Biology in history

Today being US Independence Day, it brought to mind the role of biology in history. Now I am not talking about human controlled biology (Condoms and Mr & Mrs Hitler etc) but the more subtle effects of genetic illnesses. Now whether or not George III had porphyria is debatable (and probably cannot be proved) but if he did then a simple point mutation in one of the 8 enzymes that are involved in haem production (exactly which one I suspect will never be demostrated) probably was involved and caused his illnesses which, of course, included mental problems and possibly clouded his judgement, even during those parts of his life between acute attacks of his illness.

Certainly George III went against his minister's - especially Lord North's - advice concerning the treatment of the colonists and possibly prolonged the war.

Clearing out the library

Books books books and more bloody books ... Been clearing out a massive pile of the things of which only fraction are worth reading ! M&B (not mine!) by the bucket load but a fair few I have been looking for :-) One or two I wonder why the hell I bought (Roger Penrose's "Road to Reality" falls into that category since it is so obtuse and mathematically beyond me that my poor brain couldn't cope with it!) but some I will be re-reading: John Sugden's Nelson - A dream of glory is a superb biography of the first part of the admiral's life and it would be difficult to better; Correlli Barnett's "Engage the enemy more closely" is a brilliant portrayal of the RN in WW2. And complete Sherlock Holmes even turned up ... Think son #2 will enjoy that.

The only issue has been that all of this has required a hell of a lot of bending down ... ouch....