Book Description
The Nazis discovered it. The Allies won the war with it. It conquered diseases, changed laws, and single-handedly launched the era of antibiotics. This incredible discovery was sulfa, the first antibiotic. In The Demon Under the Microscope, Thomas Hager chronicles the dramatic history of the drug that shaped modern medicine.
Sulfa saved millions of lives—among them those of Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr.—but its real effects are even more far reaching. Sulfa changed the way new drugs were developed, approved, and sold; transformed the way doctors treated patients; and ushered in the era of modern medicine. The very concept that chemicals created in a lab could cure disease revolutionized medicine, taking it from the treatment of symptoms and discomfort to the eradication of the root cause of illness.
A strange and colorful story, The Demon Under the Microscope illuminates the vivid characters, corporate strategy, individual idealism, careful planning, lucky breaks, cynicism, heroism, greed, hard work, and the central (though mistaken) idea that brought sulfa to the world. This is a fascinating scientific tale with all the excitement and intrigue of a great suspense novel.
For thousands of years, humans had sought medicines with which they could defeat contagion, and they had slowly, painstakingly, won a few battles: some vaccines to ward off disease, a handful of antitoxins. A drug or two was available that could stop parasitic diseases once they hit, tropical maladies like malaria and sleeping sickness. But the great killers of Europe, North America, and most of Asia—pneumonia, plague, tuberculosis, diphtheria, cholera, meningitis—were caused not by parasites but by bacteria, much smaller, far different microorganisms. By 1931, nothing on earth could stop a bacterial infection once it started. . . .
But all that was about to change. . . .
—from The Demon Under the Microscope
Customer Reviews:
The Story of the Sulfa Drugs.......2007-09-24
Within the first fifty pages this book took it's place in my top ten non-fiction works. It includes history, science, biography and business wrapped together in a fast-paced and clear manner. It's a shock to see some of the often fatal diseases our grandparents faced that today have been all but forgotten. A world where a boil, insect bite, or cut finger could result in an ugly death. The author states that this is a book about "antibiotics," he includes the sulfa drugs to be part of this class, rather than just the traditional antibiotics derived from molds. With his description the author is being a bit disingenuous, I suspect to help market his book. The book is about the sulfa drugs which were the first effective and industrially manufactured family of drugs. This entire class of drugs have been all but forgotten. The details of the discovery and use of traditional "antibiotics" is well documented. I personally might have skipped a book subtitled "The Story of the Sulfa Drugs". I am very happy to have been slightly mislead and directed to this excellent history.
Sulfanilamide is still on the American market.......2007-05-06
It's not mentioned in the book, but it is marketed as AVC Cream, most commonly placed on gauze and packed into the [...] after hysterectomy. Other dosage forms are long obsolete, but this one is still in use and probably always will be.
We hear all the time about antibiotic resistance, but most of us don't even think about what life was like before the drugs even existed. This is why home births really were safer prior to World War II, due to all the germs floating around in hospitals and NOTHING that could be done if infection struck. People, especially children like Hildegard Domagk, died from diseases we hardly bat an eye at now, and the drug got the ball rolling. I'm guessing we don't hear about it like we do with penicillin because it's not in general use any more.
This book is mostly the history of sulfanilamide, the first really effective systemic antibacterial drug. The drug had some really weird side effects, so it probably wouldn't be considered safe by modern standards. It also addresses political and business issues surrounding the drug and is a mini-bio of its discoverer, Dr. Gerhard Domagk. Who's Hildegard? His daughter, who got a deadly infection after being poked with a needle and was one of the first people who life was saved by this drug. Last I heard, she was still living and would be in her late 70s.
I purchased the book because of the chapter on the Elixir Sulfanilamide disaster of 1937, a very dark chapter in American medical history that has largely been forgotten to the point where I have never conversed with a fellow pharmacist who has ever heard of it. We associate the Massengill corporation with douches (LOL) but yes, that's who made it, and no, nobody tested the concoction to see if it was safe for human consumption before sending it out on the market, where it could be sold without a prescription. Sulfanilamide does not dissolve readily in alcohol or water, but it does dissolve in diethylene glycol (antifreeze) so that's what was used, causing the deaths of 107 of the 353 people known to have taken it. The History Channel did a program on this a few years ago called "Elixir of Death"; the author who was working on a book of this title who was prominently featured in the program died in a car accident shortly before it aired in 2003.
I also had the privilege of seeing Thomas Hager read from his book on C-Span II's Book TV. This was quite interesting to hear perspectives straight from the author.
Great read.......2007-04-14
What a wonderful sweep through a seemingly simple but world changing set of discoveries. How scary the world was before antibiotics! How much the discovery detailed in this book not only changed the world of pharmacy, it impacted who becomes an M.D. and how they do their job, and so one. I highly recommend this book.
The first miracle drug...before penicillin. A story that deserved to be revived........2007-04-11
Some dolt on a bicycle slammed into me yesterday. Fortunately I did not break any bones, but the bruises are giving me an uncomfortable time since then. After rinsing both knees with chlorhexidine and iodine, I was not concerned; if there was an infection, antibiotics would take care of it.
But it wouldn't have been that way seventy years ago, when the most you could do to prevent a wound from getting infected...was wait, and perhaps apply some crude remedies. That was how it had been for two hundred years. For all the progress we had made, bad bugs still mostly got the better of us. It is appalling that about fifty percent of deaths in WW1 were from infections that riddled shrapnel wounds, and not from explosives or gunfire themselves. Once infection set in and gas gangrene made its hideous appearance, all one could do was wait, and maybe hope that the suffering would end soon...until sulfa drugs appeared on the scene.
That era of sulfa drugs, and not the one of penicillin, was the first heroic age of antibiotics. Most of us, if asked to name the first wonder-drug antibiotic, would name penicillin. But long before penicillin, sulfa saved thousands of lives. Without sulfa around, Hoover's son died. With sulfa, FDR's son, and Winston Churchill, survived. Thomas Hager has done an excellent job in bringing this forgotten but extremely important story to life in "The Demon Under the Microscope". The former biographer of Linus Pauling has shown us how different it was to suddenly have a drug that cured infections that previously would have almost certainly killed you. The time until the 1930s was a scary time, with every kind of Strep and Staph waiting to kill you after entering your body through the slightest cut, and diseases whose names we don't even remember now were rampant and much feared. It was sulfa that first declared war on and largely eradicated all these infections.
At the center of the sulfa story is the remarkable doctor and biochemist Gerhard Domagk. Domagk was an officer in WW1 and saw thousands needlessly die around him in agony, all because nobody could prevent the infection that set in after they were hit. After the war, Domagk went through a succession of jobs and finally ended up at Bayer, where he had a trailblazing career in the discovery of new cures for old infections. Building upon Paul Ehrlich's convictions about azo dyes as bacteriocidal agents, he and his colleagues tested hundreds of analogs, until he hit on the right one. This was the beginning of SAR as we know it today. And here, we can see the chemist's tragedy. Domagk tested the compounds, but it were two chemists who actually made them. Yet, they were excluded from the prize that Domagk would gather. This was not his fault, but really the workings of the Swedish committee, which did not behave this way for the first and last time. Patriotic and yet conscientious, Domagk stayed put after Hitler came to power, losing himself in his work to distract himself from the injustice that was taking place around him. In 1939, he was awarded the Nobel prize, but the Nazis did not allow him to accept it. Bayer itself became connected with the notorious IG Farben, which designed hydrogen cyanide vials (Zyklon B) for the gas chambers.
There is much in the book that is eye-opening, and sulfa is only one chapter in a book that also deals with medical history and the social history of science. There were several things I was unaware of; one revelation was that the modern American university model is based on the German model. The Germans were the world leaders in both industry and academia, and the modern and highly successful trend of close collaboration between industry and academia was already widespread in Germany. For all their philosophical bent, the Germans never saw any contradiction between pure and applied research, and the university-industry collaboration and connection led to very fruitful research in engineering and medicine. The modern patent regime too was pioneered by German industry.
The most important fact which I was not aware of was the pivotal albeit unfortunate role that sulfa played in revitalizing the FDA and granting it powers to implement laws that made it mandatory for manufacturers to display warnings and ingredients labels on their products. Before that, almost anyone could set up shop and sell metals, elixirs, and liquids that promised cures for everything from syphilis to baldness, a practice that went back two hundred years. But in the 1930s, through a series of unfortunate events, a concoction of sulfa in, of all the things, ethylene glycol, was sold extensively in many states. Today, we would be horrified at such large-scale use of an industrial solvent for mixing a drug. But at the time, there were almost no laws that required manufacturers to list such petty things as solvents on their bottles. The FDA was a skimpy and ineffectual agency at the time, with a few dozen agents scuttling around to mainly keep a check on excessive profit making. After the sulfa-ethylene glycol concoction was sold, a wave of death began that did not stop until several hundred people died, and public outrage changed the face of the FDA- and the way in which drugs are developed, manufactured and sold in the US- forever. After the tragedy, the FDA acquired new powers that it could have only dreamt of before. Of course, it took the thalidomide tragedy to have the kind of strict FDA regime that we have today, but the sulfa tragedy started it all, and made drugs substantially safer for the public.
An amusing and ironic chemical fact also accompanies the discovery of sulfa. Even though it were the Germans who pioneered its development, it was a French group that discovered the most important fact about the drug; that it was not the azo chemical linkage, but the benzene sulfonamide group that was key to the action of the drug. Once they discovered this fact, all bets were off for the Germans, because the potent part of sulfa turned out to be benzene sulfonamide, a cheap bulk chemical that could not be patented! Even if the Germans tried to quickly get past this handicap by synthesizing new derivatives at a terrific pace to outnumber their French colleagues, the cat was out of the bag, and they could never top their initial success.
Gradually, sulfa made it everywhere, and into the United States through the perspicacity and interest of two Johns Hopkins researchers. It began to be marketed in every form and colour and flavour, as every derivative and analog. In the 1930s, it became the drug of choice for treating every imaginable kind of Strep or Staph infection, most of which it effectively tackled. Cure by sulfa was touted as a miracle cure, with its relentless and wondrous effect on cases that only ten years ago would have been totally hopeless. But as a drug, sulfa had already fallen behind. Penicillin had arived on the scene. In due course, resistance would develop to both drugs, albeit relatively gradually to sulfa.
Domagk spent the last days of his life in gloomy peace, distraught by his country's destruction, and somewhat validated by the thousands of lives he had saved. Sulfa is still used for topical purposes.
We now know that sulfa competes with PABA (para-amino benzoic acid) for the synthesis of dihydrofolate, an essential hub in the synthesis of folic acid. Sulfa and further related research led to, among other things, Methotrexate, a widely used current drug in cancer therapy. But in the end, what befell sulfa has befallen other antibiotics. The bugs have become resistant. When sulfa and penicillin were discovered, they were regarded as miracles. Perhaps we need another miracle for bad bugs today, and the age of fervent antibiotic research might be coming back to haunt us. But it should not be forgotten that sulfa was the first miracle drug, before penicillin.
Before Penicillin.......2007-01-18
Everyone knows how penicillin revolutionized medical treatment of infections, most know about how Alexander Fleming discovered it, and some even know how Howard Florey and Ernst Chain took the discovery and made it something that could be used practically. Everyone knows that penicillin was a miracle drug, but almost everyone has forgotten that it was not the first miracle drug. The sulfa drugs came a decade before, producing unprecedented cures that physicians and patients thought of as miraculous; and then the penicillin-type antibiotics surpassed them. The history of the sulfa drugs is told in _The Demon Under the Microscope: From Battlefield Hospitals to Nazi Labs, One Doctor's Heroic Search for the World's First Miracle Drug_ (Harmony Books) by Thomas Hager. It is clear that sulfa deserves much more attention in the history of medicine than it has gotten. By some definitions, since they are not made by living organisms, sulfa drugs are not really antibiotics, but they certainly fought microbial infections in their time, and got medicine beyond the limits of mere antisepsis or disinfecting. They also proved a model for scientific evaluation of drug effectiveness.
Chances are that you have never even heard the name of the doctor whose work is the backbone for this story, Gerhard Domagk. Domagk makes a tenacious but unspectacular hero, working day after day through clinical trials, mostly with mice, but he was inspired by his harrowing experiences as a medic in the First World War to fight against the infections he had seen there caused by the strep germ, a feared killer, one that killed in many different ways, infecting tissue, blood, or spinal fluid. For five years, there were no results of his labwork, until he was sent a molecule with sulfonamide attached to it. Sulfa worked in mice; did it work in humans? It is quite amazing to read about how the drug was tested for human use, because it is nothing like the trials of any new drug today. The tests did not involve, for instance, assigning patients randomly to drug versus placebo groups, or doing double blind testing. The drug was simply leaked to hospitals who had serious cases, patients who had gotten all the usual treatments and were simply going to die if nothing out of the ordinary was tried. Domagk was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1939, and was thrilled to be following his heroes Koch and Ehrlich. But because four years previously, the Peace Prize had been awarded to a German pacifist, Hitler had forbidden any German citizen to accept any further Nobel. Not only could Domagk not claim his award, he was put in jail for being "too polite to the Swedes" who awarded the prize. After the Nazi blight was cleared away, Domagk was able to claim his prize in 1947, when sulfa was old news. When he gave his speech of acceptance, he alluded to the emergence of resistant strains of bacteria, a prescient warning which could not have been fully appreciated by his audience at the time.
The main reason the sulfa revolution has been forgotten, of course, is that the first miracle drugs were followed by more broadly powerful antibiotics starting with penicillin. Researchers testing the new medicines used many of the laboratory procedures Domagk's team had initiated, and also did not have to face the previous pessimism that taught that chemicals would never be able to fight infection. It might be that sulfa's greatest contribution to medical history was a needed increase in medical confidence. Hager's fine history highlights sulfa's role in industrial, medical, social, and military changes of the time; sulfa did far more than just kill strep germs.
Book Description
With this beautiful book, Spencer Nadler takes us into the remarkable world of cells–and into the lives of people whose behavior is affected by the cells seen under his microscope. After twenty-five years as a surgical pathologist, Nadler began to miss interacting with the people whose cells he studied. And so, he came out from behind his microscope and as a writer began to focus on people as well as on their cells, examining in this unusual book how a person’s life and spirit–and cells–coexist.
In the diminutive landscape of the microscope, a young patient’s sickle cells look like harmless apples and bananas, but the impact they have on him and his mother is acute. Under Nadler’microscope, normal breast cells look like pink hydrangeas to the remarkably spirited Hanna and her breast cancer cells like distorted hula-hoops. Among the other people we meet are an orchestra conductor who must choose between the rhythms of his music and those of his heart; an obese woman who must learn to get along with her fat cells as she copes with bariatric surgery; two people with early Alzheimer’s disease who fall in love and decide to live together despite the microscopic changes in their brains. In
The Language of Cells, Spencer Nadler illuminates in lyrical prose “the quiet heroics of everyday people” as cells and the spirit contribute to the beauty of the human continuum.
Customer Reviews:
The Language of Surprise.......2003-12-03
Being a suspense-thriller freak, this is not the kind of book I would read but, given to me as a gift, I dutifully picked it up, thinking I'd read the first story and put it down. Wrong!
The stories are about any one of us or someone we may know, written in a very readable way that any non-medical person can easily understand. It is as intriguing as any thriller. I lent it to a friend, an oncology nurse, who lent it to her boss, who lent it to another doctor and so it's been making the rounds. I don't think I'll ever see it again and have ordered another copy that I won't lend: this is a book you want in your home library to pick up every now and then for it's inspiration and plain beauty.
Spencer Nadler is the kind of doctor we want and need to take care of us...his insight, his feelings, his empathy, knowledge, care and concern for his patients is there from page one. The stories are heart-wrenching and heart-warming, moving and inspiring and even though the book is not yet available here in Israel, I found it worth the expense to order several from abroad to give as gifts here.
Praise for an observant, compassionate doctor.......2002-05-18
Every once in a while I pick up a book or choose to purchase a book on the basis of a slim review, or because the book itself looked interesting. I tend to buy books in bulk, often more than one at a time. This was one such instance where four books were bought about two months ago. This one was put aside, as I had to finish two classes and do work for the two computer web sites I work for. The other books were read and discarded, appreciated for what they were...then given to the library so others may enjoy them to. This particular book, from which I expected little, will remain in my own personal library to be lent to the few who I know can appreciate both the medicine and the literacy of this particular doctor-author.
Other reviewers have outlined the stories of this book. It is immediate recognized that it is a different book...it's table of content is not a one-page outline of the chapter titles. Rather each chapter is outline by a large photograph of the cell types dealt with in that chapter. The 'name' of the chapter is in small typeface below or adjacent to the electron photograph. This warns the reader that whatever they had expected from this book, is liable to be different from what they get. Thankfully, this is so...
Nadler is a pathologist, a man who devotes his life to diagnosing the secrets of the individual units of our bodies. Pathologists are decoders basically. They read and tell other surgeons and doctors what they have biopsied or what they have seen. Pathologists rarely have intimate contact with the people whose cells they have examined. I worked in two neuropathology labs for almost six years. It is fascinating work, but other than your fellow lab workers, there is no human contact.
Somehow, from reading Dr. Nadler's book, I will guarantee that this physician has made it a point throughout his life and career to purposely remain involve with individuals. Unlike some doctors who I know have much more contact with patients, this doctor refuses to consider the cells alone, without considering the person. Perhaps because he is not involved in the conveyor belt of modern medicine, he has not lost that compassion or steeled himself against 'feeling' too much. For that alone, he deserves accolades.
His language, his metaphors, the observations he makes are far beyond the abilities of most doctors, indeed beyond the abilities of most people period. Like Oliver Sacks, he brings attention to a disease through the person who is affected by that disease. In doing so, readers become aware of the courage these individuals choose to face their illness with. So many times in labs and hospitals, we forget that what we see under the microscope was once deeply embedded in an individual. Nadler reminds us exquisitely of that, and in his writing, he brings an understanding of not just the disease, but of those who must deal with these particular disease. The story told, the picture drawn...may start with the cell that he originally focused on, but Nadler quickly changes the focus to the person.
An outstanding book by an outstanding person...
Karen Sadler,
Science Education,
University of Pittsburgh
Drama under the microscope.......2001-12-13
In beautiful and clear prose, this book depicts the drama in interpreting a sick patient's cells. But it is also the story of one surgical pathologist's journey to find out what is human about his patients and himself. It is a touching read and a fascinating look behind the curtain into a highly specialized hospital laboratory.
Exquisitely rendered tales of human disease.......2001-11-29
Spencer Nadler is a pathologist who would be a clinical physician. He is a doctor of medicine who would be a literary artist. He demonstrates in these exquisitely wrought pages a deep sense of identification and empathy with the very real human beings whose cells he sees in his microscope. He writes about intersecting with their lives in a style both concrete and moving so that we cannot help but also identify with the heart-wrenching experience of disease.
So there's an irony in the title and a kind of strange misdirection: Dr. Nadler's concentration is NOT on cellular life, but instead on the psychological, existential and spiritual aspects of people whose cells have gone bad.
He begins with the story of a 35-year-old woman who has breast cancer. She wants to see the cancerous cells in the microscope. Nadler, whose daily work is performing biopsies, especially surgical biopsies made on the fly as the patient is etherized upon a table, obliges, and thereby begins a relationship with her and her illness that goes well beyond what can be experienced through the lenses of his "research-quality German microscope made by Zeiss." She sees landscapes and metaphors in the dead and dying cells, and Nadler is once again reminded of the human experience of disease.
Next is the chapter entitled simply "Fat" about a woman suffering from morbid obesity. She undergoes the Rouxen-Y gastric bypass, a gastrointestinal reconstruction surgery that miniaturizing her stomach from a capacity of 1,700 milliliters to 35 milliliters. (I have a question not answered in the text: why did her stomach have to be SO small? Couldn't they have left her with say, two or three hundred milliliters?) The procedure works and she goes from over 360 pounds to 180, but she cannot eat more than a few ounces of food at any one setting and she must--as Nadler so beautifully phrases it on page 39-swallow only "bonsaied boluses" and take "great care to chew them to a flow."
"Fat" is quite frankly one of the best medical essays I have ever read. But I am not alone in admiring the artistry of Nadler's carefully constructed prose. Two of the essays in this book, "Brain Cell Memories" and "An Old Soldier," the first about brain tumors, and the second about a 75-year-old man who has been a paraplegic for 55 years, are included in, respectively, The Best American Essays, 2001 and The Best American Essays, 1999. I was particularly impressed with "An Old Soldier," in which Nadler's clear, stark prose reveals the courage, strength and sheer cussed determination it takes for WWII vet Sam Patterson to live when "His lower trunk and limbs, his bowels, bladder, and genitals, are permanently incommunicado, shutting him off from the rest of his body like a demented mind." (p. 150)
The other chapters are "Heart Rhythms," which is essentially a heroic portrait of conductor Mehli Mehta; "Early Alzheimer's: A View from Within" which features AD-sufferer Morris Friedell who "can crystalize the life that remains and devise ways to enhance it" (for example, he takes notes and crosses off the tasks and experiences as they are lived); and "The Burden of Sickle Cells" about a boy that Nadler befriends who has the sickle cell disease.
The last chapter in the book is an appreciation of hospice work and grief counseling with a focus on Nadler's friend, Brad Deford, a chaplain to the dying. Nadler follows him on his rounds and experiences first hand how comforting it can be to have someone help with the emotional and spiritual preparations. Nadler refers to one old couple, each facing eminent death, as having become, "in their married years together...two nuclei in a single cell." His final words before the Epilogue are: "How awesome is this cellular ride, so steeped in mysterious efficiency. But it is the human dying, so urgent and inevitable, that is graven unto me."
As can be seen, Nadler is a very fine prose stylist, and his book is to be compared favorably with the best works written by practicing doctors from what I might call "the medical tale genre." Some recent examples include Jerome Groopman's Second Opinions: Stories of Intuition and Choice in the Changing World of Medicine (2000) and of course the works of Oliver Sacks, e.g., An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales (1995) and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and other clinical tales (1987).
Life and Death Matters.......2001-11-28
There's more to disease than the cells a surgical pathologist sees under a microscope. These cells can nail a diagnosis, but tell us nothing about the person suffering from a disease. Spencer Nadler in The Language of Cells reveals the complexities of a cell as well as the human patient whose diagnosis can mean life or death. Nadler combines the insight of a scientist with the language of a poet as he weaves the stories of patients he has known. Disease sometimes takes on a benign form as we read of the individual people in this volume, whose illness brings them closer to life as they draw nearer death. Even death, in the chapter, "Dying Matters," can instruct and inspire. Also inspiring is the story of Alzheimer patients who learn ways to enrich their lives despite their increasing loss of memory. And who can help but admire the courage of an African American boy who lives with the searing pain of sickle cell anemia, or the woman with breast cancer who asks to see her cancer cells with her own eyes? As a special bonus are color plates that show the unexpected beauty of the cells Nadler sees every day in the course of his work. I plan to give this book to my friends during the holiday season. I know they will enjoy it as much as I did.
Average customer rating:
|
Micromonsters: Life Under the Microscope (DK Readers: Level 4 (Sagebrush))
Christopher Maynard
Manufacturer: Tandem Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: School & Library Binding
 General
| Science, Nature & How It Works
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 4-8
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 9-12
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Eyewitness Readers
| Nonfiction
| Series
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Level 4
| Dorling Kindersley Readers
| Early Reader
| Series
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Fiction
| General
| Animals
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Literature
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 061328383X |
Book Description
What are the forces shaping who we are, how we live, and how we act? Are we shaped primarily by our environment, or by our genes? These very old questions form the basis of the "nature-nurture" debate. Increasingly, we are told that research has confirmed the importance of genetic factors influencing psychiatric disorders, personality, intelligence, sexual orientation, criminality, and so on.
Jay Joseph's timely, challenging book provides a much-needed critical appraisal of the evidence cited in support of genetic theories. His book shows that, far from establishing the importance of genes, family, twin and adoption research has been plagued by researcher bias, unsound methodology, and a reliance on unsupported theoretical assumptions. Furthermore, he demonstrates how this greatly flawed research has been used in support of conservative social and political agendas. This is particularly evident in Chapter 2, which contains the only in-depth critical review of the history of twin research ever published.
Much of the scientific evidence cited in support of genetic theories has been produced by the fields of behavior genetics and psychiatric genetics. It has been delivered to the public in numerous magazine and newspaper articles, as well as by the authors of several popular books. In particular, studies of twins (both reared together and reared apart) have been cited as providing conclusive evidence supporting the importance of genetic influences on psychological trait differences. The reared-apart twin studies performed by researchers at the University of Minnesota have been the subject of much attention, including stories of individual pairs of "reared-apart" identical twins who, it is claimed, displayed remarkable similarities upon being reunited. Joseph shows, however, that both systematic reared-apart twin studies, and stories about individual pairs, prove little if anything about the role of genes.
Schizophrenia is the most studied, and at the same time the most feared and misunderstood, of all psychiatric disorders. Two chapters are devoted to problems with genetic research in this area. One of these chapters reviews schizophrenia adoption research, which includes the well-known and frequently cited Danish-American and Finnish investigations. Another chapter looks into the alleged genetic basis of criminal behavior — an idea more popular today than at any time in the past 60 years. Additional chapters look into other areas of current interest in genetics, such as IQ, the heritability concept, and molecular genetic research. Regarding the latter, in Chapter 10 Joseph concludes that it is unlikely that genes for the major psychiatric disorders exist.
In contrast to the bleak view of humans and their future held by people claiming that heredity is of overriding importance, there exists a radically different perspective. Faulty genes are not the cause of human suffering or socially disapproved behavior. Rather, the likely causes are well-known and well-documented psychologically harmful events and environments.
This book is essential reading for anyone seeking an alternative to the increasingly popular, yet mistaken view that "genes are destiny."
Customer Reviews:
Superb deconstruction.......2004-10-12
Among the many books that expose pretensions of the genetic enterprise and its social consequences, Jay Joseph's book is unique. It takes apart the science and methodology of the most-cited psychiatric science, the demonstration in schizophrenia twin studies of genetic influences on behavior. Joseph's tone toward his material is sober and respectful, which only highlights his painstaking, unrelenting, and ultimately devastating analysis of ideas that have posed as science for over 100 years.
Joseph's scholarship is original, comprehensive, and even finicky; and occasionally there is even passion. Joseph's book is so good in my view that it can claim fresh status as the definitive scientific account of the twin studies. And anyone from now on who ignores this account when discussing these studies should be judged accordingly.
To shake off the vestiges of reductionist science and eugenics, this is the book.
Average customer rating:
|
Hair Follicle: Differentiation Under the Electron Microscope
K. Morioka
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Biology
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Zoology
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Pharmacology
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
Physiology
| Basic Science
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
Dermatology
| Specialties
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Biology
| Biological Sciences
| Professional Science
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Zoology
| Biological Sciences
| Professional Science
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Dermatology
| Internal Medicine
| Medicine
| Medical
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Pharmacology
| Medical
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
All Amazon Upgrade
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
Medicine
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
Professional & Technical
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
Science
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 4431224297 |
Book Description
The electron microscope has been used in hair research for half a century, but the knowledge gained through this study has become rather fragmented over the years. While the molecular biological study of hair has become an active field, even here, as in more traditional research, an understanding of the morphological aspects is essential because the hair follicle structure is highly complex. The author explicates the structure, development, and differentiation of the hair follicle, using his own original photographs and explanations of current research, including growth factors, differentiation-inducers, cell signaling pathways, and transcription factors. With neonatal rats as subjects, he focuses on the morphological analysis of all basic hair cells - in the shaft, matrix, and papilla - from birth to death. The introductory chapter will benefit novices, with the following sections consisting mainly of explanations of the electron microscopic photographs of hair cells.
Book Description
Micro Monsters is a level 4 reader, and suited for students in grades 2 to 4.
Look through the microscope at all the amazing creatures living in, on, and around you! These 48-page books about fascinating subjects like pirates, mummies, and volcanoes are for proficient readers who can understand a rich vocabulary and challenging sentence structure. In addition to the stunning photographs, informative sidebars, and glossary, readers will find archival photographs and paintings. Averaging 4,500 to 5,000 words in length, Level 4 books are 40 percent pictures and 40 percent text. The Dorling Kindersley Readers combine an enticing visual layout with high-interest, easy-to-read stories to captivate and delight young bookworms who are just getting started. Written by leading children's authors and compiled in consultation with literacy experts, these engaging books build reader confidence along with a lifelong appreciation for nonfiction, classic stories, and biographies. There is a DK Reader to interest every child at every level, from preschool to grade 4.
Customer Reviews:
SCARY!!!!.......2006-01-16
My nine year old loved this book! So did the adults in the home as well. Wonderful descriptions and detailed, vivid pictures. Scared him too!! Now washing is a necessity! It should be recommended reading for all 9 year olds AND there parents! One of the best of the DK readers(advisory: Not for the squeamish!)
Customer Reviews:
wow........2006-02-08
Hey Jim,
Opinions are great! And yours is just adorable.
Evolution is a belief which takes more faith than creationism to believe. You say "facts are facts" while the evolution cornerstone belief of human existance beginning 200+ million years ago is based on an assumption(!) that the African ape and the human race have a common ancestor 5 million years ago.
Wow. What a belief.
Have you even studied anything since 1997? What do you think 'mitochondrial Eve' is all about? Amazing how it's so closely dated to the Biblical Eve, eh?
Also, the fossil record! The fossil record is perfectly consistent with sudden creation if one does not assume (which will be hard since it's the golden rule of evolution) uniformitarianism and evolution to start with. The whole reason the theory of punctuated equilibrium was invented was because the fossil record was more consistent with sudden creation than gradual evolution; evolutionists needed an excuse for it. Darwin himself, about 150 years ago, predicted, in his book, that if his theory were true, there should be innumerable fossil creatures in the ground showing the change from one form of organism to another. To him, the fossil record should be full of smooth transitions and transitional forms. But even in his time no such smooth transitions were found. Instead, even up until now, the fossil record is known to show abrupt appearance of animals, which stay generally the same before disappearing the same way they appeared. That is known as stasis.
"blah, blah, blah... has evolved over billions of years from simpler forms."
Ok- for the sake of your argument we'll pretend that is true... now: were did those simpler forms originate? Something cannot be created out of nothing no matter how many years back you want it to go. The theory also states that the universe is eternal... eternal is largely correlated to time, therefore it cannot be used to describe something that is not affected by time. Matter is affected by time, so that something that has always existed must not be matter. It is immaterial, for matter would surely decay and cease to exist. Hmm, how bout that.
"if it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down."
- Darwin (Origin of Species, 6th ed. (1988), p. 154)
Educate yourself on irreducible complexity, then study the flagellum. Or even study the bombardier beetle, which could not have possebly evolved into its current state without blowing itself up in the process.
I hope you someday have the honor of meeting Mr.Gills or Mr.Woodward so you may explain to them your great and magnificant insight.
Note: You're a Christian (non-ignoramus of course!) yet you believe the theory of evolution, which is opposed to the Bible. Well how about that. Evolution is also rasist due to Darwin's reasoning that the 'white race' is superior to the 'black race' because of the latter having thicker skulls, smaller brains, and flatter noses, thus more closely resembling the appearence of the ape. Christiany however belives in one race- the human race. Learn the law of noncontradiction.
*sigh*
Just another 'Christian' who's been fed watered-down versions of the gospel and finds it more convienient to pick and choose what to believe based on their own man-centered philosophy of the world. What an insult to the work of Christ and God's ultimate sovranty.
Snake oil........2005-12-08
Wake up folks. This guy is a snake-oil salesman who's trying to pull the wool over your eyes by picking and choosing certain things to "prove" his points while ignoring the vast amount of irrefutable research supporting evolution. Darwin proposed his theory in the mid-1800's. Well after 150 years, the jury is in. Evolution is a fact supported by reams and reams of research. Guess what? The world isn't flat. The sun does not revolve around the earth. And the universe, earth and the life on it were not "created" in six days a few thousand years ago. Get over it. Life, including human beings, has evolved over billions of years from simpler forms. Facts are facts. It's done. Accept it. We can observe evolution occurring in insect and microbe populations. That's not theory. That's observable fact. Where do you think new flu strains and antibiotic-resistant bacteria come from? The creation story in the bible is based on fables handed down by superstitious Middle-Eastern nomadic tribes living thousands of years ago who did not have any idea of scientific concepts. We have no such excuse to propagate ignorance in the world in which we now live. What? Do you think all the thousands of scientists in the hundreds of research institutions have been just sitting around in their offices, staring at the walls, making this stuff up in some vast 150 year long conspiracy against religion? It's all based on hard work and research, folks, unlike "intelligent design" or "creationism" which are simply willful ignorance. What true scientific research supports "intelligent design"? How is it that atomic research, biochemistry and geology, amongst other scientific means and discoveries that have come about since the 1800's - which Darwin could not have known about - all support the concept of evolution? Do we know everything about evolution at this point? No. Some of the blanks have yet to be filled in. Some never will be. So what. We don't know everything there is to know about atomic physics yet either. Does that mean atomic theory is entirely wrong? We know enough about physics and evolution to know for a fact both atoms and natural selection exist. Nothing has been shown to scientifically invalidate the concept of evolution. Nothing. And arguing about "Darwinism" is ridiculous at this point anyhow because his initial theories have been refined since he first wrote them. If you're going to argue it, then argue about the modern understanding of evolution, not the initial theory prior to the tremendous amount of supporting research that has come afterward. It's not about one guy named "Darwin" folks. Besides, he didn't even come up with the idea completely on his own anyhow. Lamarck initially proposed biological change through time prior to Darwin. Another naturalist, Wallace, came up with the idea of natural selection at about the same time. Darwin happened to be first to publish. This author and all those who want so-called "creationism" or "intelligent design" taught in school science classrooms should be ashamed of themselves for encouraging the teaching of ignorance to children. Teach what you want in a religious classroom. I don't care. But shame on anyone for telling children that religious fables are equivalent to scientific fact. By the way, I am a Christian. (Yes, it is possible to be a Christian and not be an ignoramus).
A revealing and enjoyable read .......2005-08-30
Neo-darwinism (the synthetic theory) is not only stone-cold dead, it's already 6-foot under. Jeff Levinton completed his second edition of 'Macroevolution' in 2003. Atheist Peter Forey of London's Natural History Museum reviewed it in the Journal of Paleontology 77(1). On p. 200 Forey gloomily concluded, "Do not expect answers." No creationist could say it any better. A 617-page book on macroevolution, and one should not expect answers - and that's why macroevolution should be taught as fact in American (taxpayer-paid) public schools.
As a creation zoologist, I'm delighted to review this since I personally know several of the contributors. I have a dear pastor-friend on the island of Trinidad who worked in Dr. Gills' eye clinic in Florida years ago. Dr. Gills had my Pastor, David 'Turning Point' Jeremiah of SMC Church, fly out to speak to his clinic staff over a decade ago.
[A full three-quarters of my review was somehow lost in the transition - I have no time to retype it. Buy this book]
Very good overview.......2003-02-21
I skimmed this. It seemed to have a very good overview of current findings in various fields of science that either point toward intelligent design or against evolution. It has an extensive, annotated bibliography of very recent books for further reading.
Average customer rating:
|
Our Bodies (Under the Microscope)
John Woodward , and
Casey Horton
Manufacturer: Gareth Stevens Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
Anatomy & Physiology
| Science, Nature & How It Works
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Anatomy
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Anatomy
| Basic Science
| Medicine
| Subjects
| Books
Histology
| Basic Sciences
| Medical
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0836816013 |
Average customer rating:
|
Dragonflies (Under the Microscope: Backyard Bugs)
Suzanne Slade
Manufacturer: PowerKids Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
Nonfiction
| Bugs & Spiders
| Animals
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 4-8
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
A Bug's Life
| Disney
| Popular Characters
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Entomology
| Biology
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Entomology
| Biology
| Biological Sciences
| Professional Science
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1404238190 |
Average customer rating:
|
Ladybugs (Under the Microscope: Backyard Bugs)
Suzanne Slade
Manufacturer: PowerKids Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
Nonfiction
| Bugs & Spiders
| Animals
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 4-8
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
A Bug's Life
| Disney
| Popular Characters
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Entomology
| Biology
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Entomology
| Biology
| Biological Sciences
| Professional Science
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1404238182 |
Books:
- The Doctor's Heart Cure, Beyond the Modern Myths of Diet and Exercise: The Clinically-Proven Plan of Breakthrough Health Secrets That Helps You Build a Powerful, Disease-Free Heart
- The Fountainhead
- The Great Physician's Rx for Diabetes
- The Journals Of Rachel Scott A Journey Of Faith At Columbine High
- The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
- The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar (Prima Official Game Guide)
- The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (Oprah's Book Club)
- The Organized Family Historian: How to File, Manage, and Protect Your Genealogical Research and Heirlooms (National Genealogical Society Guides)
- The Origins of Totalitarianism
- The Power New Testament, Third Edition
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- 21 Things Every Future Engineer Should Know: A Practical Guide for Students and Parents
- New Choices in Natural Healing for Dogs & Cats: Over 1,000 At-Home Remedies for Your Pet's Probl
- For the Boys : The Racy Pin-Ups of World War II
- History: Fiction or Science
- Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer
- The Damned and the Beautiful: American Youth in the 1920s
- Nature of Australia: A Portrait of the Island Continent
- Careers & Calling: Handbook for Women of Excellence
- Executive Report on Strategies in United Kingdom, 2000 edition
- Monkey: Folk Novel of China
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver
The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic that Shaped Our History
The Family That Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery
Microbe Hunters
