Life Changing: How Humans Are Altering Life on Earth

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.)