A welcome and accessible addition to the history of science, and an object lesson in the perils of scientific amorality.
Well-told life of a little-known but important scientist.
Fritz Haber “fits no convenient category,” writes science journalist Charles (Lords of the Harvest, 2002, etc.). “Haber was both hero and villain; a Jew who was also a German patriot; a victim of the Nazis who was accused of war crimes himself.” It is in the last connection that Haber figures in history. A highly skilled chemist working at the boundaries of physics and chemistry, Haber and industrial engineer Carl Bosch developed a system by which to extract nitrogen from the air, link it to hydrogen and fix it in the form of ammonia, a potentially limitless source of plant fertilizer. The process, Charles reckons, is responsible for feeding nearly half of the world’s population today. But the same method, with some tweaking, allowed Germany to manufacture munitions in the absence of imported nitrate, prevented from entering the country by a British naval blockade. Haber’s subsequent work in developing chemical weapons horrified his friend Albert Einstein; Charles rather charitably attributes at least some of Haber’s interest to the “intellectual challenge” of making possible a new kind of warfare, but Einstein foresaw what happens when science is put into the service of politics by other means. Charles observes that of a total count of 20 million dead and wounded, chemical weapons “account for a relatively small number of these casualties . . . about 650,000 people” on the Western Front. (The toll from the German use of gas in Russia and Poland is unknown.) This is not to excuse Haber, for Charles adds that though gas is an old technology, the industrial manufacture of death-dealing tools is ongoing, and Haber was a pioneer. Haber was well aware of this, remarking toward the end of his life, an exile in Switzerland at the dawn of a dangerous age, that his contributions were “like fire in the hands of small children.”
A welcome and accessible addition to the history of science, and an object lesson in the perils of scientific amorality.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-056272-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ecco/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
