The Fragile Species

Name: The Fragile Species
Brand: Recorded Books
Availability: InStock
Author: Lewis Thomas
ISBN: 9781461812586

Author: Lewis Thomas

Narrator: George Guidall

Unabridged: 8 hr 15 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 10/28/2011

Categories: Nonfiction, Nature

Synopsis

Whether he is discussing our origins as archaebacteria or the politics of trench warfare, physician-scientist Lewis Thomas is always insightful and exuberantly engaged in his world. This collection of essays deals with everything from AIDS to ozone depletion, and reveals the author's clear thinking and his ability to cut through the fog of modern problems.

About Lewis Thomas

Lewis Thomas (1913â€“1993) was born in New York. He earned a bachelorâ€™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 Universityâ€”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.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Charles on June 14, 2016

Hard to go wrong with Lewis Thomas. Lucid and luminescent writing about nature and science.......more

Goodreads review by Marty on October 26, 2021

I put this down part-way through. I was hoping for an extension from Late Night Thoughts, but he tripped one of my wires. I do not care for books on the human mind or human nature that use experiments on animals as their evidence. It feels like eating fruit of a poisoned tree, and my hunger for insi......more

Goodreads review by Orin on June 01, 2009

Wonderful essays. No idea why I pulled it off the shelf. Glad I did. Very good essay (p. 158) on cultural evolution, linguistics. Another (p. 99) on "Comprehending my Cat Jeoffry." Includes the author's use of Fibonacci numbers (p. 113).......more

Goodreads review by Lara on October 29, 2011

Not my favorite of Thomas's, but still--I always fall in love with his writing; it's science made poetry. And I feel like he had some really interesting ways of looking at things--his stuff just clicks with me.........more

Goodreads review by Sarah on August 09, 2012

Lucid prose for a scientist. Now obsessed with our origins as bacteria.......more