A world without children is like a springtime meadow without wild flowers… a tropical aquarium without fish.Spanning five decades and taking place in America, China, England and Scotland, with extra-terrestrial reach to the International Space Station and the moon, the story mixes fact with fiction while incorporating current events and technologies, and asks a number of scientific “what ifs”.Despite all mankind’s knowledge, our understanding of the universe is at best, very little. There are “things” out there we do not understand or have not found, “things” that could spell disaster. Who is to say that “something” is not drifting around slowly making its way towards our planet – “something” that could bring about the end of mankind?As the story unfolds, you are thrown into a world that’s changing, a world without children, where man is facing possible extinction. A cloud of space dust NASA deems harmless brings an awful legacy that’s confirmed only after the dust passes Earth. Men can no longer produce fertile sperm. Is mankind doomed?As man sets out to find a way to save the human race you are taken through a succession of intertwined plots associated with everything from artificial insemination, maturity advancement hormones, stem cells, cryogenics and even an outpost on the moon.Is there something the space dust left behind now locked in our atmosphere, which will impair the reproductive ability of men? Only America can answer the question. They have Joe living on the International Space Station, along with three female crew members. His sperm should be fertile as he was not exposed to the space dust.Part of America’s plan to prove the residual dust theory, is to have Joe impregnate two of his crew mates. These plans naturally lead to conflict between the crew members – and even though Joe eventually fathers two children in space, the final outcome is tragedy.William, a former White House aid, has another idea. Steal some bodies from a cryogenic facility, get the bodies working again and extract the sperm? This launches another sub-plot when William discovers that someone has already used one of his subject’s frozen sperm.A Scottish research doctor, Malcolm, who played a role for the British government during the space dust incident, leaves London and moves back to Scotland after the breakdown of his marriage. He will use stem cells to try and rebuild the male reproductive organ. Malcolm’s suffers a catalogue of failures and eventually no-one is prepared to work with him. He finds a partial solution by employing Teresa, a local girl who helps with the animals, freeing him to concentrate on his research. This plot takes some unusual twists before bringing the story back in full cycle to the beginning of the book.After changing the 22nd amendment and remaining in office for three terms and with no solution in sight the president resigns. His successor initiates a project to establish a base on the moon - a last resort should a cure not be found. People and fertile sperm are taken up from Earth to start a new generation. When man took his first step on the moon it was a “giant leap”, but this second step may turn out to be a stride too far in challenging Mother Nature and evolution, as the moon squatters discover.Mankind seems pitted against evolution itself, as Mother Nature – once our protector and provider –appears to turn her back on us. The warnings she gave us, and mankind chose to ignore, may now come back to haunt those who had the power to do something when something needed to be done. Global warming and thinning of the ozone layer, extreme global weather conditions, destruction of the world’s natural resources and the general selfishness of man were overtly recognisable, but homo sapiens paid next to no attention. Now Mother Nature seems to have left us to deal with our own fate in our own way – and in the process, begin to take back what was once hers.