The Monthly Digest: April 2017

In this month’s digest, we bring you a number of articles on the nature of humans and humans in nature, many of which are drawn from our wide-ranging Science section, edited by the brilliant Michele Pridmore-Brown. As the EPA faces new threats and SpaceX opens the prospect of commercial space flight, we are forced to consider the make-up of our bodies and the future of our planet on a daily basis. We hope that the pieces below, which tackle these issues from a number of angles, will serve as an aid to such vital considerations. — LARB Editorial

Beyond Designer Babies: Epigenetic Modification May Be the Next Game-Changer
Should we have trepidations about epigenetic modifications? Professor Michael Bess on the potentially destabilizing effect of bioenhancement.
Michael BessMar 24, 2017
- Science & Technology
Pussy Wars
“Ovarian Psycos” and “Antibirth” take up the biology of the feminized body, but anatomy doesn’t determine their politics.
Mar 24, 2017
- Film
- Gender & Sexuality
“Nature is a Bitch”: An Environmentalist’s Scorn for Tree Huggers
Louise Fabiani reviews Benjamin Hale's "The Wild and the Wicked."
Louise FabianiMar 21, 2017
- Science & Technology
The Astounding Achievement, Maybe, of the Man Who Definitely Wasn’t Fibonacci
Dan Friedman reckons with “Finding Fibonacci” by Keith Devlin.
Dan FriedmanMar 21, 2017
Paul Scheerbart and the Art of Science
Visionary SF writer Paul Scheerbart was obsessed by the role creativity plays in scientific discovery, as well as creative applications of scientific ideas.
Amanda DeMarco, Daniel LiuMar 18, 2017
- SF
- Science & Technology
“NK3”: An Absorbing Dystopian Vision About an L.A. Without Memories
Alci Rengifo reviews Michael Tolkin’s “NK3.”
Alci RengifoMar 17, 2017
- Fiction
- SF
Utopia in the Time of Trump
The future is here, it just hasn’t finished melting yet.
Gerry CanavanMar 11, 2017
- SF
The Nature of the Beast
Lisa Fetchko on Daphne Merkin's memoir "This Close to Happy" and the literary difficulties of capturing the minutiae of depression.
Lisa FetchkoMar 2, 2017
- Memoir & Essay