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Shop nowThe Medusa and the Snail
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Learn moreLewis Thomas has been said to be a philosopher who uses the language of biology. His fascinating observations on the quirkiness of the world's infinite creations causes listeners to ponder the workings of the cosmos through the most microscopic of life forms.
The medusa, a tiny jellyfish that lives on the ventral surface of a sea slug found in the Bay of Naples, becomes a metaphor for eternal issues of life and death as Thomas further extends the exploration of man and his world which he began in The Lives of a Cell. Among the treasures in this magnificent book are essays on the human genius for making mistakes, on disease and natural death, on cloning, on warts, and on Montaigne, as well as an assessment of medical science and health care. In these essays and others, Thomas once again conveys his observations of the scientific world in his eloquent prose marked by wonder and wit.
Lewis Thomas (1913–1993) was born in New York. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Princeton and a doctorate in medicine in 1937. He went on to become professor of pediatric research at the University of Minnesota, chairman of the Departments of Pathology and Medicine and also dean at the New York University—Bellevue Medical Center, chairman of the Department of Pathology and dean at Yale Medical School, and president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. His now classic book, The Lives of a Cell, won the National Book Award in 1974.
Stuart Langton is an award-winning theater, film, and television actor. He has been an audiobook narrator for more than ten years. He lives in New York City.
Reviews
“This research biologist always has something fresh to contribute.”
“If Montaigne had possessed a deep knowledge of twentieth-century biology, he would have been Lewis Thomas.”
“[Thomas] manages to be poet, scientist, social critic, and everyman, while writing with prose so clear it’s like looking through a jellyfish.”
“Varying in length and topic, these essays address death, cloning, symbiotic relationships in nature, as well as a wide range of other subjects.”
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