1 comments about Passionate Minds: Emilie du Chatelet, Voltaire, and the Great Love Affair of the Enlightenment.

1. If you want something to read that's more improbable and exciting than most fiction, this is an excellent choice. Steeped in history, lovingly researched and with strong scientific underpinnings, this is a book that will make you feel like you almost know Voltaire and wish you knew (and you will weep for) the amazing Emilie du Chatelet.

5 comments about Dr. Folkman's War: Angiogenesis and the Struggle to Defeat Cancer.

1. Chances are someone close to you has succumbed to the ravages of cancer, while you and the medical establishment could only sit by and watch the process reach its inevitable conclusion. The good news is, for nearly 40 years, Dr. Judah Folkman has been pursuing a cure for cancer -- or at least a way to fight tumors more effectively than chemotherapy or radiation -- that only until very recently has garnered serious attention. Dr. Folkman's theory is called angiogenesis, the process by which cancer cells emit an agent which triggers the growth of blood vessels to feed the growth of the cancer itself. For years Dr. Folkman's idea was basically scoffed at as the flailings of an amateur researcher, but Cooke shows how Dr. Folkman has perservered -- while maintaining his brilliant career as a physician -- and eventually, through a slow accumulation of experimental evidence, as well as the discovery of several antiangionesis agents, turned opinion around. Throughout this engaging and fascinating retelling of Folkman's journey, Cooke also provides an eye-opening account of the workings of academia, medical research, and their relationships to those Orwellian biotech companies you keep hearing about. The science is clear and vivid, the battle to defeat cancer inspiring, and the promise of victory -- thankfully, finally -- just around the corner.



2. This book by Robert Cooke is incredible! Mr. Cooke is able to explain to the average layperson the medical concepts of angeiogeneis conceived by the most under-valued person of our time: Dr. Judah Folkman. Dr. Folkman is to cancer what Salk was to Polio! Personally, Dr. Judah Folkman is my hero! A real hero, deserving of the Nobel Prize....and I don't speak lightly. I am a cancer patient that has recently learned that my cancer (thought was beat) has advanced to my lungs. The ONLY therapy for me is in an ANGIOGENESIS drug therapy program for a drug currently in study and labeled as "PI-88." I am just so confident this drug will work. I am the only patient with my type of cancer cell (adenoid cystic carninoma), so I am a little bit more of a lab rat for this program.

   God Bless Dr. Folkman and h is incredible perserverance! His story should be a movie----a tale better than SeaBiscuit! He is my SeaBiscuit!

   LHH




3. This book is a very well done documentary of the trials Dr. Folkman went through to have his ideas on cancer treatment considered. His ideas are now becoming the new approach, offering much needed hope for patients and their families. For anyone interested in cancer, this book is worthwhile.



4. This book is great gives a good understanding of the research community and the search to understand angiogenisis.



5. Spectacular, but not a quick read! If you or someone you know has cancer, then this is a must read. The author did a marvelous job of chronicaling the research path to great discoveries for cancer. Unfortunately, Dr. Folkman passed away last month but after reading this book you will have a better understanding of the legacy of important research he left behind and how it is continuing by the minute

5 comments about Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior.

1. The most beautiful and inspiring nonfiction I've read. I intern in a molecular biology lab, so the science wasn't new to me. The story, however, was breathtaking. I've recommended this to many people--the same goes to you, Amazon reader!



2. This is a very accessible blending of a biography of Seymour Benzer, the most renowned Drosophilist (fruit fly geneticist), with many anecdotes and quotations, and a fascinating history of fruit fly genetics and related molecular biology. However, I was brought up short by one passage in it, on page 244 -
   
   "It is already possible - in fertility clinics it is done every day - to screen the DNA of a set of eight embryos at the eight-cell stage and let the parents pick the one they want to implant in the mother's womb. The more genes there are to screen and the better these gene complexes are understood, the more wealthy parents will select not only the healthiest but also the best and brightest embryo they can, designing the genes of their children....(O)ver the next few centuries whether governments legislate for or against it(,...t)he rich will pick and choose the genes of their children, the poor will not. The gap between rich and poor may widen so far in the third millennium that before the end of it there will not only be two classes of human beings but two species, or a whole Galapagos of different human species. These human species could be prevented from interbreeding by the genetic engineering of chemical incompatibility, so that the egg of one would reject the sperm of the other."
   
   I can't help questioning Weiner's prediction that the wealthy will be able to select genes of their offspring while the poor will not "....over the next few centuries, whether governments legislate for or against it."
   
   Toward the end of Marlon Brando's autobiography, Songs My Mother Taught Me, that wise and wonderful man summed up his life's learning as attaining a visceral understanding of how much mankind is driven by group instincts, and how much every group requires outsiders to feel superior to. In the paragraph in Time, Love, Memory following the one quoted from above, Weiner quotes E.O. Wilson saying, "Soon we must look deep within ourselves and decide what we wish to become....What lifts this question beyond mere futurism is that it reveals so clearly our ignorance of the meaning of human existence in the first place." At least, we know what John Donne's reply to Professor Wilson's musing would be.
   
   Hopefully, there are Drosophilists looking for the genes whose sequences determine the proteins for the animal behaviors Brando referred to as "group instincts," and under what conditions their outsider-requiring aspects may be turned off, in order to ameliorate the dystopia of wealth-created castes to which we already belong as well as to prevent the potential dystopia of wealth-created species to which Weiner alludes. I'd call these our "Group-or-Gandhi" sequences, and as fine as this book is, I would have welcomed something in it about Drosophilists' thoughts about them.



3. Time is for clock. Since everything has a clockwork gene, I suppose that in humans it means the biological clock involving procreation and evolution. This book, written by a prize-winning biologist, is more about birds, flys, fish, plants, but hardly about men and women. Disappointed me -- a psychologist would have covered the behavior process for us, I guess. He relates how humpback whales (not males) sing songs which can radiate thousands of miles under the ocean and they change from season to season like the Top Ten Rock Tracks of Chuck's choices. They constantly change courtship songs but never repeat themselves. The songs are always new and never a 'golden oldie' from a decade or two back in time, as humans like to do. The nostalgia radio stations are the most popular now and have been for a long time.
   
   Einstein asked this question, "How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as 'first love?' They don't. It does involve body chemistry and is a fleeting illusion as we seldom marry our first loves, or our last.
   
   Proust said that memory is "a rope let down from heaven to draw us up out of the abyss of not-being." Memory involves happenings from our pasts and that of our ancestors. Here, again, the author used examples of frogs eyes and brains. Here I was, ready to learn about that elusive part of our existence, remembering, when all I find is that these are the cornerstones of our experience, time, love and memory. It's sad that as we age, memory is more fleeting than love. How could he forget so fast to find Sweet Surrender and probably didn't look at all, or his memory is worse than the flys and frogs and plants and things.
   
   Jonathan Weiner won the Pulitzer Prize for 'The Beak of the Finch.' He dedicated this book to his brother, Eric. In his teaching fields, he went from biology to writing. Here, they gravitate from history or journalism to writing. First, you must know the fundamentals of writing for the general public and not textbook information for students before any kind of success is possible. It's okay, CS, we all forget sometimes.



4. "Time, Love, Memory" is a fascinating account of a group of scientists who pioneered the study of genes and behavior. It is also an interesting history lesson about the development of molecular biology and the development of science in general.
   
   The atomic theory of inheritance - the idea that inherited characteristics are passed on as factors, as discrete units (now called genes) - began with the work of Gregor Mendel. Unfortunately, Mendel's work was largely ignored at the time of its initial publication. At the turn of the 20th century it was re-discovered and it ushered in a golden era of genetics (the period of classic genetics). This work was largely carried on in the United States by Thomas Hunt Morgan and his amazing group of undergraduate and graduate students (Morgan's raiders). Morgan's group found support for the Mendelian laws of inheritance in the breeding of common fruit flies (Drosophila). With the work of Morgan's group, it was discovered that Mendel's factors were arranged along chromosomes (`like beads on a string') and Morgan's student, Alfred Sturtevant, in one eureka moment, created the first ever genetic map of a chromosome. That is, Sturtevant figured out a way to map the order of genes along a chromosome and to calculate spatial distances between them.
   
   However, it was still not known what genes were at the time (Morgan asked the question, `What are genes?' in his Nobel acceptance speech). While the function of genes as carriers of hereditary units was known, they were still abstract entities. The quantum physicist, Erwin Schrodinger, wrote a book called "What Is Life?" in which he tried to bring atomic physics to bear on the genetics problem. He speculated that the hereditary material might be carried in a crystal lattice structure and that genetic mutations might be quantum jumps. Schrodinger's speculations were beautiful, even if they mostly turned out to be wrong, but the book served as inspiration for a large group of physicists to become interested in biology and these physicists-turned-biologists would have a large role to play in the development of molecular biology.
   
   One of these physicists-turned-biologists was Seymour Benzer. He had completed his doctoral thesis in physics at Purdue and was engaged in research on semi-conductors. With a very promising career in physics awaiting him, Benzer got interested in biology. "Within one day...he became instantly induced, transformed, determined and committed to be a biologist." Max Delbruck (another physicist-turned-biologist) became Benzer's mentor and they worked on bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria). Around this time Crick and Watson (also inspired by Schrodinger's "What Is Life?") discovered the molecular structure of DNA. Benzer was aware of their work and he started to think about genes as rungs of nucleotides twisting along the DNA ladder. Benzer came up with a series of elegant, simple experiments to be performed with a mutant phage (rII phage) and with these experiments he became the first person to begin mapping the interior of a gene. These experiments earned him the nickname of the `atom-breaker of biology'. The Greek idea of the atom imagined it as a kind of tiny, indivisible spherical object. Similarly, many biologists thought of genes as being indivisible at the time, as abstract little beads lined up along the chromosome. But Benzer's work showed that the gene is divisible, that its interior can be mapped.
   
   One might think that this alone would be more than enough to secure Benzer's place in the history of science. However, following his phage work, Benzer became increasingly interested in studying the genetic origins of behavior. He decided to use the Drosophila fly as the model organism, an entry point into the investigation of how genes lead to behavior. The atomic theory of behavior aimed to take apart the behavioral instincts and study their internal clockwork. At the time this was fringe science. As Benzer set up his fly room at Caltech, many people were highly skeptical about his intended research project. However, Benzer's ambitious project paid dividends and did so very early on. Benzer and his group of students injected Drosophila flies with mutagens and then screened them for a variety of behavioral mutations. The book focuses on three main discoveries that opened the way into the investigation of the genetic bases of the fundamental elements of the behavioral pyramid (time, love and memory).
   
   Among these mutants there are flies with damaged internal clocks, whose behavioral rhythms become erratic, or slow, or fast. These various behaviors were found to be controlled by a period gene. Certain nucleotide repeats of the period gene exist in most animals, including humans. There are also flies with no luck in love, who exhibit abnormal courtship patterns. This led to the discovery of a gene called fruitless which controls the wiring of neurons in the fly brain that regulate mating behaviors. And finally, there are also flies who exhibit deficits in learning and memory, the so-called dunce mutants. These flies go on making the same mistakes, over and over again, due to a genetic mistake that interferes with one of their chemical signaling cascades.
   
   Weiner's book is also a cautionary tale - there is all too often a tendency toward simplistic thinking about gene interactions in terms of a simple, linear model. As Weiner points out, "Every gene is a thread that leads into vast skeins of molecular anatomy, and one by one molecular biologists have discovered how easy it is to get lost at the very beginning of the thread." Discovering a gene is only the first step of discovery. Figuring out how it works is a much more complicated endeavor. Genes interact with one another via transcription factors (proteins regulating gene expression) and they also actively interact with the outside world and their operation is best conceived of in terms of massive networks, with each gene as something akin to a cog in a vast clockwork. This leads to complicated loops of gene-gene and gene-environment interactions. Weiner's discussions of these issues are illuminating and by the end of the book the reader should understand why it is simply impossible to speak of `a gene' for such-and-such behavior. Behavior is almost always a complicated manner that is controlled by teams of genes.
   
   Weiner's book is not a science book per se, but a book about science and an avant-garde group of scientists. It is scientific journalism at its best. He interweaves the book with quotes from Benzer, his students and other people in the field. Benzer's story is particularly interesting because he is not well known among the general public, despite his being a trailblazing scientist of the first class. At the time of writing the book Weiner was a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton and over a four year span he interviewed about 150 biologists who were, in one way or another, involved in bridging the gap between molecular biology and the study of behavior. This means that he is able to bring a sense of intimacy to the book that makes it very difficult to put down. This is definitely a recommended read.



5. I was given this book, a young Biology student, by my Genetics unit professor in the basic Biology undergrad course. It was an experience to read. I would also recommend Mapping Fate: A Memoir of Family, Risk, and Genetic Research to anyone who loves this book (or doesn't....) I personally enjoyed this book much more than The Beak of the Finch, which I could never finish.

5 comments about The Autobiography of Charles Darwin 1809-1882.

1. Very often, the name Charles Darwin conjures up images of a mythical figure responsible for the development of one of the most influential scientific theories. How often, however, do we think about the scientist's human side? The Autobiography of Charles Darwin is a fun read that lets you take a peak into his life and demystify the man behind the name. The human side emerges from anecdotes, whether from his childhood or young adulthood or after. Expectedly, Darwin confesses of a keen interest in beetles and collecting and describes the lengths to which he would go to study the insect (even putting a beetle in his mouth). However, who would have imagined that his friends would tease him for his careful bird record keeping and his lack of an ear for music? Who would have guessed that certain papers he published were a source of embarrassment? The autobiography reveals other, unexpected sides of Darwin. But as you read this book, do not expect to be exposed to Darwin's deepest thoughts and reflections. The tidbits of stories present in the autobiography definitely leave you wanting to know more.
   
   Additionally, reading the autobiography serves as a source of inspiration. Darwin's lack of success in other aspects of life, such as with his attempts to be a doctor and a clergyman, contrasted with his great scientific success. With his matter of fact tone, Darwin admits that he did not do well in many academic subjects. However, he made up for the difference with long hours of work and perseverance. While we will never know if Darwin's intended for his autobiography to be inspirational, we can derive the personal take-home message of persevering and pursuing what truly interests you.
   
   I highly recommend reading this autobiography as it gives you a glimpse into the human side of a great thinker.



2. Given the amount of attention placed on Darwin's ideas for the last 150 years, it is an interesting new twist to examine the man himself. The aspects of Darwin's life on which he chooses to focus his self-description are, naturally, very revealing. He portrays himself as methodical and extremely devoted to his various passions, be they hunting, beetle-collecting, or writing. It seems that although Darwin was fairly social in his youth, his health precluded many visitors from calling on him later in life; perhaps this gave him time to complete his many works! This is an engaging and entertaining look at the man behind the books that impacted so much in the world of science.



3. This autobiography is a fun and easy-to-read journey through the events that made Darwin into a meticulous visionary. It serves as an excellent spark to make any person into a Darwin-enthusiast. Regardless of how you feel about his theory of evolution, Darwin's life experiences as described in this book can teach you to examine the world and everyday occurrences in a new and fascinating way.
   
   Perhaps the most inspiring aspect of this account of Darwin's life was the value that Darwin himself placed, not on conventional means of gathering knowledge (he refers to many of his early university Professors and lectures as wastes of time), but on the people that he met and the questions raised by the world around him. Darwin's observant and inquisitive nature is expressed genuinely in this book and can inspire any reader to share in the sense of wonder that Darwin takes from the simple, everyday interactions with the natural world.



4. Listening to Charles Darwin talk about his life, from his earliest childhood experiences, proved to me, yet again, that really great people completely lack pomposity and artifice.
   
   Darwin spends barely anytime talking about his great works, he really just sets the scene in which these works took place. And because that scene was so firmly Victorian with society tightly bound by religion and class, you also realise what a brave man he was in pursuing his scientific observations.
   
   This is only a small book, the actual biography I read in a couple of days. This edition was edited by his grand-daughter and in the end notes some space is devoted to a row between Darwin and a Mr Butler - who you may well ask was Butler, its interesting to note how all these other characters fade into history's darkness, whilst the legacy of Darwin's work lives on.



5. This is a wonderful book. It provides an insightful view of Darwin himself, with only light reference to his revelations about nature and evolution. By reading this book, one learns that Darwin was not the dark, confrontational, angry person religious people try to portray him (they are projecting, I think). Rather, Charles Darwin was a man full of life, wonderment, and humor. He was a very sociable humanitarian who cherished his family, children (10!), and associates. Most of all, he had an insatiable thurst for knowledge about nature, and was a complete devotee to the scientific method. His contribution to our understanding of biology is, of course, historic, but he was also a central figure in the immediate functions of the scientific community of his day. His work lead to the realization that religion is myth, but he does not dwell on this, but mentions it in passing. Instead, he writes about the beauty of the diversity and functionality of nature and how Natural Selection has provided such a rich environment.

3 comments about Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography (Norton Critical Editions).

1. How many books have you read that you remember thirty-six years later? Ben Franklin's insights into principles of self-improvement, and his love for the adventure of life were not only inspiring to me when I discovered his autobiography in the Holmesburg Library in Philadelphia at age 14, but they still remain motivational for me at age 50! Ben Franklin was the Dale Carnegie of his age. He realized that by following basic core value principles, and by constant practice in the adventure of life, he could not only creatively change himself, but he could positively impact those around him as well. Ben Franklin led a purposeful, creative life. I am thankful that he had the foresight to pass his exhuberance along to us in this his autobiography. It was fun to read. I think I'll read it again. Thanks, Ben.



2. Anyone who has ever taken a literature class in college knows the Norton Critical Editions: an absolutely first-rate version of the text, a healthy supply of contemporary responses and letters, and the best essays yet written about the text. This edition of Benjamin Franklin's "Autobiography" is no exception. The quintessential American Enlightenment figure, Franklin is far more complex than most people think, and far funnier. When it came time to write the Declaration of Independence, the Congress wouldn't give it to Franklin alone, in large part because they were afraid he'd hide a joke in it. One of his most infamous pieces of writing was under the guise of a prostitute being brought before the court for having yet another illegitimate child -- and then attacking the court for making it necessary for her to pursue her profession! And the letter Franklin wrote his own illegitimate son about how to keep a mistress is a classic in and of itself. The only great flaw in the autobiography is that it stops before Franklin ever reaches the Revolutionary War, and thus we don't have the inside story of that perilous time. But anybody wanting to understand Franklin's life, the means to wealth, or the evolution of a brilliant mind will love this text. It's mandatory reading for every American, in my mind.



3. If you are looking for "the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin," this is the volume to get. It is a Norton Critical Edition, perhaps the gold standard of anthologies, and it is edited by Lemay and Zall.
   
   I believe Lemay and Zall are the "experts" in the autobiographical writings of Benjamin Franklin.
   
   Critical essays include essays written contemporaneously with this autobiography (including David Hume and John Adams); in the 19th century (including Edgar Allen Poe, Herman Melville, Mark Twain); in the 20th century (including D.H. Lawrence, W. Somerset Maugham). The critical essay by D. H. Lawrence is a classic, but it is clear that Lawrence "misread" Benjamin Franklin, and having read it, I have lost some admiration for Lawrence.
   
   Watch for this volume at discount book stores and independent books sellers through Amazon.com.

No comments about Riding the Waves: A Life in Sound, Science, and Industry.

5 comments about Ordinary Genius: The Story of Albert Einstein (Trailblazer Biographies).

1. Ordinary Genius: The Story of albert Einstein
   By: Stephanie Sammartino McPherson
   Retold by: S.Delgado
   Per.3
   
   The book talks about Alberts life, his ideas and his accomplishments. It talked about from his childhood to his death. Albert was born in March 14, 1879 and died in April 18, 1955. he lived with his family along with his two siblings. When Albert was a child the first thing that he saw that changed his life was a compass. He wondered how the compass always go north when he goes to a different direction. Albert loved science and mathematics when ever he went to school. After years past Albert looked up books and writing eqautions that could make whatever Albert thinks it is possible. when he thought up of ideas and eqautions, He became the worlds famous scientist.
   
   I liked how they talked about what his eqautions mean, what were his eqautions, what did E=mc2 mean, and what is the theory of relativity. The Theory of Relativity is the motion at a constant speed. E=mc2 means energy equals mass of energy times speed of light two times.
   
   What I disliked about the book was that it does not tell when he created his inventions or when did he enroll in his schools, for example it will tell when did he thought up of the E=mc2 or when did he enroll in the university.
   
   My favorite part of the book was one of Alberts ideas saying that if your toy car is going at 2 mph and then put the toy car while running on a 100 mph train and the car would be going 102 mph. If you place a light that goes 186,282 mps on a train, the light still travels the same mps, the speed never changes.



2. Ordinary Genius: The Story of albert Einstein
   By: Stephanie Sammartino McPherson
   Retold by: S.Delgado
   Per.3
   
   The book talks about Alberts life, his ideas and his accomplishments. It talked about from his childhood to his death. Albert was born in March 14, 1879 and died in April 18, 1955. he lived with his family along with his two siblings. When Albert was a child the first thing that he saw that changed his life was a compass. He wondered how the compass always go north when he goes to a different direction. Albert loved science and mathematics when ever he went to school. After years past Albert looked up books and writing eqautions that could make whatever Albert thinks it is possible. when he thought up of ideas and eqautions, He became the worlds famous scientist.
   
   I liked how they talked about what his eqautions mean, what were his eqautions, what did E=mc2 mean, and what is the theory of relativity. The Theory of Relativity is the motion at a constant speed. E=mc2 means energy equals mass of energy times speed of light two times.
   
   What I disliked about the book was that it does not tell when he created his inventions or when did he enroll in his schools, for example it will tell when did he thought up of the E=mc2 or when did he enroll in the university.
   
   My favorite part of the book was one of Alberts ideas saying that if your toy car is going at 2 mph and then put the toy car while running on a 100 mph train and the car would be going 102 mph. If you place a light that goes 186,282 mps on a train, the light still travels the same mps, the speed never changes.



3. I love this book it gave me alot of great information, I did'nt have to go to other sources to get information about his life. I'm doing a report on his life for a school project. I'm going to dress like he did and memorize a speech I'm going to write and then give it in front of my school and all the parents of our school.



4. Reviewed by Spencer Zaborowski (age 12) for Reader Views (12/07)
   
   "Ordinary Genius: The Story of Albert Einstein" is a biography, which is a story of a person's life, of the famous German scientist. He was born on March 14, 1879, in Ulm, Germany. He had one sister. He was thought of by his parents as being slow and not very bright, because he had an unusually large head when he was born and he did not speak much until he was nine-years-old. He was not a good student and was teased a lot by his teachers and other students, because he was different and questioned them a lot. He finally moved to Switzerland and worked for awhile before being accepted into college. He was curious about the world around him, especially science. He was a professor at universities in Switzerland and Germany, and he worked very long hours finishing scientific papers. He wrote the famous Theory of Relativity in 1916. Albert Einstein came to the United States in 1933 and lived in New Jersey because he was worried about how Jews were treated in Germany. He married twice - his second wife was his cousin. He died in 1955.
   
   At first, I thought this book would be boring and full of science and facts, like some other biographies I have read. But after the first few pages, it was hard to put down! The reading was interesting, and the black and white pictures throughout the book helped to make the story easy to follow. There were not a lot of technical words that would be hard to understand. The book did not go into detail about the scientific things that he wrote about. Instead, the book was more about his personal life and his odd personality. I learned a lot of things about him that I had not known. For example, Einstein never learned to drive a car because he was confused by mechanical things. That was very funny to me.
   
   I would recommend "Ordinary Genius: The Story of Albert Einstein" to middle school-aged kids. I don't normally like to read nonfiction books--only when I have to for school--but this one kept my interest because it told a lot of personal stories and facts about Einstein that made him seem ordinary, like the title says.



5. I liked this book because it was very informative and interesting. It was short and quick and I found out things about Albert Einstein. It covers his background, personal life and professional life. As a boy he was fascinated with a compass and wanted to know why the arrow always pointed north. When his father told him about magnetic fields, he was very excited about magnetism. That was just the beginning of his quest for discovering new things. In addition to enjoying equations and explaining his theories in an understandable way, he played the violin and liked sailing too. He denounced his German citizenship and became a citizen of the United States, none of which I knew before reading this book.
   
   His advice was to always ask questions and never lose your curiosity about things. A lot of his teachers didn't like that he asked so many questions that they couldn't answer. When he became a professor, he encouraged his students to ask questions and was never upsset if he didn't know the answer. He just told them he didn't know.
   
   Karen Arlettaz Zemek, author of "My Funny Dad, Harry"

5 comments about Naturalist.

1. This autobiography is more for the professional biological scientist, who should really enjoy the detailed description of the many field works of the author. Although his reflections on aggression, behaviourism (for him grossly overstated), and sociobiology are a worth-while reading.
   He confesses that he became far too late an environmental activist.
   I can only subscribe his fundamental truths: first, humanity is the product of biological evolution; second, the diversity of life is the craddle and greatest natural heritage of the human species; and third, philosophy and religion make little sense without taking into account these two first conceptions.
   Another silver lining in his professional life: his struggle with colleagues, jealousy, slander, undermining of his position, covert attacks (Harvard is not a monastery).



2. An engaging and well-written account of the famous biologist's intellectual development from his early to his mature years and most important achievements. Nice discussions of some of his most interesting and important ideas punctuate this history. For example, there's a good section on the origin and development of his ecological ideas and the theory of island biogeography. Wilson is always a cautious but careful writer and thinker, but in a couple of the sections, he gets at least a little bit speculative and is all the more entertaining for it. For example, his discussion of the innateness of our fear of spiders and snakes is entertaining (Wilson himself is very phobic about spiders). Equally entertaining is the section where he discusses people's preference for a particular type of environment or ecology (subalpine or montane foothills parkland or partially wooded savannah with some lakes). Wilson attributes this to it being the environment where we originally evolved. Overall it counts as one of the best scientific biographies I've ever read.



3. To me, it looks as if Wilson turned to be a great scientist against all odds. He did not come from the academic royalty, but from a broken family in Alabama. With strong intuition, lot of hard work and endless enthusiasm, he became one of the great scientists of the 20th century. A well written book, that would probably change the course of my life have I read it at the right age...



4. Edward Wilson's works unravel of their own accord.
   
   He tells us that human beings do not have free will.
   
   Ergo, Edward Wilson did not choose to write this book, or any book. He did not choose what to believe, nor has anyone, and therefore he can make no objective claim to correct knowledge.
   
   If what he says is true then nothing he says can be trusted since it is merely the product of an infinite myriad of uncontrollable externalities working in concert to produce whatever it is that happens to come out of his physical manifestation.
   
   It is even debatable whether or not evolution had true belief or correct knowledge as one of its requirements for survival. Indeed it can be shown that false belief as much as true belief (and in fact no belief at all) can infer an increased level of fitness on the host organism.
   
   If evolutionary psychology has any truth at all its truth is that we cannot trust our mental faculties to obtain the truth at all. Nihilism in the truest sense.



5. Wilson delivers a compelling and inspirational account of his scientific career from age 5 onward, and some touching personal details explaining what drew him to nature. But read critically! Sometimes the sentimental tone can cast doubt on the credibility of his recollections.

5 comments about The Last Man Who Knew Everything: Thomas Young, the Anonymous Genius Who Proved Newton Wrong and Deciphered the Rosetta Stone, Among Other Surprising Feats.

1. There isn't a great deal of personal, emotional information about Thomas Young, the title polymath here. But then his life was mostly in his work. And there is a lot to be learned following Thomas' investigations of a variety of scientific and scholarly subjects.
   
   His range truly was amazing. How did people accomplish so much in previous centuries? Well, I suppose without TV to suck away time... But Thomas was exceptional even for his overachieving, turn-of-the-18th-century age. And this biography allows a reader to follow in the path of his curiosity - about how the eye works, about the nature of light, about Egyptian writing.
   
   The biographer's descriptions of Thomas' researches into the physiology of the human eye can get pretty gruesome. These pages are not for the squeamish. Thomas often used himself as subject, probing his own eye socket to get to the bottom of things.
   
   The section on his investigations into light is really enlightening and presents some of the clearest descriptions I've read of the split-screen diffraction experiment. This experiment was key in leading Thomas to his pioneering proposition that light is wave-like in nature.
   
   And then the section on his work translating the Rosetta Stone was news to me! I had always assumed that ancient Egyptian hieroglyph writing was a form of picture writing like Chinese, with each symbol representing a whole word. But Thomas' break-through lay in the realization that the Egyptian symbols were actually largely like our modern English alphabet - that each symbol represented a sound, a phoneme. And so he gave us the key to reading the inscriptions on the ancient Egyptian tombs and obelisks.
   
   The writing here is generally clear and will keep you turning page by page, tracking Thomas' investigations as he unlocks one mystery after another.



2. Chapters include:
   Preface
   Introduction
   Child Prodigy
   Fellow of the Royal Society
   Itinerant Medical Student
   'Phenomenon' Young
   Physician of Vision
   Royal Institution Lecturer
   Let There Be Light Waves
   'Natural Philosophy & the Mechanical Arts'
   Dr Thomas Young, M.D., F.R.C.P.
   Reading the Rosetta Stone
   Waves of Enlightenment
   Walking Encyclopedia
   In the Public Interest
   Grand Tour
   Dueling with Champollion
   A Universal Man
   Notes & References
   Bibliography
   Index
   
   ***** A fantastic biography of Thomas Young that is not only great for fans of history, but also for students to use in subject reports! *****
   
   
   Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.



3. Only read this book if you are secure with your own IQ. If you are not, you will leave feeling terribly inadequate as Thomas Young was amazingly portrayed in this book!!!



4. THhomas Young is more believeable as a character in a work of fiction (comprable to a Nero Wolfe or a Sherlock Holmes) than as a real person. No one can be that smart in so many areas! But the fact that he really lived makes him all the more fantastic.
   
   This is a great biography about an amazing man!
   
   Also recommended: The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes: The Life and Times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle



5. In Robinson's biography of Thomas Young we get an excellent picture of a scientist working in the early nineteenth century as well as the issues and difficulties faced throughout history by those who study, work and contribute knowledge in a broad range of fields and interests (otherwise known as polymaths).
   
   As Robinson himself states in the book, the biography is not meant to be a comprehensive treatment of Young's work in all of the fields to which he contributed nor does it provide an in-depth treatment of Young's work in the areas where he was most influential. Rather, it is an overview of the breadth of Young's contributions and how these contributions came to be accepted within the scientific community of the time. This is most completely described with respect to Young's work in optics (which to the acceptance of a wave theory of light) and his work in languages, most notably hieroglyphics and demotic script.
   
   What I found most interesting about the book was the analysis of Young's character and the advantages and disadvantages he experienced in having such a broad array of interests. The author clearly shows Young's tendency to enter a field of study, make important and sometimes ground breaking advances and then to move onto to other areas. In doing so, we see Young's habit of not rigorously working through all the details or implications of a discovery and the controversy that sometimes leads to.
   
   The book is well written with copious quotes both from Young and his early biographers. While I found these insightful, they were often lengthy and dry and required some work to plow through. I recommend this book to all those who find themselves studying a wide array of topics, those interested in either the history of physics or linguistics and those who wish to see how a person who belongs to a rare group of individuals (polymaths) works and interacts with the learned culture around them.

5 comments about The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and the Complex.

1. The "reductionistic" scientific method, which seeks to reduce phonomena to simpler and more general underlying bludprints, has dominated the last three centuries. It works great in physics, as Newton domonstrated, but less well in other disciplines such as biology and psychology. For example, molecular biologists have isolated DNA, but have yet to adequately explain embroyonic development, protein folding and other riddles. To overcome these shortcomings, many are calling for a theory of complexity, which should focus on systems and the dynamics of development where order appears to organize itself from a bewildering number of interacting factors.
   
   Gell-Mann argues that rather than replacing reductionist methods, complexity theory complements that approach. The quark is the simple and universal, the jaguar the complex. He suggests that between these two exists an unbroken chain.
   
   Gell-Mann attempts to make his contribution with teh "complex adaptive system" that "acquires information about its environment" and indentifies "regularities in that information", which are then condensed into a "schema" or "model"; these latter are "non-static," and unlike a quark can evolve. Each complex adaptive system contains three strands: 1) basic rules; 2) frozen accidents; 3) a selection process. For example, language has genetically inherited cognitive capabilites with certain quirky attributes that persist and yet can change as the individual must describe new phenomena. A lot of the book is devoted to finding and explaining similar examples. It is a panoramic and entertaining excursion through human knowledge, if a bit cursory.
   
   Gell-Mann also hopes to guide scientists into a more holistic and cross-disciplinary approaches. With its focus on historical development and links between the simple and complex, the study of complex adaptive systems, he argues, may be the spur required to stimulate such approaches, briging physics, chemistry, biology and even the social sciences. This is what he is doing at the Santa Fe Institute.
   
   At its best, the book is a window into a great scientific mind, with fascinating mini-essays on state of the art science. Unfortunately, Gell-Mann is an uneven writer. Many passages are impenetrable to lay readers like myself. At a deeper level, he fails to critique the vague research agendas of the complexologists, who have been ridiculously popularised in such enues as Wired. Even the complex adaptive system may say too little about too much. Through it all, Gell-Mann maintains his pose as a total pedant.
   
   REcommended. It is uneven, but this is one of the greatest thinks of the 20C.



2. I might also have entitled my review, "See Carlos Camara's review of April 11, 2002." Camara captures my own thoughts to a tee. Where Gell-Mann is strongest, namely, on particle physics, his strengths shine through. Though hardly a rigorous survey of the field, the second section of Q&J is a compelling introduction to it -- and certainly whets one's appetite for further reading. The book's first section (an overview of the notion of complexity) is decent (though far better popular treatments can be found elsewhere). The book's third and fourth sections, however, are pretty much a total wash. I could tolerate them only insofar as they reflected the obvious integrity of the author. He is a political kindred spirit. That said, having purchased Q&J and had high expectations of it, I was surprised and not a little frustrated at how bereft of substance it was on matters "Jaguarian". More than a little disconnected, I found the second half of Q&J rambling, pedestrian, and even sophomoric. Certainly not what one expects of a Nobel prize winning physicist and of one of the founders of the Santa Fe institute. My respect for Gell-Mann, as a scientist and a humanist, is in no way diminished by Q&J, but I cannot help but feel that he (and his publisher) faltered with this effort. My advice: read the first half of Q&J for a cursory -- but well-written -- survey of complexity and particle physics. Skip the second half altogether.



3. Gell-Mann went to much effort to weave the diverse topics of this book together under the theme of complex adaptive systems. I found this to be a pointless endeavor. A good theme should provide cohesion or make the subject more approachable. Conceiving of both a single-celled organism and a culture as complex adaptive systems, however, provides little insight into the functioning of either and serves mostly to drive home the point that the notion of a complex adaptive system is so broad that nearly anything worth discussing falls under that heading.
   
   Quantum physics is discussed at length. Unfortunately this section reads more like a catalog of concepts and discoveries than like a good introduction conveying key concepts. Other subjects (biology, evolution, ecosystems, computer learning, economics, public policy) are covered too superficially to yield anything of interest.
   
   The major arguments of _The Quark and the Jaguar_ are as follows:
   
   1) Effective complexity is not the same as algorithmic complexity. Algorithmic complexity is 0 for uniform data and highest for completely random data. (Potential) effective complexity is highest in the middle, where patterns and rules (schema) can be derived and minimal for both uniform data and random data.
   
   2) Classical physics implies a deterministic world. How can anything interesting happen? Because quantum physics offers randomness.
   
   3) Complex adaptive systems create schemas to model the data. This is true for the formation of life, to children learning to speak, to scientific progress, etc. Successful complex adaptive systems are solutions to problems. So the biological and cultural diversity on the planet represents a huge amount of valuable information.
   
   4) We should preserve biological and cultural diversity so we don't lose valuable information.



4. Mr. Gell-Mann won a Nobel Prize for his work in physics, but he will never will a Pulitzer for his writing. It's too tedious to endure.
   
   I love reading books about physics. I tried to read this book -- twice. I wanted to like it. But both times, I got no more than a third of the way through, and couldn't force myself to read another word.
   
   Mr. Gell-Mann's writing is too convoluted and dry, his theories so superficially presented. Unless you're a speed reader, I'd imagine there are very few people who would ever waste the time required to force themselves through this very disappointing book.



5. This book gives valuable information on how complex systems arise out of a simple, natural ground. Gell-Mann's theories are useful in understanding chaos theory as well as many branches of quantum physics. A description of Gell-Mann's ecological explorations and efforts to maintain the biosphere is also given. The magician and student of physics will be well rewarded for reading Gell-Mann's work. The processes of consciousness and so magical phenomena may be understood in this light.