Epigenetics in the Age of Twitter: Pop Culture and Modern Science
"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
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 Nüsslein-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 contemporary 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 himself as an incisive cultural critic and satirist.
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.
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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.
Select Praise for Gerald Weissmann
"Gerald Weissmann is Lewis Thomas's heir." --Robert Coles
"Weissmann has a strong and well-informed interest, unusual for a scientist, both in poetry and in art." --Freeman Dyson
"[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
"America's most interesting and important essayist." --Eric Kandel
"How I envy the reader coming upon Dr. Weissmann's elegant, entertaining essays for the first time!" --Jonas Salk
"Dr. Weissmann's juggling with the balls of global politics, biology, medicine, and culture in the framework of history is breathtaking." --Bengt Samuelsson, Nobel Laureate and former chairman of the Nobel Foundation
"The premier essayist of our time, Weissmann writes with grace and style." --Richard Selzer
"An absolutely first-rate writer." --Kurt Vonnegut
"[Weissmann] is a man of wide culture, a captivating and graceful writer." --New Yorker
"Weissmann introduces us to a new way of thinking about the connections between art and medicine." --New York Times Book Review
"Oliver Sacks, Richard Selzer, Lewis Thomas . . . Weissmann is in this noble tradition."--Los Angeles Times
"As a belles-letterist, Weissmann is the inheritor of the late Lewis Thomas . . . Like Thomas, he's a gifted researcher and clinician who writes beautifully. Unlike Thomas, he is an original and indefatigable social historian as well." --Boston Globe
"He writes as a doctor, a medical scientist, a knowing lover of art and literature and a modern liberal skeptic. But more than anything else, Weissmann writes as a passionate and wise reader." --New Republic
"Weissmann is a master of the essay form. His witty and elegant prose makes the toughest subject matter not only accessible but entertaining." --Barnes and Noble Review
"[Weissmann] is a Renaissance Man. . . . He'll stretch your mind's hamstrings." --Christian Science Monitor
"[Weissmann's essays] intertwine the profound connections of science and art in the context of our modern era . . . to illuminate the ongoing challenges scientists face in dealing with scrutiny and criticism, from colleagues and from our broader society." --Science
"Weissmann not only endeavors to connect the realms of literature and medicine, but also to create community among readers in light of class, race, religion, and age." --Glassworks Magazine
"Essays that brim with knowledge and bubble with attitude." --Kirkus Reviews
"Erudite, engaging, and accessible." --Library Journal
"Juicy and conversational." --Booklist
"Weissmann models his work after that of his mentor, Lewis Thomas. . . . His ideas . . . are every bit as important." --Publishers Weekly
"Weissmann's humanist, sometimes sardonic, voice binds together disparate strands to show how all human endeavor is linked. . . . Weissmann clearly sees how history obfuscates the work of women, people of color and immigrants, and tries to alter that." --Shelf Awareness for Readers
