science truly does amazing things, no?