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Into the Anthropocosmos - Ariel Ekblaw ***

This is a really strange one. The book is subtitled 'a whole space catalog from the MIT Space Exploration Initiative'. I'm assuming that 'whole space catalog' is a nostalgic reference for those of us old enough to remember the Whole Earth Catalog, that 60s/70s oddity that was somehow a crossover between an Argos catalogue and the DIY-eco-world (and whose idea of 'whole Earth' was about as whole Earth as the World Series). 

The original was a fun browse, even though it would be hard to imagine anyone ever actually using it to buy anything. This new venture claims to be a 'lavishly illustrated catalog of space technology of the future'. I guess the idea is that if you are a billionaire kitting out your latest space mission, or planning your space habitat, this is where you browse to pick up your ideas. Except when you look through the book it really isn't a catalog (sorry, catalogue). There are no sales links... and no prices.

What we get instead is a bit like one of those lavishly illustrated books that organisations produce for their staff and investors, where you get a few large photos on each project and some rather high level text on bits of equipment and studies being produced, presumably by MIT. I get a regular magazine from my old physics department known as CavMag, that tells me what's going on at the Cavendish Laboratory - this feels a bit like a larger scale, far more expensive version of that.

The book is divided into rather entertainingly named sections. We get biome, the envirome (sic), the exobiome, before the disappointingly named 'experiments, orbits and exhibitions'. (Why not experiome, orbome and exhibome?) And finally there's the downright plodding outreach and community. What we really have here is a summary of space-oriented projects, which unless you are either involved in MIT's work, a friend and relation of someone who is, or working in the space industry, probably isn't going to get you excited.

I randomly opened the book to give a bit more detail on a couple of the items in the collection. The first was in the envirome section and entitled 'Reinventing the spindle.' The is apparently 'an art project where the artist investigates textile crafts in microgravity and low-gravity environment, using the "experiments" [my inverted commas] as a basis for greater conversation around the ramifications of space research and colonisation.' Hmm. Another random flip took me to 'EBIFA' in the biome section. This stands for 'Everything is Beautiful Far Away' and is 'a mission and a fantasy realised, in which a wisdom tooth is sent to outer space and back down to Earth again.' Apparently 'The tooth tells the inconsequential but unique story of a person in this universe.' Okay.

I'm not sure I was lucky or unlucky that both those genuinely random selections uncovered smirk-inducing art projects. Other items in the book cover more straightforward space technology or experiments, from oscillating chemical reactions in zero gravity to fermentation in space. Some of these are very likely to produce useful information or starting points for technology for future space missions. Others... well, I wouldn't spend my money on them.

Outside those MIT people, friends and relations, I can't see many readers buying this (rather expensive) book. But it's worth a flip through in the library, if only to wonder how much connection those working in universities have to the real world.

Hardback: 
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Review by Brian Clegg

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