The Medusa and the Snail
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Narrated by:
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Stuart Langton
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By:
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Lewis Thomas
About this listen
The medusa, a tiny jellyfish that lives on the ventral surface of a sea slug, 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.
©1974 Lewis Thomas (P)1999 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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The Theory of Everything: The Quest to Explain All Reality
- By: Don Lincoln, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Don Lincoln
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Original Recording
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At the end of his career, Albert Einstein was pursuing a dream far more ambitious than the theory of relativity. He was trying to find an equation that explained all physical reality - a theory of everything. Experimental physicist and award-winning educator Dr. Don Lincoln takes you on this exciting journey in The Theory of Everything: The Quest to Explain All Reality. Suitable for the intellectually curious at all levels and assuming no background beyond basic high-school math, these 24 half-hour lectures cover recent developments at the forefront of particle physics and cosmology.
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Audible’s Best Science Offering, A Gem
- By MikeB on 12-08-18
By: Don Lincoln, and others
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The Quantum Universe
- (And Why Anything That Can Happen, Does)
- By: Brian Cox, Jeff Forshaw
- Narrated by: Samuel West
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Quantum Universe, Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw approach the world of quantum mechanics in the same way they did in Why Does E=mc2? and make fundamental scientific principles accessible - and fascinating - to everyone.The subatomic realm has a reputation for weirdness, spawning any number of profound misunderstandings, journeys into Eastern mysticism, and woolly pronouncements on the interconnectedness of all things. Cox and Forshaw's contention? There is no need for quantum mechanics to be viewed this way.
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Not suitable as an audio book
- By SPN on 03-29-22
By: Brian Cox, and others
What listeners say about The Medusa and the Snail
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Roy
- 04-15-09
Essays on Biology
Lewis Thomas has brought to us another group of science essays. Well, this is not really a science book so much as a group of musings, observations, and perhaps intuitions about the natural world around us and a scattering of other topics. Each chapter is thought provoking and informative. Fortunately for the listener, Thomas has the broad ranging knowledge and outlook evidenced by my other hero - Oliver Sacks and uses it to advantage. The listener is the winner so far as I am concerned. If the reader relies on a book to generate interest, this volume might disappoint. The reader will become motivated to listen by the content, but must pay attention to do so.
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- Kim
- 10-24-10
Interesting and often funny
Despite this book being about 30 years old, it seems that all of the essays are still completely relevant. It was interesting to listen to something written about then-current scientific events that are now commonplace. The author's sense of humour really appealed to me.
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- Thomas
- 03-21-14
To the medically interested
This collection I at first had difficulty getting into some years back. Perhaps due to the fact that I was still in the thrall of "The Lives Of a Cell". This Latter is very biology-wise, where The "Medusa And The Snail" is more worldly-wise. Both are of course extremely worth the read, (or the listen in this case), especially to anyone biology or medically minded. Frankly, I expect, they are fun for anyone curious about life. Do not accept any abridgement; there are not any unnecessary words.
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