Who benefits from big biology projects?

Debora MacKenzie, reporter

SINCE 1980, biology has burgeoned from a small-scale discipline in academic labs to a science lavishly funded by governments and industry. The transition hit its stride with the human genome project, then came stem cell research and now there is heavy investment in neurobiology. The people behind these big projects promised a better future, cures for humanity's ills and a new way to think about ourselves and society.

In this salutary history, Hilary and Steven Rose ask what has become of these claims. They provide the answer by showing how, time after time, the promises turned out to be empty.

The much-hyped medical hopes for genomics failed to materialise as disease proved to be more complex than the misbehaviour of one or two genes. And now the claims for neurobiology look similarly shaky, say the authors, who are veteran warriors in the debate over nature versus nurture in the development of the mind. And yet this kind of research continues.

According to the Roses, it is largely the corporate super-rich - big pharma, venture capitalists and a select group of the academic elite - who benefit from all this effort.

In a few places the book could spell out more clearly the harm that comes from big biology projects or how this kind of research might be done differently. Just because the initial hype proved unfounded, that does not necessarily mean the science was wrong or that it will never deliver.

That said, there is a lot of good history and philosophy here - all the more valuable because the hype is so much louder.

Book information
Genes, Cells and Brains by Hilary and Steven Rose
Verso
?20/$26.95

The engineer who defeated the wind

Ben Crystall, features editor

ONE stormy night in Boston in 1973, the windows of the John Hancock Tower began dropping onto the pavement. Alan Davenport was called in to help. Five years later, when structural engineers discovered that the newly completed 59-story Citicorp Center in New York was at risk of collapse, Davenport's phone was soon ringing again.

In Wind Wizard, Siobhan Roberts reveals Davenport as one of the unsung heroes of the construction industry. In the early 1960s, he established a wind tunnel lab at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada, where he simulated the effects of wild, tumbling air flows on structures of all kinds. The techniques he pioneered have helped protect our biggest bridges and buildings from extreme weather conditions ever since.

Roberts's book is more than an account of Davenport's life - it also provides fascinating insights into some of civil engineering's greatest achievements, and closest shaves. She reminds us how much we rely on wind engineering: from portable toilets to space rockets, Davenport tested everything. He even deciphered the complex winds at Amen Corner, a tricky section of the Augusta National Golf Club course in Georgia, using a model and 40 years of meteorological data.

Davenport died in 2009 but his monuments are all around us - including the two skyscrapers he helped to save in the 1970s. With climate change making violent storms like Sandy more common, the story of the wind wizard has never been more relevant.

Book information
Wind Wizard by Siobhan Roberts
Princeton University Press
?19.95/$29.95

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