Does the book “Silent Spring” from the book “The Three Suns” really exist?

The science fiction drama “3 – Body Problem” is the latest series on Netflix and will surely attract a lot of our attention as we watch it on repeat over the weekend.

The series is based on a novel series of the same name by Liu Cixin and follows two timelines: one set in 1960s China, where young scientist Ye Wenjie makes a decision that has an impact on the rest of humanity. The other timeline is set in modern-day London, where a group of scientists and a detective investigate a series of mysterious deaths among scientists.

This is not a series that you should watch absentmindedly while scrolling through your phone, as there are a lot of things to look at and a lot of blinking, and you’ll miss details that could be crucial to the plot. One of those small but potentially significant details is the book “Silent Spring” that Ye Wenjie reads in the first episode. But is the book real and what is it about?

When does “Silent Spring” appear in the three-body problem?

After her father’s death, Ye Wenjie is working at a lumber yard in Inner Mongolia when she meets Bai Mulin, a reporter from Great Production News.

At their first meeting during a break from work, Bai gives Ye the book Silent Spring and explains that it has had a great influence in the West and explains how people are poisoning the world.

Ye reads an excerpt from the book and says: “Here, too, we are reminded that nothing in nature exists alone.” She is later seen reading the book in her cot at night.

However, later in the episode, the book seems to have disappeared and she is confronted by Commander Song, who shows her the copy of Silent Spring and asks if she lost it. Bai Mulin stands behind the officers and implies that he betrayed her and told the officers about the book. The officers call it “poisonous propaganda” and ask her who gave it to her. She doesn’t tell them about Bai Mullin and is therefore taken to headquarters.

Is “Silent Spring” a real book?

So is Ye’s Silent Spring a real book? Yes, it is. Silent Spring is a scientific book written by American marine biologist and conservationist Rachel Carson in 1962, five years before Ye reads it in The Three-Body Problem.

Silent Spring was the result of Carson’s extensive research into the environmental impacts of pesticides used against soldiers in World War II. She began her research in the mid-1940s, shortly after the war ended, and finally published it in 1962. In her research, she argued that the pesticide DDT killed a number of insect species, including beneficial ones like bees, but it also caused problems for birds and larger mammals in the food chain, including humans. She argued that it accumulated in the fat of birds and caused reproductive problems, as well as contaminating the world’s food supply.

Not surprisingly, the chemical companies were not a fan of her book, but the public listened to her research. The overwhelming support for her book prompted President John F. Kennedy to appoint the President’s Science Advisory Board to investigate the issues raised in Carson’s work. Silent Spring eventually led to a reversal of U.S. policy on DDT and its ban.

Sadly, Carson died just two years after the release of Silent Spring. She had been battling breast cancer and, after her body was weakened by cancer treatment, she contracted a respiratory virus. She was also diagnosed with anemia and the cancer had spread to her lungs. She died in April 1964 from complications of a heart attack.

“Silent Spring” is today considered one of the most important and influential books of the 20th century.

3 Body Problem is now available on Netflix

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