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Next is about genetics. The story starts with a trial in which Mr. Burnett had cancer, went to a UCLA specialist to get it treated because this specialist was tops in his field, and then UCLA sold his tissues and cell line to a private genetic company called Biogen. The court ruled that Biogen owned his cells. This book is filled with moral and ethical dilemmas like that one. The people in this book, usually the scientists, tend to edge more to the immoral and unethical in the decisions that they make which actually makes for entertaining reading or in my case listening.
Another direction the book takes is in transgenic animals. These are animals who, in the lab, were injected with human genes, and can now talk. This is where the book can get a little bit far-fetched, but it is still entertaining. A group of tourists in Southeast Asia come across an orangutan that swears in French in a raspy voice. The news media go crazy, but when they can’t find it, they give up on it. One of the fun characters in the book is actually a talking parrot named Gerard. Gerard imitates people and TV shows, but much more proficient than an actual parrot. In one scene Gerard is like a tape recorder playing back for his female owner the whole scene verbatim of her husband having an affair while she is at a conference out of town complete with the “Oh Baby’s”.
Interspersed in the action of the various story lines are news articles related to genetics. These are the kind of fluff “news” science stories that appear in newspapers. Examples included the genetics of blondes and how Neaderthals evolved blonde hair to evoke more sexuality. Those were kind of funny. Overall I found the book to be entertaining. It is not heavy literature, but light, fun reading. The science was made interesting as well. Included with audio book is a publisher’s interview with Michael Crichton in which he points out some real life issues researching the book has made clear to him. One is that it should be made illegal to patent genes. In Crichton’s opinion genes are natural and should not be patented. He says that someone owns the patent for the SARS genes which prevented treatment of the disease until courts could find a way around the patent. That was very interesting.
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