This second collection of short pieces by the President of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center will bring joy to those who delighted in Lives of a Cell. The title essay concerns a jellyfish (the medusa) and a sea slug (the snail) who live in happy symbiosis in the Bay of Naples. Their ability to find each other is Thomas' springboard for a discussion of the notions of "self" and "other"—of biochemical recognition whether manifest in attachments between discrete organisms or in the distinction between foreign and self in the immune system. The medusa-snail story is a particularly extraordinary tale of a mature jellyfish engulfing a tiny newly-hatched slug—only to be devoured bit by bit until the snail dominates and the jellyfish is reduced to a round "successfully edited parasite" affixed to the skin near the snail's mouth. Thomas' unexpected turns of phrase and love of words and their origins is revealed again and again in essays ranging in subject from our present zeal for dying gracefully to how-not-to-choose students for medical schools. The origin of hubris in hybrid—via us, meaning out, and gwer, meaning violence and strength—is the fulcrum on which turns a telling piece which should dispose of all who'd set limits on scientific research. The celebrated essay "On Transcendental Metaworry"—in which Thomas wryly dispatches the whole kit and kaboodle of instant paths to enlightenment—is a rondo of variants of the origins of "worry." To be sure, there are dispensable pieces—a putdown of electronic music, a gratuitous reminder of how little physicians earned 50 years ago—but this is to quibble. Read Thomas for his estimable style—often disarmingly simple, even colloquial—and the wit and insight into life and medicine his writing embodies.
Pub Date: May 1, 1979
ISBN: 0140243194
Page Count: 196
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1979
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The Johnstown Flood was one of the greatest natural disasters of all time (actually manmade, since it was precipitated by a wealthy country club dam which had long been the source of justified misgivings). This then is a routine rundown of the catastrophe of May 31st, 1889, the biggest news story since Lincoln's murder in which thousands died. The most interesting incidental: a baby floated unharmed in its cradle for eighty miles.... Perhaps of local interest-but it lacks the Lord-ly touch.
Pub Date: March 18, 1968
ISBN: 0671207148
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1968
IN THE NEWS
A media-savvy scientist cleans out his desk.
Tyson (Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, 2017, etc.) receives a great deal of mail, and this slim volume collects his responses and other scraps of writing.
The prolific science commentator and bestselling author, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History, delivers few surprises and much admirable commentary. Readers may suspect that most of these letters date from the author’s earlier years when, a newly minted celebrity, he still thrilled that many of his audience were pouring out their hearts. Consequently, unlike more hardened colleagues, he sought to address their concerns. As years passed, suspecting that many had no interest in tapping his expertise or entering into an intelligent give and take, he undoubtedly made greater use of the waste basket. Tyson eschews pure fan letters, but many of these selections are full of compliments as a prelude to asking advice, pointing out mistakes, proclaiming opposing beliefs, or denouncing him. Readers will also encounter some earnest op-ed pieces and his eyewitness account of 9/11. “I consider myself emotionally strong,” he writes. “What I bore witness to, however, was especially upsetting, with indelible images of horror that will not soon leave my mind.” To crackpots, he gently repeats facts that almost everyone except crackpots accept. Those who have seen ghosts, dead relatives, and Bigfoot learn that eyewitness accounts are often unreliable. Tyson points out that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, so confirmation that a light in the sky represents an alien spacecraft requires more than a photograph. Again and again he defends “science,” and his criteria—observation, repeatable experiments, honest discourse, peer review—are not controversial but will remain easy for zealots to dismiss. Among the instances of “hate mail” and “science deniers,” the author also discusses philosophy, parenting, and schooling.
A media-savvy scientist cleans out his desk.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-324-00331-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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