Galileo's Gout
Science in an Age of Endarkenment
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- USD 19.99
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- USD 19.99
Descripción editorial
"America's most interesting and important essayist." —Eric Kandel, Nobel Prize–winning author of The Age of Insight
"[Gerald Weissmann] bridges the space between science and the humanities, and particularly between medicine and the muses, with wit, erudition, and, most important, wisdom." —Adam Gopnik
Embryonic stem cell research. Evolution vs. intelligent design. The transformation of medicine into "health care." Climate change. Never before has science been so intertwined with politics, never have we been more dependent on scientific solutions for the preservation of the species.
Transporting us across more than four hundred years of pivotal moments in science and medicine, Gerald Weissmann distills history's lessons for today's new age of sect and violence: "The Endarkenment." Among others, he lingers with Galileo and his daughter in seventeenth-century Florence, Diderot and d'Alembert in Enlightenment Paris, William and Alice James in fin de siècle Boston, James Watson as the John McEnroe of DNA, and Craig Venter decoding the genome at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Weissmann's message is clear: "Experimental science is our defense—perhaps our best defense—against humbug and the Endarkenment."
Gerald Weissmann (August 7, 1930 – July 10, 2019) was a physician, scientist, editor, and essayist whose collections include The Fevers of Reason: New and Selected Essays; 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Weissmann, a research professor at NYU's School of Medicine, is concerned about what he calls the coming endarkenment, which he contrasts with the Enlightenment, and warns that our lack of scientific understanding is beginning to cause serious problems for society. For instance, he sees as emblematic of the endarkenment the displacement of science by religious doctrine in the evolution/creationism controversy and the federal government's efforts to do rigorous scientific studies of faith-based alternative medical treatments. As in other books, such as Darwin's Audubon and The Woods Hole Cantata, Weissmann offers brief chapters (most previously published in a variety of venues), which allows him to touch on many topics but at the expense of depth. Although Weissmann models his work after that of his mentor, Lewis Thomas, his writing is not as poetic; his ideas, however, are every bit as important. Two chapters, one on Thomas and one on Thomas's mentor, Hans Zinsser, are particularly well done and serve as an intellectual family history for Weissmann. Like those two greats, Weissmann is a staunch defender of experimental science and of medical practitioners who take the time to listen to and learn from their patients, all of which he fears will be lost in the approaching endarkenment. B&w illus.