Unnatural Selection

September 1, 2014
The power of evolution, toxicologist Monosson (Evolution in a Toxic World) demonstrates, is quite amazing: when strong selective pressure is coupled with short generation times, significant changes in populations can occur over very brief intervals. Monosson focuses on a number of ways humans have created strict selective environments, in which targeted species either must adapt quickly or die, to combat serious pests. She then examines how targeted species have outsmarted us, in large part due to our injudicious use of selective agents. The results might well be catastrophic for the well-being of the human population—indiscriminate use of antibiotics has created superbugs for which we have no meaningful defense. Monosson warns us that “The threat of untreatable infections is real... the day when antibiotics don’t work is upon us.” She describes a similar situation with pesticide resistant weeds, showing that they are increasingly overrunning crops with impunity. Monosson extends these lessons by exploring the impact our practices have on control of cancerous cells, bedbugs, and disease-carrying and agriculture-destroying insects. She concludes with an interesting, if tangential, discussion of epigenetics, which is the study of the impact of environmental influences on genetic expression over the course of generations. Throughout, Monosson’s goal is to understand “how our choices impact life’s evolutionary course.”

October 15, 2014
Biochemical toxicologist Monosson (Evolution in a Toxic World, 2012) returns with a disturbing but fascinating look at evolution in the fast lane. Focusing on species with a rapid population growth, she writes of bugs, bacteria, weeds, and cancer cells that evolve resistances to cures or herbicides at rates far beyond other species. In bright, clear, and accessible prose, she notes vaccines that cannot keep up with viruses, bedbugs that have slipped past pest control, and a little fish called the tomcod that has evolved resistance to PCBs, chemicals that are both ubiquitous and terrifying in their near-total takeover of modern life. The author is patient and methodical as she points out the enormous yet unrecognized evolutionary changes under way all around us. While it might be convenient to continue to spray Roundup with abandon, Monosson says Stop, and calls for the reduction of our chemical footprint. Here is one example: we feed 30 million pounds of antibiotics to livestock in the U.S. annually, causing an epic rise in staph infection resistance. A concise book with a powerful message.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)