I just finished Chapter 1 over my morning coffee and I really like the writing style. It's to the point and pitched at a level understanding that feels like the author knows he's talking to people who bought this book because they want to find out more, not because they were looking for dramatic effects.

There was one section in particular in this chapter that really made sit up, because it made it very clear that the oceans are still much underrated for the possibilities they offer:

"What kind of biochemical trick did Cloudina use to make its skeleton?

The basic mechanism of all such biomineralization in all skeleton-builders hinges on modifying conditions inside the tissue to encourage chemicals that are generally dissolved in fluid in and around the organism to crystallize out as hard structures. The sea, in general, is so saturated with with ions of calcium (Ca(2+)) and carbonate (CO3(2-)) that calciumcarbonate (CaCO3) can easily crystallize out of it - with no help from biology at all. 

Organisms can then encourage this process by tweaking the chemical conditions around them, by concentrating the ingredients. Or they can change factors that affect crystallization, of which one of the most important is the acidity, which is measured on the pH scale, a measure of the concentration of hydrogen ions (H+). The lower the pH - that is the more hydrogen ions, as it's an inverse relation - the more acid are the conditions, discouraging crystallization. Raise the pH in the tissues, though, to give more alkaline conditions, and crystallization is encouraged. Cloudina had clearly evolved an effective biomineralizing mechanism."

I will finish this utterly riveting read shortly (there is a large reference section!), and of the many things I am impressed by - even tho this not actually connected to this book is that Lister's triumphant revolution of hospital care had been established for good (in Edinburgh and Glasgow in any case) only 5 years before Arthur Conan Doyle started attending Edinburgh Uni. So, a) he might have met Lister (still in Edinburgh when ACD started his studies), and b) ACD's medical training really would have been one of the most advanced in Europe.

It was easier for Lister to convince doctors in Glasgow and Edinburgh of the value of his antiseptic system because each of those cities had one hospital and one university at its heart. London’s medical community was far more fragmented and less scientifically minded. Clinical teaching was not yet as common in the capital as it was in Scotland. Lister railed, “If I turn to London, and ask how instruction in clinical surgery is conducted there, I find that not only according to my own experience as a London student … but also from the universal testimony of foreigners who visit there and then come here, it is, when compared with our system here, a mere sham.” These were obstacles Lister could not overcome unless he could reform the system from within.

 Oh, and then there was this one place...

Still, one nation remained unconvinced of the merits of Lister’s methods: the United States.

In fact, in several American hospitals, Lister’s techniques had been banned; many doctors saw them as unnecessary and overly complicated distractions because they had not yet accepted the germ theory of putrefaction. Even by the mid-1870s, understanding of wound care and infection had barely progressed, despite Lister’s theories and techniques appearing in American medical journals. The medical community had, for the most part, rejected his antiseptic methods as quackery.

Lister tried diluting the carbolic acid with water for the following five days. Unfortunately, this did little to offset the irritation caused by the antiseptic. So Lister turned to olive oil to dilute the chemical compound. This appeared to have a soothing effect on the wound without compromising the antiseptic qualities of the carbolic acid. Soon, the redness on Greenlees’s leg faded, and the wound began closing up.

The new solution had done the trick. Six weeks and two days after the cart had shattered his lower leg, James Greenlees walked out of the Royal Infirmary.

Glasgow had olive oil??? I'm gob-smacked!!! ;P 

Believing that puerperal fever was caused not by miasma but by “infective material” from a dead body, Semmelweis set up a basin filled with chlorinated water in the hospital. Those passing from the dissection room to the wards were required to wash their hands before attending to living patients. Mortality rates on the medical students’ ward plummeted. In April 1847, the rate was 18.3 percent. After hand-washing was instituted the following month, rates in June were 2.2 percent, followed by 1.2 percent in July and 1.9 percent in August.

Semmelweis saved many lives; however, he was not able to convince many physicians of the merits of his belief that incidences of puerperal fever were related to contamination caused through contact with dead bodies. Even those willing to carry out trials of his methods often did so inadequately, producing discouraging results. After a number of negative reviews of a book he published on the subject, Semmelweis lashed out at his critics. His behavior became so erratic and embarrassing to his colleagues that he was eventually confined to a mental institute, where he spent his final days raging about childbed fever and the doctors who refused to wash their hands.

Semmelweis' story is still, to me, one of the saddest. 

I'm loving this book so far. That is all.