Page 335 - EW September 2022

Books

Emperors of INVISIBLE EMPIRE: THE and Asia in the 18th and
19th centuries. This engag-
Gaia NATURAL HISTORY OF VIRUSES ing history also recounts
Pranay Lal
the origins of biological
PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE warfare, and discloses how
N JANUARY 2020, Rs.799 European colonisers of the
news emerged of a mys- Pages 278 Americas deliberately in-
Iterious fever in China. fected native Indians with
Until it was identified as smallpox viruses embed-
the SARS-CoV-2 or Co- ded in blankets in order to
vid-19 virus, it had spread six billion years ago, a In this fascinating wipe them out. From the
globally and by November, bacterial phyllum, Cyano- book the author Black Death plague of the
an estimated 122 million bacteria and other photo- unravels the 14th century until Brit-
individuals worldwide synthesizing organisms, mysterious ways ish physician and medical
were infected by it. Latest multiplied profusely and in which viruses scientist Edward Jenner
figures suggest that 600 produced so much oxygen orchestrate the cycle (1749-1823) discovered
million people have been that our planet froze into of life on Planet Earth the principle of vaccina-
infected and the Covid-19 a ball of ice heralding the tion and found a defence
death count is estimated Ice Age. It took another against deadly microbial
at 7 million worldwide, of virus — cyanophage — virus is derived from the infections, this encylopedic
which 5 million — against over 200 million years to Sanskrit vish, denoting tome tells it all.
the official death count curb and kill the growth of venomous poison. The The success of latter day
of 520,000 — could be in Cyanobacteria, and restore numbers and species of vaccines invented at great
India. the planet into a habit- viruses are inestimable. speed to control — even
As panic, fear, death, able environment which Trillions upon trillions live if not eradicate — the Co-
and economic disruption kick-started the evolution- in the human body (and in vid-19 pandemic, suggests
sweep across the world, ary process of all species the bodies of all species), that human ingenuity and
virus has become a dread that inhabit Planet Earth performing miraculous advances in medical sci-
word. This is not war- currently. functions that make life ence can combat virulent
ranted, says Pranay Lal, a Broadly categorised possible. viruses. But, Lal warns that
biochemist, caricaturist, under the umbrella of mi- Only an infinitesimal viruses possess incred-
animator, journalist and crobes, i.e, organisms that fraction of microbes makes ible capacity to shuffle
environment sustainability can be seen only under a us sick, even fewer have their genes and mutate
campaigner and author of microscope, viruses are power to kill us. Most sim- rapidly. Indiscriminate
Indica — A Deep Natural the world’s most abundant ply pass through us, and a use of chemicals, tinker-
History of the Indian Sub- life form and are not only few use us as a substitute ing with microbial genes,
continent (2016), which the engines of evolution, to make more of their kind. climate change or any
has won plaudits and sev- but also digest, produce, “They usually don’t bother activity that threatens the
eral international awards. process, ferment, break- us in the least and some, in planetary ecosystem can
According to Lal, most down, recycle, reformulate fact, many actually do us provoke violent mutations
viruses are benign and and synthesise all chemi- good,” writes the learned in somnolent microbes and
beneficial for humankind. cals that make this planet author who in this book unleash deadly pandemics.
In this fascinating book habitable for the species with excellent illustra- The Covid-19 pandemic
with excellent illustrations, living on it. tions recites the history which locked down the
he unravels the mysterious The discovery of viruses of microscopy. Pasteur’s world for almost a year, is
and miraculous ways that — perhaps the first inhab- battles against rabies, the proof of the lethal potential
viruses (aka microbes) go itants of this planet — as a discovery of the DNA, RNA that viruses possess and
about their lives, and how distinct species happened molecules by Watson and their capability to destroy
they orchestrate every ac- less than 100 years ago. In Crick are recounted. millions of lives before a
tivity in the cycle of life on 1939, the first microbe — Moreover, a chapter suitable antidote is manu-
this planet. The existence the tobacco mosaic virus titled ‘A Spotty History factured. Collectively,
of any species on earth — became visible following of the Speckled Monster,’ major known killer viruses
would not be possible invention of the electron narrates the horror and have already decimated at
without viruses. microscope. Thus, virology havoc that the smallpox vi- least three billion people.
As Lal tells it, around is in its infancy. The word rus created in the Americas Perhaps they are nature’s

334 EDUCATIONWORLD SEPTEMBER 2022