by Curt Freed & Simon LeVay ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 12, 2002
A revealing look at the ins and outs of scientific research—and the ups and downs of collaboration and competition among...
Easy-reading first-person account of research into the effectiveness of using fetal dopamine cells to treat Parkinson’s disease, a venture that aroused controversy not just for its use of cells from human embryos but because the double-blind study called for half the patients to undergo sham brain surgery.
Freed, director of the neuroscience and neurotransplant center at the Univ. of Chicago, is aided in this narrative of medical derring-do by LeVay, a neurobiologist with a talent for explaining science to Everyman (The Sexual Brain, 1993, etc.). Background information includes one articulate patient’s description of his illness; the 19th-century observations of James Parkinson, for whom the disease is named; and the story of the 1960s discovery of L-dopa’s uses and limitations. The authors recount the advances that made study of primates’ brains possible, and then in 1988, Freed’s first implantation of fetal dopamine cells into the brain of a human patient. Details of the procedure and of the refinements made in subsequent operations make for fascinating reading. When the Clinton administration made federal funding for fetal cell research available in 1992, Freed and his colleagues were ready with a proposal for an elaborate double-blind study involving 40 patients, half of whom were randomly assigned to receive transplants of fetal dopamine cells and half placed in a control group. In fairness, those in the control group, who underwent fake surgeries, could later opt for the real thing. The politics and the logistics of getting the study underway are made clear, and the authors add human interest by including profiles of six typical participants. Especially interesting is the description of how the sham surgeries were made realistic—even the anesthesiologists were kept in the dark. One-year follow-ups revealed beneficial effects in the younger patients; study of the long-term effects is continuing today. Despite the limitations placed on stem-cell research by the current administration, the authors conclude on an optimistic note with a brief look at future avenues of research.
A revealing look at the ins and outs of scientific research—and the ups and downs of collaboration and competition among scientists.Pub Date: June 12, 2002
ISBN: 0-8050-7091-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2002
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by Lulu Miller illustrated by Kate Samworth ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 14, 2020
A quirky wonder of a book.
A Peabody Award–winning NPR science reporter chronicles the life of a turn-of-the-century scientist and how her quest led to significant revelations about the meaning of order, chaos, and her own existence.
Miller began doing research on David Starr Jordan (1851-1931) to understand how he had managed to carry on after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed his work. A taxonomist who is credited with discovering “a full fifth of fish known to man in his day,” Jordan had amassed an unparalleled collection of ichthyological specimens. Gathering up all the fish he could save, Jordan sewed the nameplates that had been on the destroyed jars directly onto the fish. His perseverance intrigued the author, who also discusses the struggles she underwent after her affair with a woman ended a heterosexual relationship. Born into an upstate New York farm family, Jordan attended Cornell and then became an itinerant scholar and field researcher until he landed at Indiana University, where his first ichthyological collection was destroyed by lightning. In between this catastrophe and others involving family members’ deaths, he reconstructed his collection. Later, he was appointed as the founding president of Stanford, where he evolved into a Machiavellian figure who trampled on colleagues and sang the praises of eugenics. Miller concludes that Jordan displayed the characteristics of someone who relied on “positive illusions” to rebound from disaster and that his stand on eugenics came from a belief in “a divine hierarchy from bacteria to humans that point[ed]…toward better.” Considering recent research that negates biological hierarchies, the author then suggests that Jordan’s beloved taxonomic category—fish—does not exist. Part biography, part science report, and part meditation on how the chaos that caused Miller’s existential misery could also bring self-acceptance and a loving wife, this unique book is an ingenious celebration of diversity and the mysterious order that underlies all existence.
A quirky wonder of a book.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6027-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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by Carlo Rovelli ; translated by Simon Carnell & Erica Segre ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2016
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both...
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Italian theoretical physicist Rovelli (General Relativity: The Most Beautiful of Theories, 2015, etc.) shares his thoughts on the broader scientific and philosophical implications of the great revolution that has taken place over the past century.
These seven lessons, which first appeared as articles in the Sunday supplement of the Italian newspaper Sole 24 Ore, are addressed to readers with little knowledge of physics. In less than 100 pages, the author, who teaches physics in both France and the United States, cogently covers the great accomplishments of the past and the open questions still baffling physicists today. In the first lesson, he focuses on Einstein's theory of general relativity. He describes Einstein's recognition that gravity "is not diffused through space [but] is that space itself" as "a stroke of pure genius." In the second lesson, Rovelli deals with the puzzling features of quantum physics that challenge our picture of reality. In the remaining sections, the author introduces the constant fluctuations of atoms, the granular nature of space, and more. "It is hardly surprising that there are more things in heaven and earth, dear reader, than have been dreamed of in our philosophy—or in our physics,” he writes. Rovelli also discusses the issues raised in loop quantum gravity, a theory that he co-developed. These issues lead to his extraordinary claim that the passage of time is not fundamental but rather derived from the granular nature of space. The author suggests that there have been two separate pathways throughout human history: mythology and the accumulation of knowledge through observation. He believes that scientists today share the same curiosity about nature exhibited by early man.
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both scientists and general readers.Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-18441-3
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
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