Book Review "Etai Science (এটাই সায়েন্স): Some tales of the unsung heroes of public heath sector of Bangladesh

"Etai Science (এটাই সায়েন্স)" is a Bengali popular science book written by Hassan uz-Zaman Shamol. The book tells the stories of some of the brilliant achievements of Bangladeshi scientists in the public health sector.

Cover of Etai Science (এটাই সায়েন্স)

The book is mainly about the efforts of Bangladeshi scientists to solve some serious problems of our lives. Public health, as it is said, is the science and arts of preventing disease. The book is the outcome of the writer’s two and a half years stint as a researcher in ICDDR, B (International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh). While working in ICDDR, B, he came to know about some of the works of Bangladeshi scientists to solve the problems related to sanitation. Although the scientists do some really cool stuff to solve these problems, they don't get the exposer they deserve on Bangladeshi media. This book contains some stories of some of their successes. 

The book begins with the discussion of what is science and why the writer named his first book after an internet meme of a clip of a Bengali movie of Shakib Khan (which is apparently a ripoff of blockbuster Bollywood movie Three Idiots). Then he explains what is public health and how Bangladeshi scientists are doing incredible jobs in this field despite having lots of limitation. After that, he talks about cholera and its havoc on our country. In this part, the writer how scientists come up to predict the outbreak of cholera by calculating the amounts of moss on the Bay of Bengal using satellite. In the next chapter, the writer addresses the issue of arsenic pollution on the water of the tube wells installed throughout Bangladesh. The funny thing is these tube wells were installed to prevent water-borne diseases. But the solution itself became a new problem.

In the next chapter, the writer again talks about cholera. How the use of a piece of old Sari prevented cholera outbreak in Bangladesh - is the main topic of this chapter. The writer explained the science behind the use of Sari and how this idea was discovered. The next two chapters are mainly about sewerage. How the "Triggering" method used by Bangladeshi scientists fueled the rate of building and usage of sanitary toilets among the mass people of rural areas is really interesting. How Bangladeshi scientists prevented the outbreak of cholera and other water-borne diseases in Rohingya Camps in Cox’s Bazar is also discussed in this segment. The rest of the book focuses on how today's click-baiting practice of online news sites makes it difficult to get the proper knowledge of scientific researches and how to overcome this problem.

I enjoyed the book. The writer has a good writing style which kept me glued to the book while reading it. In fact, I was anticipating this book from the beginning of this year. Last year I read few pop-sci books on English and the lack of good Bengali pop-sci books made me a bit surprised (Okay, maybe there are some good Bengali popular science books, but they are not that popular, no pun intended). This book will give you an idea about how Bangladeshi scientists conducting their amazing operations amidst limitations, without getting any limelight. The book has a good cover. This is one of the best covers of Bengali books I have seen lately. There are a few typos in the books, overall the book is good. Bangladeshi scientists are our unsung heroes and this book depicts only a tiny fraction of their story. I strongly recommend everyone to read this book.

At a glance:

Name of the Book: Etai Science (এটাই সায়েন্স)

Writer: Hassan uz-Zaman Shamol

Number of pages: 160

Price: 300 BDT

Publisher: Addhayan Prokashoni