“Sex, Drugs & DNA: Science’s taboos confronted”, Michael Stebbins

If you enjoy reading a genre that is part personal vengeance, part terrorist handbook, part counter-terrorist manual and part random bits of science education, this is the book for you.

Stebbins makes his intentions clear from the preface in which he promises to “address the stuff that pisses me off the most.” He cites Michael Moore as a great influence and inspiration and if you enjoy Moore’s style of documenting the US government’s failures, Stebbins will be right up your street, too. I kept swaying between being taken over by his Moore-ish negative enthusiasm and feeling slightly patronised by his overwhelming use of “bullshit”, “crap”, and “piss”. Other childish ways of grabbing the reader’s attention are his extremely unsubtle use of irony, inane references to pop culture in an attempt to prove – what? and his tiresome (if sometimes funny) analogies.

Some interesting points are raised in this book, however, and I couldn’t believe some of the ridiculous initiatives and actions he mentions regarding science education and research, like the Wedge Report. The chapter on bioterrorism is intentionally terrifying and despite his apologies does read like a bit of a user’s manual. Other areas covered include GM foods, cloning and sexuality so Stebbins really did pick the most controversial topics topics he could find. A good summary rant is this one taken from the chapter about global warming: “The failure of scientists to educate the public, of journalists to report the truth and of responsible politicians to constantly call out and prevent irresponsible legislation from becoming law has left the deathly stench of irresponsible and morally criminal elements in this nation unchecked and rolling in profit.”

From an editorial perspective the casual relationship with apostrophes, the neon sign book cover (yes, I was judging) and the sans serif font somehow contributed to my feeling of reading a tabloid newspaper (albeit one with a conscience).

I am not sure that scientists are such a homogeneous collection with one voice as he implies with frequent uses of “scientists want” and “scientists have never”, but maybe science does need a mouthy defender like him, and for that Stebbins can be commended, even if some of the issues are of limited interest to readers outside the US.