Michael Crichton - NEXT

A few months ago, I managed to get my parents to buy this book from Australia, where it was released earlier than Malaysia. Being a Michael Crichton and a sci-fic fan I could not wait for it to be distributed in Malaysia to get it.

Reading the reviews on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, it was difficult to gauge how good this book would be, because it somehow attracted a variety of opinions. Two things came to my mind - either this book was very confusing or it was a book that simply wasn't a cup of tea for the masses.

However, before reading the book I had absolutely no idea what was waiting for me. I was in fact assuming it was a fiction novel, but it was actually part fiction and part non-fiction.

This book talks about the modern world of gene therapy, and how some conglomerates abuse the patenting of genes. It also features experiments that led to certain impressive yet quite disturbing results - like transgenic parrot name Gerrard that qoutes movies and do math, a talking chimpanzee name Dave and a bounty hunter chasing after human tissues which a company claims to have patented.

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How the author started into this book:

In 2005, Michael returned to the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, where he had done postdoctoral work, to attend a conference on Genetics and Law sponsored by the Jefferson Institute. He was surprised and outraged by what he learned about the current laws regarding a range of issues in genetics. He immediately put aside what he had been working on, and began research for the book that became NEXT. He modeled the structure after the genome itself, incorporating fragments of popular culture, and writing a series of stories that sometimes interconnected, and sometimes didn't.

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Real facts qouted in the book, with references:

1. Taking cells by eminent domain. Although some attorneys have found this idea far-fetched, in fact lawyers for University of California, Los Angeles threatened to do exactly that in the famous case of John Moore (1980.)
2. Humans and Chimps Interbred Until Recently. Research reported accurately in the novel.
3. Stem Cell Debate Rages. A straightforward summary of the state of research, and the scandal involving Korean researcher Hwang.
4. Human chimeras. More than fifty have been discovered in the last decade, initially as a result of a paternity dispute.
5. Theft of cadaver bones and body parts. Thefts described in the book have been reported around the world.
6. Blondes becoming extinct. A fabricated story reported by the BBC, debunked by the Washington Post and more thoroughly by the excellent site snopes.com. Eventually the World Health Organization felt compelled to issue a press release. That didn't prevent the Times of London from repeating the story a couple of years later. (Best debunking headline: "Blondes Extinction Report Is Pigment of Imagination," from the Times of India.)
7. Cytokine storms. A well-known cause of death from gene replacement therapy.
8. Scientists Grow Miniature Ear In Lab. As reported by MIT.
9. Sociability gene. Identification of several such behavioral genes has been claimed, invariably with fanfare. However (as the novel says) nobody has ever proven that a single gene causes a single human behavioral trait.
10. Transgenic cactus. Created by artist Laura Cinti, as described. A subject of ongoing controversy.
11. Glowing transgenic rabbit. Created by Eduardo Kac, as described. The French lab that made the rabbit would not turn it over to Kac, however.
12. Pig wings. Created as described.
13. Transgenic zeba fish. Created and marketed as described.
14. Talking transgenic parrot. There is at least one gray parrot with a claimed vocabulary of more than 950 words, but it is not transgenic.
15. Gene for gayness, violence, sleep, alcoholism. All have been reported, none have been subsequently verified.
16. Neanderthals were first blondes. Reported by Times of London.
17. Canavan gene litigation ends. Reported accurately.
18. Professors and academics are "strikingly immature." Report of work of Dr. Bruce Charlton. Quotes are accurate.
19. Genetic Savings & Clone. A real business (now bankrupt) that offered to clone dead pet cats.
20. Girls take fertility drugs, sell their eggs for big money. World-wide phenomenon, began several years ago.
21. Anonymous sperm donor traced by offspring. Happens all the time.
22. Doctors claim patient deaths from gene therapy needn't be reported because they are proprietary information. So claimed at more than one university.
23. Major universities have been caught not giving informed consent to patients. The named universities have indeed been caught.
24. Giant cockroaches as GM pets. Proposed by an artist, who put photographs on the Internet.
25. Prime Minister's Fat Sold. A Swiss artist created, and sold, a bar of soap from what he claimed was Berlusconi's liposuctioned fat.
26. Speedboat Racer Bums Around. Peter Bethune built a speedboat powered by fat, obtained in part from his own buttocks.
27. Artist Cooks, Eats Own Body Fat. Marco Evaristti made meatballs from his own liposuctioned fat, ate some of them, and said he would sell the rest. It's not known whether he did so.
28. Cavemen preferred blondes. Published research of anthropologist Peter Frost accurately reported.

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Reading this book at first makes you think you are reading an ordinary fiction book. But once you get into it, and realise the quotes and references you will come to realise there is a meaning to this book.

The author arrived at the following conclusions at the end of his research for this book:

1. Stop patenting genes
2. Establish clear guidelines for the use of human tissues
3. Pass laws to ensure that data about gene testing is made public
4. Avoid bans on research
5. Rescind the Bayh-Dole Act

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For me, this book was a big eye opener to the world of genetics and how many use it as an object to reap financial benefits for personal and selfish interests. However, it may not be a book that is easy to understand because of the many plots you will encounter throughout the book. Those plots, however will eventually gell together I the reader would come to understand how the author reach the conclusions above.

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