542 29 OCTOBER 2021 • VOL 374 ISSUE 6567 science.org SCIENCEPHOTO: PALLY/ALAMY STOCK PHOTOBy Shane Campbell-StatonS
ince humankind’s first migration out of
Africa, we have trimmed, trained, and
reshuffled the tree of life at breakneck
speed. In the past 10,000 years, we
learned to manipulate the basic build-
ing blocks of life through breeding.
In the past century, we increased the speed
and magnitude of our impact through mass
global transportation, industrialized agricul-
ture, and urbanization. In the past decade,
we have seen major advances in biotechnol-
ogy that now allow us to directly rewrite the
genetic code of almost any organism to create
never-before-seen biological variation.Our unmatched ability to destroy, re-
shape, and rebuild life to suit our purposes
has allowed our species to become an evolu-
tionary force rivaled only by the five major
mass extinctions of Earth’s past. Evolution-
ary biologist Beth Shapiro explores this
legacy in her new book, Life as We Made It.
In eight chapters, Shapiro takes readers on
a succinct and compelling journey through
historical events, inventions, and decisions
that have forever changed the course of life
on Earth. The series of stories she tells effec-
tively combine to outline the rise of humans
to global dominance and detail the fates of
many species caught in our wake, from the
Pleistocene extinctions of North American
megafauna to the genetic engineering of
glow-in-the-dark fish. Along the way, sheshares personal stories of scientific explora-
tion, adventure, and misadventure that have
defined her own journey to understand the
lasting biological impacts of human activity
and the potential of biotechnology to shape
the future.
Shapiro details her visits to laboratories,
museums, and field sites around the world,
introducing readers to the remarkable di-
versity of extinct and near-extinct species
she has studied throughout her career. In
chapter one, for example, readers learn
about her research as a graduate student
in the Canadian Yukon, where she waded
ankle-deep through Pleistocene bio-sludge
in search of ancient bison remains. Later,
in chapter five, we follow her
through the ornithology collec-
tions of the Oxford University
Museum of Natural History
as she pursues remnant DNA
hidden in specimens of extinct
passenger pigeons and dodos.
Many times throughout his-
tory, our attempts to correct
a course of biological events
that we ourselves set in mo-
tion have had surprising and
unexpected results. In chap-
ter five, Shapiro recounts, for
example, how the intentional
introduction of several Costa
Rican panthers mistakenly
thought to be Florida panthers put the en-
dangered Everglades species at risk of being
unprotected by the Endangered Species Act,
owing to a hesitancy to protect hybrids. For-
tunately, an expansion of protections that
now preserve distinct lineages, including
those that result from human-induced hy-
bridization events, was ultimately approved.
Shapiro’s latest literary work makes plain
that human intervention will likely be neces-
sary to confront the problems we currently
face and that biotechnology has an important
role to play across a range of issues, from sav-
ing species teetering on the brink of extinc-
tion to curing disease to feeding a growing
human population. In chapter six, she dis-
cusses how genetic engineering can be used
to endow endangered species with the tools
needed to face novel environmental threats
and to produce genetically modified crops
that yield more food with fewer resources.
In what is perhaps the greatest accom-ANTHROPOCENEHuman interventions, both intentional and unintentional,
define a new chapter in Earth’s storied history
Life as We Made It: How
50,000 Years of Human
Innovation Refi ned—
and Redefi ned—Nature
Beth Shapiro
Basic Books, 2021. 352 pp.INSIGHTS | BOOKSSCIENCE & RACERefining the tree of life
The reviewer is at the Department of Ecology and
Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
08544, USA. Email: [email protected]P O D CAST
Algorithms of
Oppression: How
Search Engines
Reinforce Racism
Safi ya Umoja Noble
NYU Press, 2018. 256 pp.It has become increasingly clear in recent years that
the internet—long framed as a value-free tool for
advancing human knowledge—frequently replicates
the fl awed societal power structures in which it was
created, perpetuating stereotypes and racism under
a guise of impartiality. This week on the Science
podcast, Sa ya Noble discusses how discrimination
is created and reinforced by search engines.
https://scim.ag/3DwULim
10.1126/science.abm5861plishment of Life as We Made It, Shapiro
clearly articulates key questions whose an-
swers will define how we think about and
use the power we now yield. In a world that
has been remixed and remade by humans
several times over, what is “natural”? When
and how should we intervene in evolution?
Who should make this call? Throughout
the book, she offers personal insights and
thoughts that inform these questions, while
acting primarily as a facilitator of informa-
tion that furthers the reader’s understand-
ing of current discussions on these topics.
Millions of years from now, our species
may be long extinct. However, the microbes,
plants, and animals that make up the world
after our demise will descend from those
species that survive the Anthropocene.
What’s more, at least some of the genetic
code that influences the form, function, and
survival of those species may originate from
the imaginations of people who exist today.
In a world where we can engineer life in
much the same way we engineer skyscrapers,
we are bounded more by imagination than
by ability. But while buildings will eventually
deteriorate in the sands of time, life will keep
on ticking. In Life as We Made It, Shapiro of-
fers readers a history lesson from which to
pull both caution and inspiration. In doing
so, she sets the table for a needed conversa-
tion about our lasting imprint on the tree of
life. It is up to us to take a seat.j
10.1126/science.abm0633P
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NPopular as pets, fluorescent GloFish were created to serve as sensors.