Arts & Entertainment
Emerging epidemic
Belgian researcher recounts AIDS discoveries
(Image courtesy W.W. Norton)
Author and epidemiologist Peter Piot knows what it’s like to be on the ground floor of something important. He was there when two previously unknown viruses were identified and in “No Time to Lose,” he explains what that was like.
The package arrived in a blue plastic thermos. It wasn’t wrapped well; in fact, one of the vials inside had broken, mixing glass with blood that had been taken from a Belgian nun who bled to death in Zaire for reasons no one could explain.
Peter Piot was an infectious disease researcher in Antwerp, Belgium, and this kind of mystery made his “heart beat faster.” When his boss sent him to Kinshasa, along the river Congo, to learn more about the crisis, Piot was even more excited. He became part of a team that teased out the root of the sickness and how it traveled from patient to victim.
The virus, highly contagious and almost always deadly, was later named after a river in Africa. Piot is still aghast at the careless, cavalier attitude given to that initial, highly dangerous flask of Ebola he encountered.
After his work in Africa ended, Piot went to Swaziland to work with a colleague assigned to eliminate sexually transmitted disease there. The endeavor was, of course, ill-fated, but this led him to work with STD patients in Antwerp. There, an alarming situation was just starting to appear in the city’s gay population. It “seemed to be a new syndrome” and it seemed to be on the rise.
It was a virus that didn’t care “whether the sex is good, or about the color or gender of the person.” Researchers called it GRID at first, then renamed it AIDS.
Almost from the opening pages, “No Time to Lose” immerses readers in excitement. Author Peter Piot does such a fine job in describing his African surroundings and the people there that you can almost hear the surrounding jungle.
But Piot’s story is not meant for entertainment. There’s a heightened sense of urgency and force here; in fact, Piot repeatedly admits regret that he didn’t do enough, soon enough. Looking through a backward lens, though, readers will wonder why he questions himself. He writes of fighting bureaucracy and politics, establishing organizations to study and prevent of infection and the now-outrageous beliefs he battled.
That makes this a triumphant book with a coda of sadness for a job that seemed, to the author, unfinished.
This book is serious stuff and it’s filled with scientific terms, acronyms and world politics — but don’t let that scare you away. If you’ve got the time to give it the attention it deserves, you’ll enjoy “No Time to Lose” from the start.
Books
New book reveals what we can learn from animal sex
‘Poking the Squid’ on homosexuality, gender swapping, and more
‘Poking the Squid: What We Can Learn from Animal Sex’
By Perrin Roosevelt Ireland
c.2026, W.W. Norton
$29.99 241 pages
Birds do it.
According to Cole Porter, bees do, too, but it’s not exactly what he imagined. Wild and tame, avians, insects, and mammals all have sex – although not always as you’ve been told or for reasons you might think. Even educated fleas do it and, as in the new book, “Poking the Squid” by Perrin Roosevelt Ireland, humans can learn from them all.
If you read through scientific papers on animal reproduction, you might notice something unusual: for scientists, the word “sex” means a lot of different things.
Says Ireland, “It’s used to describe behaviors, biology, life histories, and more.”
That might be because animals are not simply binary.
Take, for instance, hyenas. It’s easy for the casual observer to mistake a male hyena for a female and vice versa because of stereotypes of anatomy. Mating, for hyenas, requires subordination for the male and a nifty trick on the part of the female’s body to get things done.
Our feathered friends are no birdbrains, either: black-browed albatrosses were once thought to be monogamous but global warming seems to have changed their nesting habits sometimes. Male flamingos have sex with one another, as a territorial thing; other birds and animals form same-sex pairs for other reasons.
The Chinese mantis eats her mate after fertilization. Female snakes, alpacas, guinea pigs, and monkeys are anatomically able to enjoy sex. Genitalia between species varies quite a bit; in fact, the vaginas of ducks “are highly complex.” Lionesses will mate up to 100 times when in heat. Female damselflies will change into a “third sex” to avoid overly aggressive mating males. Bearded dragons can change their sex, if needed, as can yellow clown goby fish. And seahorse pregnancy and birth sparked a book banning in Tennessee.
So, asks Ireland, if animals, including us, vary so much in biology and life, “… why are we using the word sex like it means something, anything, consistent?!”
Pick up “Poking the Squid,” page through it a few seconds, and you’ll see that the information here is largely told through cartoon-like drawings mixed with captions. It seems to be something on the lighter side, but don’t let that artwork fool you.
Author Perrin Roosevelt Ireland offers readers solid information that cozies up to the scholarly, with hard science, philosophy, feminism, and quotations from researchers to support it, thus furthering the narrative and hitting the points squarely. If you see the art and expect something lighthearted, comic, and small-talk-worthy, you could be disappointed.
On the other hand, if you want solid, wryly serious facts, you’re in for a treat.
There’s lots of learning to be gleaned here, and some slight nudge-wink whimsy to emphasize the absurdity of wrong-headed thinking. This can make readers feel like they’re in-the-know on the jokes, and the playfulness balances the seriousness of the information well.
So, serious, scholarly, or slightly silly, none of these are negative but you’re going to know what you want from a book like this. For the right reader, someone in the mood, “Poking the Squid” is wild.
The Blade may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via this post.
The eighth annual Westminster Pride Festival was held at Westminster City Park in Westminster, Md. on Saturday, July 11.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
The fifth annual Emerald City Pride was held in Greenbelt, Md. on Saturday, July 11.
(Washignton Blade photos by Michael Key)
View on Threads
New book reveals what we can learn from animal sex
Who might replace Lindsey Graham? The contenders and their LGBTQ records
PHOTOS: Westminster Pride
Un terremoto también se vive desde el exilio
PHOTOS: Emerald City Pride
Mr. Henry’s celebrates 60 years of proud inclusivity
It’s good to see some justices standing up to Trump
Egyptian authorities refuse to allow gay cruise to dock in country
Queer media dominates 2026 Emmy nominations
