BECOMING BIONIC AND OTHER WAYS SCIENCE IS MAKING US SUPER
Digging deep into pop culture, Camlot strews her breathless if scantily detailed reports on prosthetic body parts, strength-enhancing exoskeletons, personal jet packs, mind-computer interfaces, and immortality with textual references to superheroes widely known or otherwise—from Batman and Wolverine to Captain Canuck, Nelvana of the Northern Lights, and Klaus Hargreeves from TV’s Umbrella Academy (“immortal because neither heaven nor hell wants him”). Aside from the name-dropping, she also tucks some stomach-churning descriptions of select feats or medical experiments into her quick summaries of recent projects and products to pump up audience interest. Better, she invites readers to think about ethical issues or consequences of, for instance, being super strong or immortal. Each chapter also features a useful timeline of historical highlights to provide context. Steering clear of potential trademark obligations, Wong adds disappointingly generic figures in capes and costumes to views of scientists and inventors, diverse in terms of skin color, plus occasional cutaway or schematic images.
