Life Changing: SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR WRITING ON GLOBAL CONSERVATION

by Helen Pilcher

Overview

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR WRITING ON GLOBAL CONSERVATION

'Pilcher is both very funny and very, very clever.' Gillian Burke

'Richly entertaining throughout.' Sunday Times

For the last three billion years or so, life on Earth was shaped by natural forces. Evolution tended to happen slowly, with species crafted across millennia. Then, a few hundred thousand years ago, along came a bolshie, big-brained, bipedal primate we now call Homo sapiens, and with that, the Earth's natural history came to an abrupt end. We are now living through the post-natural phase, where humans have become the leading force shaping evolution.

This thought-provoking book considers the many ways that we've altered the DNA of living things and changed the fate of life on earth. We have carved chihuahuas from wolves and fancy chickens from jungle fowl. We've added spider genes to goats and coral genes to tropical fish. It's possible to buy genetically-modified pets, eat genetically-modified fish and watch cloned ponies thunder up and down the polo field.

Now, as our global dominance grows, our influence extends far beyond these species. As we warm our world and radically reshape the biosphere, we affect the evolution of all living things, near and far, from the emergence of novel hybrids such as the pizzly bear, to the entirely new strains of animals and plants that are evolving at breakneck speed to cope with their altered environment.

In Life Changing, Helen introduces us to these post-natural creations and talks to the scientists who create, study and tend to them. At a time when the future of so many species is uncertain, we meet some of the conservationists seeking to steer evolution onto firmer footings with novel methods like the 'spermcopter', coral IVF and plans to release wild elephants into Denmark. Helen explores the changing relationship between humans and the natural world, and reveals how, with evidence-based thinking, humans can help life change for the better.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472956729
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	08/24/2021
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.01(w) x 8.11(h) x 0.97(d)

About the Author

Helen Pilcher is a science writer and comedian, with a PhD in stem cell biology and years of stand-up comedy under her belt. Helen has worked as a freelance writer for the last 12 years, and she has written for the Guardian, New Scientist, BBC online, BBC Wildlife and Nature, for which she was formerly a reporter.

Helen's previous book for Bloomsbury Sigma, Bring Back the King, was Radio 2 'Fact not Fiction' book of the week; it was described by comedian Sara Pascoe as 'science at its funniest'.

@HelenPilcher1

Table of Contents

Introduction 9

Chapter 1 The Wolf that Rolled Over 15

Chapter 2 Strategic Moos and Golden Gnus 45

Chapter 3 Super Salmon and Spider-Goats 77

Chapter 4 Game of Clones 111

Chapter 5 Screwworms and Suicide Possums 143

Chapter 6 The Age of the Chicken 171

Chapter 7 Sea-Monkeys and Pizzly Bears 201

Chapter 8 Darwin's Moth 233

Chapter 9 Resilient Reefs 261

Chapter 10 Love Island 289

Chapter 11 Pigs and Purple Emperors 319

Chapter 12 The New Ark 349

Additional Reading 361

Acknowledgements 369

Index 373

Editorial Reviews

An impressive rendering of the disturbing history of human tinkering with nature.” —Kirkus Review

“Pilcher's amusing yet grounded excursion into the essential ways humans, animals, plants, and microorganisms must coexist is both a rich and riotous popular science trove well worth contemplating.” —Booklist

From the Publisher

02/10/2020

Science writer Pilcher (Bring Back the King) delivers an agreeable account of how humans have bred and altered animals throughout history. Cheerfully, she imagines how a Stone Age boy, intent on “mischief” while the adults were out hunting, might have grabbed a wolf puppy from its den as its mother lurked nearby, thus beginning the human program of animal domestication. She proceeds to address opposing theories on how domestication happened, and delves into the complexities of genetic modification. Pilcher maintains a mostly lighthearted tone, with chapter titles such as “Strategic Moos and Golden Gnus” and references to how “evolutionary mischief-making” has resulted in “bald cats, long-haired hamsters” and “goldfish with Elvis-like quiffs.” She portrays the technology for writing genetic code as merely the most recent iteration of a long-established process, and optimistically explores its many applications (such as engineering female goats to produce milk containing strands of spider silk, a material stronger than steel). Taking a wider and more somber view, she reflects on how “in a relatively small slice of geological time—the last 12,000 years or so,” humanity has made... irrevocable changes to the Earth itself.” Popular science readers will find her entertaining work illuminates many of those changes. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

2020-01-13
An exploration of humans' role as "curators of the planet that we have come to dominate."

Transforming plants and animals for our own benefit began in prehistoric times, according to this expert, often unsettling account of this transformation's progress, which accelerated after World War II and will soon reach warp speed with advances that continue to build on those from the past decade. Science writer Pilcher, whose previous book was about de-extinction, writes that it began with the dog, domesticated tens of thousands of years ago. This was accomplished by simple Darwinian natural selection: The most amiable wolves prospered by associating with humans, produced far more offspring than their unfriendly peers, and they now vastly outnumber them. Similarly, by selecting only desirable qualities, our ancestors converted other flora and fauna to more productive crops and domestic animals. After scientists learned the secrets of DNA in the mid-20th century, genetic modification worked its wonders so well that today, there is enough food to feed the world—a goal widely considered impossible 50 years ago. Readers who forget the downside to ordering the Earth for our convenience will squirm as Pilcher chronicles how the world's jungles are being cleared to grow food mostly intended to feed livestock, which make up 60% of the planet's large land animals. Humans come next at 36%. Wildlife brings up the rear, at 4% and dwindling. Chickens are by far the most common bird. We eat more than 65 billion (!) each year, and their massive bone remains will lead future paleontologists to believe that chickens were the 21st-century's dominant life form. Concluding on an upbeat but only mildly uplifting note, Pilcher recounts successful efforts to restore barren countryside to genuine wilderness and the rescue of the cute, flightless New Zealand kakapo from extinction.

An impressive rendering of the disturbing history of human tinkering with nature.

Kirkus Reviews