Gerald Weissmann – författare

In this retrospective of Gerald Weissmann's best-known essays, the reader is treated to his unique perspective on what C. P. Snow once dubbed "the Two Cultures"-art and science. In Darwin's Audubon, Weissmann examines the powerful influence that the two exert over one another and how they have helped each other evolve. From listening to the scientists who gather ever year to sing at the Woods Hole Cantata Consort to looking at the influence of Audubon's watercolours on Darwin's On the Origin of Species from comparing William Carlos Williams's poetry to his unedited case books to watching Oliver Wendell Holmes grow as doctor and as poet, Weissmann weaves a rich tapestry that will delight fans and newcomers alike.

Lewis Thomas has suggested that "Perhaps the inflammatory reaction should be regarded as a defense of an individual against all the rest of nature, symbolizing his individuality and announcing his existence as an entity. " Provision of these symbols and announcements is the task of various mediators of inflammation and this volume has been designed to present our current understanding of their biochemistry, cellular origins, pharmacology, and role in pathology. Unlike other volumes of collected papers, this book did not result from a specific conference or symposium at which each contributor presented his own, narrowly framed research experience. Rather, each of the chapters represents, in the form of a general review, a summary of our knowledge of the mediators and the mecha­ nisms by which they are released to launch the inflammatory response. Much effort has been taken to insure that the often conflicting terminology in this field is defmed in detail: many synonyms (e. g. , of the properdin system or the alternate pathway of complement activation) have been repeatedly presented, in order to avoid confusion. Although each of the contributors is actively engaged in the field of inflammation, few text figures or tables of ongoing research have been included; the overall aim was to provide a volume readily accessible to workers in other areas as well as to the general reader.

Basic biological research is not in trouble, but support for this cultural product is perhaps more fragile than it should be. We have developed, in this country, in Europe, and in Japan a triumphant record of research accomplishment that has rev­ olutionized our vision of the cell, the body, and the environ­ ment. The genetic code has been unraveled, the means of neuromuscular transmission have been elucidated, we know the fine detail of the cell's small geography, and we can de­ scribe the genes of mouse and man in chemical terms. But it is less clearly perceived by laity and scientist how this new revo­ lution in biology has been of use in the service of a better medicine or environment. The aim of this series of essays, which grew out of a symposium at the First International Congress of Cell Biology, is to instruct us all in the use that has been made of our new knowledge. In the fields of cancer, behavior, reproduction, genetic engineering, and environmental monitoring, practical results of our new knowledge are already apparent and more are just at hand. But neither the general public nor scientists working in their own narrow disciplines necessarily ap­ preciate these developments. Perhaps it is all just too new, too "experimental," to permit anyone to gain a proper perspective on what we have done or have the potential of doing.

"Once again, Gerald Weissmann, with a firm and easy knowledge of everyone who matters from Auden to Zola, bridges the space between science and the humanities, and particularly between medicine and the muses, with wit, erudition, and, most important, wisdom." --Adam Gopnik, author of Angels and Ages Admired by Nobel prize--winning scientists and literary tastemakers alike, Weissmann will continue to amaze and beguile new and faithful readers as both a masterful commentator on contemporary culture and a transcendent intellectual historian. By turns satirical and insightful, Mortal and Immortal DNA takes us on a nuanced exploration of the western canon, from Greek mythology through Dante to W.H. Auden and offers hilarious insights into popular culture along the way, from Paris Hilton to the true life story of Kathryn Lee Bates, the lesbian poet who penned "America the Beautiful." Gerald Weissmann is a physician, scientist, editor, and essayist whose collections include Epigenetics in the Age of Twitter: Pop Culture and Modern Science; Mortal and Immortal DNA: Science and the Lure of Myth; and Galileo's Gout: Science in an Age of Endarkenment.He is professor emeritus and research professor of medicine at New York University School of Medicine. His essays and reviews have appeared in numerous publications worldwide, including the London Review of Books and New York Times Book Review. The former editor-in-chief of the FASEB Journal, he is now its book reviews editor. He lives in Manhattan and Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

"[Weissmann] has emerged in the last three decades as America's most interesting and important essayist. He has achieved this status both epigenetically and through Twitter, word of mouth, so to speak...Much like Susan Sontag, Weissmann likes being a contemporary, and does not feel shackled by tradition...This book is a joy for the heart and instructive for the mind." --ERIC KANDEL, Nobel Laureate and author of In Search of Memory "Only a mind as nimble and well traveled as Gerald Weissmann's could see, never mind make and expound on, the connections between salamanders and Prohibition ...white blood cells, Hollywood and erectile dysfunction ...health care reform and Marie Antoinette ...bacteria, the Equal Rights Amendment and the "Miracle on the Hudson." Better yet, Weissmann does so with wit and insight. A fascinating tour through history, science and pop culture." --MAX GOMEZ, MD, Emmy Award-winning WCBS-TV Medical Correspondent "Erudite energy leaps from this lively commingling of art, culture and science...In each [essay], Weissmann finds links between research and elements of history and pop culture, which play off each other to illuminating effect.So US politician Sarah Palin pops up in a discussion of 'Marie Antoinette syndrome'...and the 'meltdown' of the mythical Icarus meets the nuclear version at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan." --Nature Epigenetics, which attempts to explain how our genes respond to our environment, is the latest twist on the historic nature vs. nurture debate. In addressing this and other controversies in contemporary science, Gerald Weissmann taps what he calls "the social network of Western Civilization," including the many neglected women of science: from the martyred Hypatia of Alexandria, the first woman scientist, to the Nobel laureates Marie Curie, Christiane Nusslein-Volhard, and Elizabeth Blackburn, among other luminaries in the field. Always instructive and often hilarious, this is a one-volume introduction to modern biology, viewed through the lens of today's mass media and the longer historical tradition of the Scientific Revolution. Whether engaging in the healthcare debate or imagining the future prose styling of the scientific research paper in the age of Twitter, Weissmann proves to be one of our most incisive cultural critics and satirists.Gerald Weissmann is a physician, scientist, editor, and essayist whose collections include Epigenetics in the Age of Twitter: Pop Culture and Modern Science; Mortal and Immortal DNA: Science and the Lure of Myth; and Galileo's Gout: Science in an Age of Endarkenment. He is professor emeritus and research professor of medicine at New York University School of Medicine. His essays and reviews have appeared in numerous publications worldwide, including the London Review of Books and New York Times Book Review. The former editor-in-chief of the FASEB Journal, he is now its book reviews editor. He lives in Manhattan and Woods Hole, Massachusetts.