Immagine dell'autore.

Gerald Weissmann (1930–2019)

Autore di The Woods Hole Cantata: Essays on Science and Society

14 opere 366 membri 10 recensioni

Sull'Autore

Gerald Weissmann is a professor of medicine and director of the Biotechnology Study Center at New York University School of Medicine. He lives in New York City and Woods Holer, Massachusetts.

Comprende il nome: Gerald Weissman

Opere di Gerald Weissmann

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Questa recensione è stata scritta per Recensori in anteprima di LibraryThing.
Weissmann draws on his education and professional experiences in biochemistry and medicine to explore wide-ranging topics on science, history, art, and society. Each essay contains a thesis, descriptions, support for or against, and its role in society. The collection of historical figures is as eclectic as his scientific insight allows. This academic work includes extensive notes and index.
 
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bemislibrary | 7 altre recensioni | Dec 1, 2018 |
Questa recensione è stata scritta per Recensori in anteprima di LibraryThing.
Another wonderful collection by the brilliant doctor and writer Gerald Weissmann, a polymath of extraordinary reach, has me breathless with ideas and opinion. His range goes from Darwin and Oliver Wendell Holmes to Eisenhower(an interesting take on the current gun violence) with a very memorable romp through the life of Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D. Though written separately, these pieces hang together with surprising fluidity and grace. That said, they are also not for the timid or unprepared. Weissmann writes for a learned audience who will get the myriad references and asides and histories that pepper his astute essays .The only writerly drawback that I noticed is his excessive use of the pun -which is ironic since he quotes his hero Holmes as deploring puns: "people who make puns are like wanton boys that put coppers on the railroad tracks.They amuse themselves and other children, but their little trick may upset the freight train of conversation...." Fortunately, the conversation here is never derailed and will hopefully continue apace for years to come.… (altro)
 
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michaelg16 | 7 altre recensioni | Mar 17, 2018 |
Questa recensione è stata scritta per Recensori in anteprima di LibraryThing.
Like his mentor Lewis Thomas (The Lives of a Cell and The Medusa and the Snail) Gerald Weissmann's most recent collection of 24 essays, published as 'The Fevers of Reason' by the Bellevue Literary Press of the School of Medicine, New York University (nearly half of which are published for the first time) continues the tradition of Montaigne's 'Essai', musings in the realm of imagination linking the 'two cultures' of the arts and sciences.

[TBC]
 
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chuck_ralston | 7 altre recensioni | Feb 28, 2018 |
Questa recensione è stata scritta per Recensori in anteprima di LibraryThing.
A tough one to rate, as my interest in the essay topics varied quite a lot and my enjoyment swung between two and four “stars.” The first essay in the book is heavy with scientific terminology, and this was a recurring stumbling block for me throughout the book (in his Acknowledgements at the end Weissmann thanks “Ms. Andrea Cody, the administrator of the Biotechnology Study Center at the NYU School of Medicine” for her work in “keeping my prose intelligible to humans,” but I think that perhaps he'd have done better to have entrusted this task to a reader with less scientific expertise.). My other complaint is that Weissmann's disdain for religious believers, or, as he describes them, “the credulous,” becomes a wearing refrain, even in essays where it is barely relevant.

Despite these drawbacks (which may not be negatives at all to more scientifically literate and/or nonreligious readers), there was much that I enjoyed in the book. The essays are divided into four groups, plus a final piece at the end devoted to Lewis Thomas, and each, in different ways, addresses the interplay of culture, history, and science. As I mentioned, Weissmann's writing about medical topics tends to get a bit too detailed, but he is excellent with his more biographical pieces. I particularly enjoyed the one on Eisenhower in the first section. My favorite part of the book was section three, “Two for the Road,” which focuses on “couples, mainly of the scientific persuasion, but also two of the literary sort (Katherine Lee Bates, of “America the Beautiful” fame, and Alice James, Henry James's sister). But the ones on the Lavoisiers, Elizabeth Blackwell (and her sisters), and Marie and Pierre Curie were wonderful too. In the fourth section, “Beside the Golden Door,” (which focuses on the contributions made by immigrants), I particularly enjoyed the first essay, about the efforts of Einstein and others to arrange the immigration (and escape from the Nazis) of Nobel winning scientists, and the last, which was about the work of the African-American scientist, Percy Lavon Julian in developing methods of producing cortisone in mass quantities.

I won't look for any more books by this author – he did not engage and delight me the way, say, Stephen Jay Gould, Oliver Sacks, or Lewis Thomas do – but I did enjoy many of the essays, and I learned some things along the way.

I received this book from LibraryThing through their Early Reviewers program with the understanding that the content of my review would not affect my likelihood of receiving books through the program in the future. Many thanks to Bellevue Literary Press, Gerald Weissmann, and LibraryThing!
… (altro)
½
 
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meandmybooks | 7 altre recensioni | Feb 26, 2018 |

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Statistiche

Opere
14
Utenti
366
Popolarità
#65,730
Voto
½ 3.5
Recensioni
10
ISBN
25
Lingue
1

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