Peter Medawar
"...is a passionate testament, one of the most remarkable self-portraits of a scientist that I have ever read..."
"Dyson is that rarity, a scientist concerned about public knowledge; his intention is not to instruct us in science but to teach us how to think about it so that we might help control it."
"He is a moral man, and in this book he wrestles with the moral dilemmas he has encountered in his career. Essentially an intellectual autobiography, a memoir of the momentous ideas, events and personalities that shaped its author's life...."
The first in the series of scientific autobiographies sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
"Peter Medawar ... was Director of Britain's National Institute for Medical Research, and shared, with Macfarlane Burnet, a Nobel Prize for Medicine for demonstrating that the natural laws that normally prohibit the transplantation of tissues between genetically different organisms can be experimentally circumvented ..."
Other books by Peter Medawar include The Limits of Science which discusses topics such as the nature of science, and can scientific discovery be premeditated, and Pluto's Republic, a series of essays in which Dr. Medawar straightens out the confused thinking of others.
Peter Medawar
Another of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation bookscheck.
"...is Dr. Thomas's account of his life in this profession, and an inquiry into what medicine is all about -- the youngest science, yes, but one rich in possibility and promise. It is a magnificent memoire..."
"In what does the practice of medicine consist? What is it that people have always expected from doctors? What can they expect now, when medicine is a real science but the old art is only barely discernible? ...his autobiography considers these central questions, as well as exploring the relationship between research and practice, between words and meanings, between human error and human accomplishment."
Another of the Sloan Foundation books.
"S. E. Luria's autobiography adds another gem to the Sloan Foundation series....[His] chapters on molecular biology and its shapers are fine additions to the genre; the fascination of the book, however, is in the man ... abundant in courage and conviction."
"An admirable biography, the best possible replacement for the memoirs that Rabi never found the time to write."
"A delightful book about a delightful man. Rabi always found a simpler way to do any given experiment, and this made him a great physicist. He has now become a sage who has given the most useful advice to all his colleagues."
Another in the Sloan Foundation Series.
"For forty years he was a busy doctor in the town of Rutherford, New Jersey, and yet he was able to write more than thirty books. One of the finest chapters ... tells how each of this two roles stimulated and supported the other."
"It brings us close to a rare man and lets us share his affectionate concern for the people to whom he ministered, body and soul, through a long rich life as physician and writer."
"Rebelling against the constraints of family and society, a young Egyptian woman decides to study medicine, becoming the only woman in a class of men. Her encounters with other students ... intensify her dissatisfaction with and her search for identity. She realizes men are not gods as her mother had taught her, that science cannot explain everything, and that she cannot be satisfied by living a life purely of the mind."
"After studying in Cairo, Nawal El Saadawi practiced medicine both in Egyptian cities and in the countryside. She became director of health education in Egypt, but her writing made her increasingly the focus of controversy."
"A clear and exciting picture of one of the most remarkable scientists who ever practiced genetic biology..."
"Evelyn Fox Keller took on a heavy responsibility in writing about a woman with one of the most powerful intellects ever applied to science. This ambitious book has kept its promise."
A biography of Barbara McClintock, a scientist who was kept out of the main stream but whose work was finally recognized by being awarded a Nobel Prize.
A recollection of experiences, each connected to one of the chemical elements, by a man who was trained as a chemist and stayed alive ten months in Auschwitz.
"After a few pages I immersed myself in The Periodic Table gladly and gratefully. There is nothing superfluous here, everything the book contains is essential."
"Brilliant, ironic, and humane."
"I didn't even know who Levi was... . Now I've read everything he wrote and I give his books out as presents." John Turturro.
"Feynman is legendary among his colleagues for his brilliance and eccentricity."
Other books by Richard Feynman include The Character of Physical Law, an outstanding set of essays on what science is about; Q. E. D. The Strange Theory of Light and Matter, a book that will teach you more about physics than you thought you could ever learn; and What Do You Care What Other People Think. Further Adventures of a Curious Character.
"In this eloquent and remarkable memoir, a #1 best seller in France, the Nobel Prize-winning biologist provides an extraordinary portrait of the man inside the scientist."
"With this compelling story of a dramatic life, François Jacob lays claim to being a first-rate writer as well as a major figure in contemporary molecular biology ... ."
"From the first page, it proves to be vastly absorbing, told with Gallic élan ... Accessible and engaging even to the most technophobic reader.."
"An exceptional Autobiography ... beautifully written."
Another in the Sloan Foundation Series.
"Love of life and love of work resound in this memoir. Mark Kac, whose outstanding career in mathematical research began in Poland and flourished in the United States, is as spellbinding on paper as he was in person."
"Enigmas of Chance is in my opinion one of the finest scientific autobiographies ever, and certainly the best written by a mathematician ... Mark Kac's eminence as a mathematician and as one of the founders of probability theory will make his autobiography a bedside book for younger as well as older scientists."
Another in the Sloan Foundation Series.
"A warmly engaging self-portrait of the fourth woman in history to receive the Nobel Prize in Medicine."
"This is a personal account by one of the chief protagonists of one of the most glorious episodes in the modern history of neuroscience ... The story is told with great modesty and charm; it is a book to read and savor. ... It also raises questions of wider significance."
"An arresting story of someone who insisted on being herself rather than someone else's idea of herself. ... With great immediacy, she shows us how she has constructed her life."
Another in the Sloan Foundation Series.
"The life and times of a scientist who was at the forefront of particle physics research and became one of the earliest advocates of nuclear responsibility. The Joy of Insight is a riveting chronicle set against the backdrop of one of history's most fertile periods of scientific endeavor."
"Weisskopf's voice comes through clearly in the book ... a voice that has tried to infuse our century with the idealism and humanism that it so often has lacked. ... The Joy of Insight is much more than Weisskopf's autobiography: It is a first-hand account of the intellectual and political forces of the 20th century."
A wonderful book written by a wonderful person who lived one of the great lives of the twentieth century.
Another in the Sloan Foundation Series.
