AND THE WATERS TURNED TO BLOOD

Rating:
Summary: lala
Review: alright, first of all this book got on my nerds

Rating:
Summary: required reading for anyone interested in the environment or
Review: An amazing story of scientific discovery at its best. The complexities of research in epidemiology has never been written about so well. It is a thriller wrapped in deceit and attempts at keeping the public non-informed, there are sharks all around and few know of their existence.

The authors take the reader on a journey of discovery that they will not forget. Read this and think about what else may be effecting our environment and, ultimately, our health.

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Summary: Yet another biological bomb lays in wait, are we ready?
Review: And The Waters Turned To Blood, by Rodney Barker, exposes yet another biological bomb lying in wait for humanity. This time, a mysterious marine organism, Pfiesteria piscicida, lurks in the tranquil waters of North Carolina.

Almost as bad as the biological effects of the organism, are the human reactions to the information that a lone researcher, Dr. JoAnn Burkholder, presents. Her attempts to publicize the danger of this deadly organism are met with ridicule, anger and outright deceit, all to the detriment of the American public.

The description of the infighting amongst colleagues and the treachery of the state would seem to be irrelevant and distracting, until one realizes that all of these behaviors get in the way of Dr. Burkholder and other responsible people who wish to inform the public of the danger of Pfiesteria. How many other important health concerns are blocked in just this manner? There have been many new organisms in the news lately, but Pfiesteria is one that is much closer to our shores than one like Ebola. The public needs to know as soon as possible when a health threat manifests itself, and this book shows that all too often, personalities get in the way and crucial time and information are lost.

Highly Recommended. Bonnie Malmat ([e-mail])

Rating:
Summary: Yet another biological bomb lays in wait, are we ready?
Review: And The Waters Turned To Blood, by Rodney Barker, exposes yet another biological bomb lying in wait for humanity. This time, a mysterious marine organism, Pfiesteria piscicida,lurks in the tranquil waters of North Carolina.

Almost as bad as the biological effects of the organism, are the human reactions to the information that a lone researcher, Dr. JoAnn Burkholder, presents. Her attempts to publicize the danger of this deadly organism are met with ridicule, anger and outright deceit, all to the detriment of the American public.

The description of the infighting amongst colleagues and the treachery of the state would seem to be irrelevant and distracting, until one realizes that all of these behaviors get in the way of Dr. Burkholder and other responsible people who wish to inform the public of the danger of Pfiesteria. How many other important health concerns are blocked in just this manner? There have been many new organisms in the news lately, but Pfiesteria is one that is much closer to our shores than one like Ebola. The public needs to know as soon as possible when a health threat manifests itself, and this book shows that all too often, personalities get in the way and crucial time and information are lost.

Highly Recommended. Bonnie Malmat ([e-mail])

Rating:
Summary: Be scared. Be very scared.
Review: Barker's AND THE WATERS TURNED TO BLOOD is a whooping good, well-told true story of thoughtful, good-natured people being screwed by egomanical, backside-covering bureaucrats and scientists who certain reviewers on-line would rather believe aren't really such bad guys. I, for one, am wholly convinced by Barker's careful investigation and analysis and am wholly sympathetic to the obvious Good Guys in this book.

To what degree were everyday Germans responsible for the Nazi Holocaust? Similarly, to what degree are the recalcitrant American media responsible for not covering wildly important stories such as the Pfiesteria plague, wholly preventable if greedy industries were forced to comply with precepts of human decency by being fined heavily for polluting? (Only a self-interested beaureacratic bimbo would deny the link between industrial pollution and the explosion of Pfiesteria blooms.)

Last week the Chesapeake Bay area was decimated by fishkills and Pfiesteria. Next week it will be some place else. Meanwhile, the media largely ignores the topic to avoid "mass hysteria" and to keep the profits flowing. To what degree are you, dear reader, responsible for not learning more about Pfiesteria by reading this book and then by making some irate phone calls and writing some irate letters because you'd enjoy a healthy America for future generations?

Our greatest living novelist, Kurt Vonnegut, suggests in an essay that carved on a Grand Canyon wall in great big letters for the flying-saucer people who arrive in a hundred years and find a dead planet with no people should be these messages: "WE PROBABLY COULD HAVE SAVED OURSELVES BUT WERE TOO DAMNED LAZY TO TRY VERY HARD. AND TOO DAMNED CHEAP." Rodney Barker's superlative book certainly supports this idea.

Richard Rhodes' DEADLY FEASTS, about the American Med-Cow disease cover-up, also supports Vonnegut's idea: we are too lazy and cheap to save ourselves

Rating:
Summary: The truth about science and how a REAL HERO persevered
Review: Barker's book is an excellent, well-researched, well-written report that tells the shocking tale of the discovery of Pfiesteria - a toxic little beastie! Not only are the Pfiesteria fascinating in their simplicity, but in their implications for serious environmental and human disasters.

The most poignant part of this reality is how politics, both governmental AND academic, created roadblocks for truly cutting-edge research. Scientific research is not the ideal learning situation that many think it is - it is twisted by in-fighting, monetary constraints and personal vendettas.

Congratulations to Dr. Burkholder for sticking it out!! She has amazing stamina, persistence and a real concern for her fellow humans. Since I am a female graduate student in science, it is heartening to know that other women can make significant contributions to science, despite the frustrating challenges that can make the pursuit of truth seem unattainable.

Dr. Burkholder is without a doubt a modern hero and true role model.

Rating:
Summary: The truth about science and how a REAL HERO persevered
Review: Barker's book is an excellent, well-researched, well-written report that tells the shocking tale of the discovery of Pfiesteria - a toxic little beastie! Not only are the Pfiesteria fascinating in their simplicity, but in their implications for serious environmental and human disasters.

The most poignant part of this reality is how politics, both governmental AND academic, created roadblocks for truly cutting-edge research. Scientific research is not the ideal learning situation that many think it is - it is twisted by in-fighting, monetary constraints and personal vendettas.

Congratulations to Dr. Burkholder for sticking it out!! She has amazing stamina, persistence and a real concern for her fellow humans. Since I am a female graduate student in science, it is heartening to know that other women can make significant contributions to science, despite the frustrating challenges that can make the pursuit of truth seem unattainable.

Dr. Burkholder is without a doubt a modern hero and true role model.

Rating:
Summary: Here's the book I've been waiting for
Review: Here's the book I've been waiting for, about pfiesteria piscicida (feast-eer-ee-ah pis-ki-seed-ah), the microscopic animal that is terrorizing the waters up and down the east coast of the U.S. (and perhaps coming soon to a waterway near you).

The main focus of the book is top researcher JoAnn Burkholder, and her struggle to get beyond the politics and bureaucracy of various agencies in North Carolina, in order to obtain funding to continue her research on the organism. The increased water pollution in recent years, in the form of livestock-manure runoff, and dumpings from industry, have created an environment that favors the flourishing of pfiesteria. It has at least 24 stages of life cycle, remaining in a dormant cyst stage until it senses the presence of fish. Then it comes to life, zapping the fish with a kind of neurotoxin and then eating holes in the fish. Humans who come into contact with water in which pfiesteria (in its toxic stage) is present, often suffer skin lesions that won't heal, memory loss, and disorientation. Chronic exposure can lead to personality changes and loss of cognitive function that emulates brain damage, which is what happened to lab worker Howard Glasgow, whose story is discussed in detail in this book.

It is a tale that seems familiar: a strong-willed scientist makes a major discovery about what is killing fish in North Carolina's waterways. Then she has to deal with greedy and jealous scientists who wish they had been the ones to make the discovery, and who try to ruin her career. Then she must face the media attention, and finds herself becoming an advocate for the citizens, who simply want to know if that thing that is harming the fish can harm humans too. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence to say YES. But the stuffed shirts in the government agencies don't want to hear it: swayed by money, rather than truth and justice, it's business as usual. Then there is the classic conflict between jobs vs. environment. When fishermen are getting too sick to function, an! d all the fish are dead, anybody with a brain would choose "environment" over "job". Wouldn't they?

Next time I'm near a body of water where dead fish covered with bloody lesions are floating, I plan to run fast in the opposite direction.

Rating:
Summary: Nonfiction books are NOT novels.
Review: I read some of the on-line reviews which criticized the "plot" and called this a "novel." Please, if one cannot comprehend differentiation between fiction and nonfiction, do not judge. If the "plot" did not work in the way you would have liked it, THAT'S BARKER'S POINT!

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Summary: I beg to differ about this piece of nonfiction!
Review: I really usually enjoy reading about emerging viruses. I tend to read a lot of nonfiction anyway, and I have background in viruses in medical school and working in a HIV lab for four years and with the pseudorabies virus. This time, I just couldn't get into this particular book. Baker did not provide the good science writing that I am used to looking for...the book was very hard to read, very hard to get through. He doesn't have the way with words say of Oliver Sacks, the passion of Stephen Jay Gould, the sense of humor of Issac Asmivov, the sense of need and importance of Richard Rhodes or Richard Preston or Laurie Garrett. This book is in hand and going to the library. Maybe someone else will enjoy it more than I, but I cannot recommend this book to my hearing colleagues or my deaf students (which is why I keep good science books).

The story itself concerning pfisteria is interesting, which is why I got the book in the first place. I just think it could have been better done. Unlike with the above mentioned authors, this particular book published in 1998, has gone through its hardcover and other editions, and disappeared from sight. To me, that is indicative that the book did not prove to resonate with its reading public, that it didn't 'prove' the importance of the subject matter being written about. If the author managed to convince some readers that this was a piece of fiction rather than nonfiction, something definitely went wrong in the writing or the presentation of the book. Part of that may have been the publisher's fault for the picture slapped on the paperback, the title of the book, and the trying to market this book as a 'scare-monger' piece. Good writing of the actual facts, the people involved always get my attention much better than a 'bloody front cover'!

Karen Sadler
Science Education
University of Pittsburgh