Epigenetics in the Age of Twitter: Pop Culture and Modern Science

Epigenetics in the Age of Twitter: Pop Culture and Modern Science

by Gerald Weissmann
Epigenetics in the Age of Twitter: Pop Culture and Modern Science

Epigenetics in the Age of Twitter: Pop Culture and Modern Science

by Gerald Weissmann

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Overview

"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.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781934137390
Publisher: Bellevue Literary Press
Publication date: 03/06/2012
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 256
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

Prefatory Note 11

1 Walter Benjamin and Biz Stone: The Scientific Paper in the Age of Twiner 15

2 Epigenetics in the Adirondack 22

3 A Nobel Is Out of Order: "J-Lo" vs. Hypatia of Alexandria 30

4 Epigenetics and Alma Mahler 37

5 Inflammation Is Complicated: From Metchnikoff to Meryl Streep 44

6 An Arrowsmith for the NASDAQ Era: Extraordinary Measures 50

7 Sarah Palin and Marie-Antoinette: Post-Traumatic Tress Disorder 57

8 Coca-Cola and H. G. Wells: Dietary Supplements as Subprime Drugs 63

9 Voodoo Economics and Voodoo Healing: Witchcraft Persists in Massachusetts 70

10 Myrna Loy: Co-Principal Investigator 77

11 Dr. Ehrlich and Dr. Atomic: Beauty vs. Horror in Science 83

12 Free Radicals Can Kill You: Lavoisier and the Oxygen Revolution 90

13 Experimental Errors: Paul Bert and the Alabama Tenure Killings 96

14 Monumental Revolutions: Scientific, Sanitary and 'Omic 103

15 Quorum Sensing on the Airbus Wing 111

16 SiCKO Statistics: Michael Moore and L'École de Paris 118

17 Ask Your Doctor: Justice Holmes and the Marketplace of Ideas 126

18 Filter the Dogs: Microbial Mishaps in Massachusetts 133

19 Pattern Recognition and Gestalt Psychology: The Day Nüsslein-Volhard Shouted "Toll!" 140

20 Not by the Sword, but Disease: Doctor Howe and General Shinseki 147

21 Science as Oath and Testimony: Joshua Lederberg 154

22 X-ray Politics: The Nazi War on Rontgen and Einstein 162

23 Wild Horses and The Doctor's Dilemma 168

24 Glass Ceilings at the Nobel Prizes 175

25 Medea and the Microtubule 182

26 Wiki-Science and Molière's Beast 188

27 Arts and Science: Lewis Thomas and E Scott Fitzgerald 194

28 Icarus and Fukushima Daiichi: Human Factors in a Meltdown (Sv=1J/kg.w) 201

Acknowlegments 207

References 208

Index 245

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