Robin

I listened to this book right after reading Tim Wu's "The Master Switch". Both books are wonderful on their own, but together they are a rare treat. "The Information" covered a lot of familiar ground for me as I read quite a bit of science history. Even then, it was very enjoyable. After that review however it digs into the philosophy of information science and becomes absolutely delightful. I'd recommend this highly, especially if you have time to read Wu's book too.

I was expecting a good review of the state of the art in biotech. Instead this is a thinly disguised Catholic manifesto on the evils of abortion and the need to regard a few cells as a "nascent human life". The author comes out against in-vitro fertilization because of the excess fertilized eggs produced, demonizes researchers as motivated by money and the desire to "destroy nascent human life", and praises George Bush's stand against stem cell research. It's pretty much out of date anyway since the current research tends to emphasise induced pluripotent stem cells anyway and the embryonic argument is moot. I suppose the "Brave New World" in the title should have tipped me off to the author's bias... I wouldn't recommend this to anyone interested in a scientific overview. Might appeal to church groups but that's about the only ones I can see getting anything out of it.