Will Phages Ever Have Their Day?

 Phages are viruses that colonize bacteria, including those that cause infection and disease. A new book traces phage science’s fascinating and unlikely evolution. Phages are, at last, being recognized for their life saving potential. But challenges remain. Viruses have a fearsome reputation. These infinitesimally tiny particles typically inspire thoughts of

A most consequential virus

 Title: Apollo's Arrow: The Profound And Enduring Impact Of Coronavirus On The Way We Live Published: October 27, 2020 Publisher: Little, Brown And Company ISBN:  13:9780316628211 In Apollo’s Arrow, Nicholas A. Christakis tells an essential, if incomplete, story about Covid-19 and the pandemic through which we are still living. 1. A Novel

An Eerie Glow:  By Gaslight is a Masterpiece of Storytelling

 By Gaslight By Steven Price Book Reviewed by Don MacLean Steven Price’s remarkable new novel By Gaslight opens with a Dickensian depiction of London. It’s January 1885 and the great city is steeped in a swirling, ominous fog. Like a debilitating virus, the coal soaked air serves to make anyone

Walking with Abel: Journeys with the Nomads of the African Savannah

 Author: Anna Badkhen Riverhead Books, New York, 2015 Reviewed by Don MacLean Anna Badkhen’s wonderful book Walking with Abel: Journeys with the Nomads of the African Savannah documents her journeys with members of the nomadic Fulani, perhaps the largest group of nomads living today. The Mali-based Fulani migrate across the

History of Medicine and Science

 Wounded British soldiers, 10 April 1918. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.  Felix d’Herelle and the Discovery of Therapeutic Viruses Felix d’Herelle was a Canadian scientist who co-discovered bacteriophages. Bacteriophages are viruses that thrive on and kill disease and infection causing bacteria. Why was phage therapy’s promise never realized in the

Black in America

 Between the World and Me By: Ta-Nehisi Coates Reviewed by Don MacLean In the October 6, 2014 issue of the New Yorker Jennifer Gonnerman tells the remarkably tragic story of Kalief Browder, a Black 16 year old male living in the Bronx. On a Saturday evening in May 2010 Kalief

Review: A Neurosurgeon’s Challenge

 Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery Henry Marsh St Martin’s Press, New York, 2014. Reviewed By Don MacLean Consider, if you will, the delicate surgical task of removing a pineocytoma, which is defined as “an uncommon, slow growing tumour of the pineal gland.” The patient is

Adventure, Canadian Style Part One

 All photos courtesy of Don MacLean. Echoes of Newfoundland’s Past “Go out to the deck,” we were told over the ship’s PA system. “Whales have been spotted off the port side.” I hurried outside, eager to catch a glimpse. It was July but the morning sea air was cool, invigorating.

Talking About a Murder

 Why is the podcast “Serial” so popular? The place of podcasts in the wider culture is still uncertain. I have a few friends who embrace the medium. They might listen to Radiolab or The Partially Examined Life or to CBC podcasts. They think of podcasts as part of a freely

Family Ties

  Sugar in the Blood: A Family’s Story of Slavery and Empire Vintage Books, 2012, 353pp. By Andrea Stuart Reviewed by Don MacLean Family trees are all the rage. Part of their appeal is surely the element of surprise. The deeper one digs, the more likely a discovery that the tree’s

Climate Change and Arctic Sovereignty

 ABOVE: Melting Arctic Sea ice. Many of Canada’s most enduring myths originate in the Arctic. We still tend to think of the Arctic region as a vast unchanging space, as though frozen in time. The region is unrelentingly cold and the landscape consists of snow and ice, with very little