Laura Newman – författare

In November 1999, the Institute of Medicine, in consultation with the Commission on Life Sciences, the Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Applications, and the Board on Science, Technology and Economic Policy launched a one year study on technologies for early detection of breast cancer. The committee was asked to examine technologies under development for early breast cancer detection, and to scrutinize the process of medical technology development, adoption, and dissemination. The committee is gathering information on these topics for its report in a number of ways, including two public workshops that bring in outside expertise. The first workshop on "Developing Technologies for Early Breast Cancer Detection" was held in Washington DC in February 2000. The content of the presentations at the workshop is summarized here. A second workshop, which will focus on the process of technology development and adoption, will be held in Washington, DC on June 19-20. A formal report on these topics, including conclusions and recommendations, will be prepared by the committee upon completion of the one-year study.

This book looks at how the workplace was transformed through a greater awareness of the roles that germs played in English working lives from c.1880 to 1945. Cutting across a diverse array of occupational settings – such as the domestic kitchen, the milking shed, the factory, and the Post Office – it offers new perspectives on the history of the germ sciences. It brings to light the ways in which germ scientists sought to transform English working lives through new types of technical and educational interventions that sought to both eradicate and instrumentalise germs. It then asks how we can measure and judge the success of such interventions by tracing how workers responded to the potential applications of the germ sciences through their participation in friendly societies, trade unions, colleges, and volunteer organisations. Throughout the book, close attention is paid to reconstructing vernacular traditions of working with invisible life in order to better understand both the successes and failures of the germ sciences to transform the working practices and material conditions of different workplaces. The result is a more diverse history of the peoples, politics, and practices that went into shaping the germ sciences in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century England.

This book looks at how the workplace was transformed through a greater awareness of the roles that germs played in English working lives from c.1880 to 1945. Cutting across a diverse array of occupational settings – such as the domestic kitchen, the milking shed, the factory, and the Post Office – it offers new perspectives on the history of the germ sciences. It brings to light the ways in which germ scientists sought to transform English working lives through new types of technical and educational interventions that sought to both eradicate and instrumentalise germs. It then asks how we can measure and judge the success of such interventions by tracing how workers responded to the potential applications of the germ sciences through their participation in friendly societies, trade unions, colleges, and volunteer organisations. Throughout the book, close attention is paid to reconstructing vernacular traditions of working with invisible life in order to better understand both the successes and failures of the germ sciences to transform the working practices and material conditions of different workplaces. The result is a more diverse history of the peoples, politics, and practices that went into shaping the germ sciences in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century England.

These ten stories are irresistible because their author is both fearless and ambitious. Newman switches points of view effortlessly, brings us to far-flung regions of the world, and has an uncanny, authentic grasp of cultures. We travel from Varanasi to Tijuana, from Rome to Lhasa, to New Orleans, Valdez, Barcelona and the Isle of Skye. The characters are just as diverse: Maggie, who is taking the ghost of her dead brother and her guilt on a spiritual trek of redemption to the Annapurna Sanctuary in Nepal; Gomez, who has a date with destiny in the syrup aisle at the Tijuana hypermarket, while his friend Chuy carries Jesus on his back through the street vendors at the Mexican/US crossing; a Norwegian preacher relocates to Varanasi India in a valiant effort to convert Hindus and Muslims to Christianity, while his son watches the bodies burn on the banks of the Ganges; and in the title story, the women who run an undercover orphanage in New Orleans don habits by day, but play poker at night. While these fictions occur thousands of miles apart and evince wildly different cultures and situations, they are unified in their portrayal of ordinary citizens of the world struggling against extraordinary events. And they are written with a remarkable mixture of pathos and humor.

These ten stories are irresistible because their author is both fearless and ambitious. Newman switches points of view effortlessly, brings us to far-flung regions of the world, and has an uncanny, authentic grasp of cultures. We travel from Varanasi to Tijuana, from Rome to Lhasa, to New Orleans, Valdez, Barcelona and the Isle of Skye. The characters are just as diverse: Maggie, who is taking the ghost of her dead brother and her guilt on a spiritual trek of redemption to the Annapurna Sanctuary in Nepal; Gomez, who has a date with destiny in the syrup aisle at the Tijuana hypermarket, while his friend Chuy carries Jesus on his back through the street vendors at the Mexican/US crossing; a Norwegian preacher relocates to Varanasi India in a valiant effort to convert Hindus and Muslims to Christianity, while his son watches the bodies burn on the banks of the Ganges; and in the title story, the women who run an undercover orphanage in New Orleans don habits by day, but play poker at night. While these fictions occur thousands of miles apart and evince wildly different cultures and situations, they are unified in their portrayal of ordinary citizens of the world struggling against extraordinary events. And they are written with a remarkable mixture of pathos and humor.

From the critically acclaimed short fiction writer Laura Newman, whose first collection of stories, PW effused “with candor and wry wit, and memorable details, these stories shimmer,” come three, thematically-liked, quirky yet resonant novellas that together form an unusual and original view of western American life.In The Darling of the Black Rock Desert, Julia loves Howi, but never intends to marry him until she realizes she’s pregnant with few options; it is, after all, 1960. Life becomes more complicated and yet richer when their darling daughter, Nia, is born with a physical disability. Despite her infirmity, Nia manages to have a fairly normal, happy childhood, beloved by her best friend Wynona and their male sidekicks until tragedy strikes and family life comes undone.It’s 1986 in City of Angels when Henri and Simone Bouchard meet in the iconic Los Angeles Central Library. Simone is a college art student, and Lenny is a Viet Nam vet trying to survive extreme PTSD. They strike up an unlikely acquaintance that is interrupted when the great Los Angeles Library fire of 1986 happens, a substantial portion of the books—and their tenuous connection—going up in flames. Will they find one another again?It's 2006 in The Saints of Death ValleyT, a nun in a San Francisco convent adopts a baby left on the doorstep and in order to raise her must leave the faith. Named Grace, the baby grows up; however, after committing what she fears to be an unforgivable sin, Grace takes her bag of holy cards and hits the road, winding up at the Burning Man Festival and then in Death Valley where she is taken in by a family of pastry chefs and landscapers and tries to reinvent herself in a secular world.Newman’s trio of novellas about desert misfits are by turns probing, incandescent, and like her shorter fiction, riotously funny and are certain to broaden her readership.

From the critically acclaimed short fiction writer Laura Newman, whose first collection of stories, PW effused “with candor and wry wit, and memorable details, these stories shimmer,” come three, thematically-liked, quirky yet resonant novellas that together form an unusual and original view of western American life.In The Darling of the Black Rock Desert, Julia loves Howi, but never intends to marry him until she realizes she’s pregnant with few options; it is, after all, 1960. Life becomes more complicated and yet richer when their darling daughter, Nia, is born with a physical disability. Despite her infirmity, Nia manages to have a fairly normal, happy childhood, beloved by her best friend Wynona and their male sidekicks until tragedy strikes and family life comes undone.It’s 1986 in City of Angels when Henri and Simone Bouchard meet in the iconic Los Angeles Central Library. Simone is a college art student, and Lenny is a Viet Nam vet trying to survive extreme PTSD. They strike up an unlikely acquaintance that is interrupted when the great Los Angeles Library fire of 1986 happens, a substantial portion of the books—and their tenuous connection—going up in flames. Will they find one another again?It's 2006 in The Saints of Death ValleyT, a nun in a San Francisco convent adopts a baby left on the doorstep and in order to raise her must leave the faith. Named Grace, the baby grows up; however, after committing what she fears to be an unforgivable sin, Grace takes her bag of holy cards and hits the road, winding up at the Burning Man Festival and then in Death Valley where she is taken in by a family of pastry chefs and landscapers and tries to reinvent herself in a secular world.Newman’s trio of novellas about desert misfits are by turns probing, incandescent, and like her shorter fiction, riotously funny and are certain to broaden her readership.