Food for the Future by Colin Tudge, Dorling Kindersley, £4.99, ISBN 0789484188
OUR collective hunger for bite-sized chunks of knowledge never wanes. “Bluffers’ guides to” and “Little books of” everything from sadism to star formation clog the bookshop counters. So what does the new Dorling Kindersley Essential Science series —six hors-d’oeuvres, and counting—add to the smorgasborg?
Judging by Colin Tudge’s chewy Food for the Future, we can expect some pretty superior nutrition. Subtitled “A beginner’s guide to better ways to feed the planet”, this little book really crams in the essentials. You’ll find everything from agribusiness and its effect on wildlife to the role of meat, “nutraceuticals” and genetic engineering. Tudge’s handling of the unwieldy issues is deft, and there’s a nice logical flow from one chunk to the other. There’s even a dinky “Further Reading” section. And despite a certain 1950s look, the graphics do the job.
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For the rest, the line-up proves just as solid: there’s Fred Pearce on global warming, John McCrone on mind and consciousness, Jack Challoner on e-technology, Mark Garlick on cosmology and Jeremy Cherfas on the human genome, all served up with aplomb by editor John Gribbin. Go on, have a nibble.
