Rating: 
Summary: Popular science evolves!
Review: This book has everything and it has it in abundance. I often "recycle" my books by taking them to the local used book store so that others will enjoy them. Selfishness prohibits me from doing the same in this case. Dr. Andreadis has written a book that the layperson will choose to keep around as a guidebook to all things human. It's that good! If you are a "trekker", you will appreciate all of the wonderful examples that Dr. Andreadis uses to illustrate her incredible knowledge of her field of neurology. If Star Trek tie-in's usually annoy you, read it anyway - you will come away with a beautiful, holistic understanding of a subject that can only interest each and every one of us. There is very little extraneous material, often causing the reader to long for more detail - in my opinion, the mark of an excellent popular science book. The subjects just whiz by. Her enthusiasm for her subject mirrors that of the best of the science popularizers: Stephen Jay Gould and the late Carl Sagan. As a musician, I particularly enjoyed all of the parallels drawn between art and science. This is not a "stuffy" science book by any possible stretch of the imagination.
Rating:
Summary: Popular science evolves!
Review: This book has everything and it has it in abundance. I often "recycle" my books by taking them to the local used book store so that others will enjoy them. Selfishness prohibits me from doing the same in this case. Dr. Andreadis has written a book that the layperson will choose to keep around as a guidebook to all things human. It's that good! If you are a "trekker", you will appreciate all of the wonderful examples that Dr. Andreadis uses to illustrate her incredible knowledge of her field of neurology. If Star Trek tie-in's usually annoy you, read it anyway - you will come away with a beautiful, holistic understanding of a subject that can only interest each and every one of us. There is very little extraneous material, often causing the reader to long for more detail - in my opinion, the mark of an excellent popular science book. The subjects just whiz by. Her enthusiasm for her subject mirrors that of the best of the science popularizers: Stephen Jay Gould and the late Carl Sagan. As a musician, I particularly enjoyed all of the parallels drawn between art and science. This is not a "stuffy" science book by any possible stretch of the imagination.
Rating:
Summary: Doesn't live up to its title!
Review: This book is a disappointment, primarily because it is mistitled. It's not the serious and considered analysis and discussion of the biological plausibility and possibility of the alien flora and fauna of the Star Trek TV shows and movies that it should be. It even gets a lot of terrestrial biology wrong. For example: 1)In mentioning prion diseases like kuru and spongiform encephalopathy, for example, she says that, "many scientists are arguing that prions are accompanied by an associated virus." In fact, it has been known for some years that prions are normal brain proteins with abnormal shapes that can induce the same abnormal shape change in other molecules of their kind. It's an amazing blunder since Andreadis is an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. 2)In discussing symbiosis, Andreadis calls lichens " a union of an alga and a moss. In fact, lichens are symbiotic unions of an alga and a fungus, while mosses are actually plants. She also refers to "angelfish" as being able to live in sea anemones, when it is *clownfish* that do this. 3)Andreadis makes numerous categorical statements that are open to question, to say the least. She asserts "unequivocally," for example, that "humans are sexually dimorphic." In biology, this applies to species like peacocks, in which the males have a very different plumage than the females, or certain spiders, in which the females can be many times larger than the males, or other species in which males and females are very different from one another. Human males and females, on the other hand, are very much alike in almost everything but their genital anatomy, and this is the rational basis for gender equity, of which Andreadis is an obvious supporter. The fact that we can - usually - distinguish men from women does not make our species sexually dimorphic. Even more disappointing and distracting than these errors, though, is the superficiality of most of this book and the many irrelevant digressions and remarks offered by Andreadis. These better reflect late 20th Century politically correct thinking in general and Andreadis' personal opinions and prejudices in particular than what 25th Century biology and medicine might be like. Andreadis, besides being careless, just doesn't seem to have put much thought into this work.
Rating: 
Summary: Too many annoying deviations from the title subject
Review: This book was entertaining and enjoyable when it remained focused on the title subject. A few of the topics felt incomplete or overly simplified. This book was ruined by the numerous deviations into social commentary and non-biological areas (especially the last several chapters). After reading the first few chapters, I found myself scanning the following chapters so that I could find and avoid the non-biology topics. The biology sections would rate 4 stars, but my overall enjoyment of this book was greatly diminished by the deviations and tangents. Not recommended except for those who like opinions and questionable social commentary mixed in with their science.
Rating: 
Summary: Lively and opinionated
Review: This is a lively and opinionated entry in the "fill-in-the-blank of Star Trek" series and therefore one of the best, certainly up there with Physics and parsecs beyond Computers.Andreadis brings a strong scientific and biological background as well as an encyclopedic knowledge of the franchise in all its manifestations to bear throughout. She celebrates the more reasonable ideas shown, like silicon-based life forms. But she also deconstructs the silly, unscientific ones and showing just why they're silly and unscientific. (This includes such franchise mainstays as the holodeck, the universal translator, shape-shifters, and interspecies fertility.) Those wanting a more objective approach and annoyed by the occasional interjection of feminist and leftist commentary might find this book annoying. However, I enjoyed the fresh approach, the clever references, and the very individual and personal viewpoint. It's well worth reading both for Trekkies and for those wanting a different approach to biology.
Rating:
Summary: through the alimentary canal with phaser and tricorder
Review: this is a short but very rewarding read. the author, a recognized authority in her field, is a trekkie and her love of star trek comes through. that having been said, ms. andreadis's exploration of star trek biology via our present understanding of science is enlightening (maybe i don't get out as much as i should, but i haven't learned as much about science since i read gary zukav's "the dancing wu li masters"). ms. andreadis introduces us to what i'd call speculative biology and in a legitimate scientific manner dissects the "neat stuff" such as the transporter, parasites and symbionts, the universal translator (this one's GREAT!), and what the Federation really might be like. the book has no difficult vocabulary to chew through and i'd recommend it without qualification.
Rating:
Summary: through the alimentary canal with phaser and tricorder
Review: this is a short but very rewarding read. the author, a recognized authority in her field, is a trekkie and her love of star trek comes through. that having been said, ms. andreadis's exploration of star trek biology via our present understanding of science is enlightening (maybe i don't get out as much as i should, but i haven't learned as much about science since i read gary zukav's "the dancing wu li masters"). ms. andreadis introduces us to what i'd call speculative biology and in a legitimate scientific manner dissects the "neat stuff" such as the transporter, parasites and symbionts, the universal translator (this one's GREAT!), and what the Federation really might be like. the book has no difficult vocabulary to chew through and i'd recommend it without qualification.
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