The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher - Softcover

Lewis Thomas

4.08

75,980 ratings by Goodreads

9780553233988: The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher

Softcover

ISBN 10: 055323398X ISBN 13: 9780553233988

Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1980

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REVIEW by Andrew Parker (Toronto, Ontario Canada) This review is from: The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher (Paperback) This collection of essays has held a special place on my shelf and in my heart for many years. I return to it often for both the ideas and the wonderful sense of life that Lewis Thomas injects into his writing. I have read other reviews here questioning both the scientific value of these essays and the author's scientific creditials. As for the latter - this man has been a doctor, a field researcher, a lab director, a professor, the dean of Yale medical school, President of the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and member of the Presidential Science Advisory Board. If you have an issue with these credentials your standards are a little too high. To speak of the scientific value of this book is difficult. Lewis Thomas didn't write like Steven Jay Gould, with clear theses, dates and names and cited research. He is more like Douglas Hofstadter. (if this comparison helps) I imagine that Lewis Thomas wrote these essays late at night after a day filled with details and the reductionism of modern science. These essays are the antithesis of what his days must have entailed. What we find on paper here are both the whimsical musisngs and deepest thoughts of a brilliant man whose whole life was devoted to practicing and teaching science. He writes beautifully, with humour, zest, and a sense of wonder that I find endlessly captivating. His love of the natural world is infectious. Please read this book. Of all the science books I've read (I have two science degrees) and all the fiction I've read, this book continues to inspire, teach, and amaze me.

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About the Author:

Lewis Thomas (1913-1993) was born in New York. He earned a bachelor's degree at Princeton and a doctorate in medicine in 1937. He went on to become professor of pediatric research at the University of Minnesota, chairman of the Departments of Pathology and Medicine and also dean at the New York University--Bellevue Medical Center, chairman of the Department of Pathology and dean at Yale Medical School, and president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. His now classic book, The Lives of a Cell, won the National Book Award in 1974.

From AudioFile:

This collection of essays continues the late Thomas's musings on the natural world and humanity, which he began in THE LIVES OF A CELL. Varying in length and topic, these essays address death, cloning, symbiotic relationships in nature, as well as a wide range of other subjects. There is an excellent essay on the failure of modern medical education, with Thomas's prescription to fix it. Like any collection of essays, some will be of more interest than others. John Tindle's performance, while not distinguished, is adequate. He has an understated manner of delivery that is meant to bring out the irony, and humor, in many of the essays. Overall, he succeeds, though towards the end his reading tends to be monotonous. Also, it would have been nice to have a listing of the essays for the listener's reference. M.T.F. � AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright � AudioFile, Portland, Maine

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