First published in 1965. In 1865, a woman first obtained a legal qualification in this country as physician and surgeon. Elizabeth Garrett surprised public opinion by the calm obstinacy with which she fought for her own medical education and that of the young women who followed her. This full biography is based largely on unpublished material from the hospitals and medical schools where Elizabeth Garrett Anderson worked, and the private papers of the Garrett and Anderson families. This title will be of great interest to history of science students.

Sir Isaac Newton once declared that his momentous discoveries were only made thanks to having 'stood on the shoulders of giants'. The same might also be said of the scientists James Watson and Francis Crick. Their discovery of the structure of DNA was, without doubt, one of the biggest scientific landmarks in history and, thanks largely to the success of Watson's best-selling memoir 'The Double Helix', there might seem to be little new to say about this story. But much remains to be said about the particular 'giants' on whose shoulders Watson and Crick stood. Of these, the crystallographer Rosalind Franklin, whose famous X-ray diffraction photograph known as 'Photo 51' provided Watson and Crick with a vital clue, is now well recognised. Far less well known is the physicist William T. Astbury who, working at Leeds in the 1930s on the structure of wool for the local textile industry, pioneered the use of X-ray crystallography to study biological fibres. In so doing, he not only made the very first studies of the structure of DNA culminating in a photo almost identical to Franklin's 'Photo 51', but also founded the new science of 'molecular biology'. Yet whilst Watson and Crick won the Nobel Prize, Astbury has largely been forgotten. The Man in the Monkeynut Coat tells the story of this neglected pioneer, showing not only how it was thanks to him that Watson and Crick were not left empty-handed, but also how his ideas transformed biology leaving a legacy which is still felt today.

This biography of Charles Darwin, first published in 1937, re-lives Darwin's life year by year, allowing the reader to share his experiences. The book displays Darwin's ideas and how they developed and grew over time. This title will be of great interest to students of the history of science and philosophy.

The smartphones in our pockets and computers like brains. The vagaries of game theory and evolutionary biology. Nuclear weapons and self-replicating spacecrafts. All bear the fingerprints of one remarkable, yet largely overlooked, man: John von Neumann. Born in Budapest at the turn of the century, von Neumann is one of the most influential scientists to have ever lived. A child prodigy, he mastered calculus by the age of eight, and in high school made lasting contributions to mathematics. In Germany, where he helped lay the foundations of quantum mechanics, and later at Princeton, von Neumann's colleagues believed he had the fastest brain on the planet-bar none. He was instrumental in the Manhattan Project and the design of the atom bomb; he helped formulate the bedrock of Cold War geopolitics and modern economic theory; he created the first ever programmable digital computer; he prophesized the potential of nanotechnology; and, from his deathbed, he expounded on the limits of brains and computers-and how they might be overcome. Taking us on an astonishing journey, Ananyo Bhattacharya explores how a combination of genius and unique historical circumstance allowed a single man to sweep through a stunningly diverse array of fields, sparking revolutions wherever he went. The Man from the Future is an insightful and thrilling intellectual biography of the visionary thinker who shaped our century.

Going Somewhere is a dynamic autobiographical narrative about Andrew Marino's career in science. With a depth and drama that arise from personal involvement, the book explores an exceptionally wide range of science-related matters: the relation between electrical energy and life; the influence of corporate and military power on science; the role of self-interest on the part of federal and state agencies that deal with human health, especially the NIH and the FDA; the importance of cross-examining scientific experts in legal hearings; the erroneous view of nature that results when the perspective of physics is extended into biology; the pivotal role of deterministic chaos theory in at least some cognitive processes. These matters arise in the long course of the author's scientific and legal activities involving the complex debate over the health risks of man-made environmental electromagnetic fields. The book offers far more than a solution to the contentious health issue. The story provides a portal into how science actually works, which you will see differs dramatically from the romantic notion of an objective search for truth. You will understand that science is a human enterprise, all too human, inescapably enmeshed in uncertainty. This realization has the potential to change your life because it will likely affect whom you choose to believe, and with what degree of confidence.

A woman's fight to reclaim her body after a paralysis-inducing cycling accident In the early evening on October 1, 2003, Christina Crosby was three miles into a seventeen mile bicycle ride, intent on reaching her goal of 1,000 miles for the riding season. She was a respected senior professor of English who had celebrated her fiftieth birthday a month before. As she crested a hill, she caught a branch in the spokes of her bicycle, which instantly pitched her to the pavement. Her chin took the full force of the blow, and her head snapped back. In that instant, she was paralyzed. In A Body, Undone, Crosby puts into words a broken body that seems beyond the reach of language and understanding. She writes about a body shot through with neurological pain, disoriented in time and space, incapacitated by paralysis and deadened sensation. To address this foreign body, she calls upon the readerly pleasures of narrative, critical feminist and queer thinking, and the concentrated language of lyric poetry. Working with these resources, she recalls her 1950s tomboy ways in small-town, rural Pennsylvania, and records growing into the 1970s through radical feminism and the affirmations of gay liberation. Deeply unsentimental, Crosby communicates in unflinching prose the experience of "diving into the wreck" of her body to acknowledge grief, and loss, but also to recognize the beauty, fragility, and dependencies of all human bodies. A memoir that is a meditation on disability, metaphor, gender, sex, and love, A Body, Undone is a compelling account of living on, as Crosby rebuilds her body and fashions a life through writing, memory, and desire.

It all started with a Hob Nob. As Dr Matt Morgan, an intensive care consultant, examined a patient who had suffered a cardiac arrest after inhaling some biscuit crumbs, he saw a flock of birds fly past the window. They must inhale objects all the time when flying, how do they survive? he thought to himself. This began an investigation that spanned continents, species and millennia. For animal science has so much to teach us about human medicine. While some of the overlaps and parallels are obvious - we know how much DNA we share with primates, the first pig heart has been transplanted into a human - there is so much more that we have learnt from the animal world. For example, studying kangaroos, in particular the female's three vaginas, has improved in-vitro fertilisation success rates. Watching how a giraffe breathes can help save the life of someone struggling with asthma. Investigating why birds that live in the frozen Arctic circle don't freeze to death led to advances with treating hypothermia. Getting a ECG on the 150kg heart of a humpback whale was instrumental to keeping patients with cardiac failure living longer. We owe animals so much, it's time to focus on examining how they live and what we still have to learn from them. Better shared understanding of how our species coexists with millions of others can lead to untold medical advances, help both humans and animals and improve the world for all creatures from single-celled bacteria to a 30,000 kg whale. Who knows, maybe a kiss from a frog will save your life?

A multi-award-winning Italian debut, from a bold and original new voice in contemporary queer literature. Jonathan is 31 years old, living in Milan with his boyfriend of three years and their two Devon Rex cats when, on a day like any other, he gets a fever. But unlike most, this fever doesn't go away; it's constant, low-level, and exhausting. After spending weeks Googling his symptoms and documenting his illness, he finally sees a doctor. A series of blood tests, anxious visits to hospitals, and repeated misdiagnoses ensue, until the truth is finally revealed: Jonathan is HIV-positive. As Jonathan comes to terms with what this diagnosis will mean for him, his future, and his relationships, he also takes the reader back in time, in search of his history, to the suburbs where he grew up, and from which he feels he has escaped: Rozzano, the ghetto of Milan, and of Italy's north. In the vein of Edouard Louis and Virginie Despentes, Fever is at once a deeply personal story and a searing examination of class, poverty, prejudice, and opportunity in modern Europe.

Tu Youyou's Journey in the Search for Artemisinin is an autobiographical science book chronicling in detail the great experiences of Tu Youyou from her childhood to winning the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.As Tu Youyou is the first female scientist from China to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, this win created a sudden wave of interest in medicine, resulting in numerous autobiographical books about Tu Youyou appearing on the market. Contrary to these mass market titles, this book is uniquely different as it is fully authorized by the Nobel laureate herself. Her once-confidential experimental data and Artemisinin research reports are now revealed in this book for all to learn and comprehend. In addition, one of the book authors, Dr Wang Manyuan, is the only PhD student supervised by Professor Tu.Pharmaceutical researchers can use the book's valuable contents to reference, quote and analyse while searching for their own scientific inspirations. It also successfully serves as a guide for budding scientists and future Nobel Prize winners as it provides the proper guidance and methods of scientific research.

Tu Youyou's Journey in the Search for Artemisinin is an autobiographical science book chronicling in detail the great experiences of Tu Youyou from her childhood to winning the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.As Tu Youyou is the first female scientist from China to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, this win created a sudden wave of interest in medicine, resulting in numerous autobiographical books about Tu Youyou appearing on the market. Contrary to these mass market titles, this book is uniquely different as it is fully authorized by the Nobel laureate herself. Her once-confidential experimental data and Artemisinin research reports are now revealed in this book for all to learn and comprehend. In addition, one of the book authors, Dr Wang Manyuan, is the only PhD student supervised by Professor Tu.Pharmaceutical researchers can use the book's valuable contents to reference, quote and analyse while searching for their own scientific inspirations. It also successfully serves as a guide for budding scientists and future Nobel Prize winners as it provides the proper guidance and methods of scientific research.

'Freeman Dyson has had an extraordinary range of interests, serious activity and influence. This is reflected in the choice of topics in these essays ... This book is informative, very entertaining and well up to the high standards attained previously by this author!'Contemporary PhysicsMy friendship with Freeman Dyson goes back over a half century. My first contact with him goes back to the late 1950s, when I was at the Institute for Advanced Study, and then evolved when I was a consultant at General Atomics in La Jolla, California. Freeman was then trying to design a space ship - the Orion - which would be propelled by atomic bombs. When I left the Institute, Freeman and I continued our correspondence and I saved his letters. They are written in an almost calligraphically elegant handwriting. It is hard to see how you could make a mistake in a mathematical computation if you wrote that clearly. The letters show his human side and his enormous range of knowledge.There are then two essays involving the physicist Fritz Houtermans who was an extraordinarily colorful character. There is a brief essay on Einstein's collaboration with a fraud. There is even an essay on the Titius-Bode law and the new exo-planets. Because of my enduring interest in nuclear weapons, the reader will find essays devoted to that. There is also a bit of fiction at the end.

The true story of a little-known mental health pioneer who revolutionised how we see the defining problem of our era: anxiety.

Panic, depression, sorrow, guilt, disgrace, obsessions, sleeplessness, low confidence, loneliness, agoraphobia … The international bestseller Self-Help For Your Nerves, first published in 1962 and still in print, has helped tens of millions of readers to overcome all of these, and continues to do so. But when it was first released, its diminutive author, Dr Claire Weekes, wasn't taken seriously. Seen as underqualified and overly populist by the medical establishment, she was dismissed even as thousands of letters from readers poured in, thanking her for helping to improve -- and in some cases to save -- their lives.

Notable for her insight into the anxiety state and the effectiveness of her techniques for addressing it, Dr Weekes' work provided an alternative to the brutal, invasive, and expensive treatments that were popular at the time. For a handful of dollars, Weekes offered treatment unavailable anywhere else. Few understood she was a serious scholar whose understanding also came from first-hand experience: in order to do her work, she had had to overcome a crippling anxiety disorder herself.

At a crucial moment in history, Dr Weekes' work showed people around the world that they were not alone in their suffering, and addressed an epidemic hiding in plain sight -- one that remains an urgent problem in our society today. This book is the first to tell her story.

First published in 2005, this book represents the first full length biography of John Phillips, one of the most remarkable and important scientists of the Victorian period. Adopting a broad chronological approach, this book not only traces the development of Phillips' career but clarifies and highlights his role within Victorian culture, shedding light on many wider themes. It explores how Phillips' love of science was inseparable from his need to earn a living and develop a career which could sustain him. Hence questions of power, authority, reputation and patronage were central to Phillips' career and scientific work. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources and a rich body of recent writings on Victorian science, this biography brings together his personal story with the scientific theories and developments of the day, and fixes them firmly within the context of wider society.

In the United States it is estimated that 3.2 million people are infected with the Hepatitis C virus, which is a contagious liver disease that can range in severity from a mild illness to a serious, lifelong condition. Infections worldwide are estimated at 150 to 200 million people, many of whom are not aware they are affected.

Gregory David finds out the hard way that he is one of the infected - through a letter, which reads, "We regret that at this time our company cannot offer you a life insurance policy. We based our decision on your recent alcohol use during the past six years, and the presence of the Hepatitis C virus."

At first, Gregory is in disbelief, and he insists on having his doctor perform an independent test. But when the results come back, he learns that his earlier years of occasional drug use and constant partying may have finally caught up with him.

The coming weeks and months pose huge obstacles as Gregory learns about the disease, breaks the news to family and friends, and struggles to cope with an infection he at first knows little about.

Join Gregory as he confronts the disease, and find inspiration in "Breaking Free from Hepatitis C."

A lively account of how Darwin’s work on natural selection transformed science and society, and an investigation into the mysterious illness that plagued its author.

By early morning of June 30, 1860, a large crowd began to congregate in front of Oxford University’s brand-new Museum of Natural History. The occasion was the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and the subject of discussion was Charles Darwin’s new treatise: fact or fiction?

Darwin, a simultaneously reclusive and intellectually audacious squire from Kent, claimed to have solved “that mystery of mysteries,” introducing a logical explanation of the origin of species―how they adapted, even transmogrified, through natural selection. At stake, on that summer’s day of spirited debate, was the very foundation of modern biology, not to mention the future of the church. Without fear of exaggeration, Darwin’s thesis would forever change our understanding of the life sciences and the natural world. And yet the author himself was nowhere to be found in the debate hall―instead, he was miles away, seeking respite from a spate of illnesses that had plagued him for much of his adult life.

In Origin Story, medical historian Howard Markel recounts the two-year period (1858 to 1860) of Darwin’s writing of On the Origin of Species through its spectacular success and controversy. Simultaneously, Markel delves into the mysterious health symptoms Darwin developed, combing the literature to emerge with a cogent diagnosis of a case that has long fascinated medical historians. The result is a colorful portrait of the man, his friends and enemies, and his seminal work, which resonates to this day.

"No doctor, however great his capacity or original his ideas, has the right to choose martyrs for science or for the general good." Human Guinea Pigs: Experimentation on Man.Whistle-blowers tend not to be very popular. Maurice Pappworth's whistle was in the form of Human Guinea Pigs, the controversial book published in 1967 which examined unethical medical experimentation on humans and identified the researchers and institutions responsible. The ground-breaking text took the medical establishment by storm and provoked questions in Parliament. Brilliant, Jewish, already an outsider, Pappworth was recognised as the best medical teacher in the country. But convinced that the reason for these experiments being carried out was purely to advance the careers of ambitious practitioners, Pappworth had to speak up. In the wake of his expose, stricter codes of practice for human experimentation were put into place and the establishment of the research ethics committees was formed, which remains in place today. Maurice Pappworth's daughter, the late Joanna Seldon, re-assesses the importance of Human Guinea Pigs in her book Whistle-blower: The Life of Maurice Pappworth. She considers her father's text a major milestone in the development of current medical research ethics and demands a re-evaluation of the pioneering medical ethicist who compromised his own career in order to ensure the protection of the patient.

Pasteurization, penicillin, Koch's postulates, and gene coding. These discoveries and inventions are vital yet commonplace in modern life, but were radical when first introduced to the public and academia. In this book, the life and times of leading pioneers in microbiology are discussed in vivid detail, focusing on the background of each discovery and the process in which they were developed - sometimes by accident or sheer providence.

Pasteurization, penicillin, Koch's postulates, and gene coding. These discoveries and inventions are vital yet commonplace in modern life, but were radical when first introduced to the public and academia. In this book, the life and times of leading pioneers in microbiology are discussed in vivid detail, focusing on the background of each discovery and the process in which they were developed - sometimes by accident or sheer providence.

First published in 2003. Hewett Cottrell Watson was a pioneer in a new science not yet defined in Victorian times - ecology - and was practically the first naturalist to conduct research on plant evolution, beginning in 1834. The correspondence between Watson and Darwin, analysed for the first time in this book, reveals the extent to which Darwin profited from Watson's data. Darwin's subsequent fame, however, is one of the reasons why Watson became almost forgotten. This biography traces both the influences and characteristics that shaped Watson's outlook and personality, and indeed his science, and the institutional contexts within which he worked. At the same time, it makes evident the extent of his real contributions to the science of the plant ecology and evolution.

This first biography of Sir Raymond Priestley is well overdue, and its absence can only be explained by the scale of research necessary to cover the breadth and variety of his achievements over a very long and active life. It will be of interest across a wide range of disciplines, especially to those for whom the "Heroic Age" of Antarctic Exploration has a particular fascination. His involvement as a member of both Sir Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod and Robert Scott's Terra Nova Expeditions, during which he played a full and, on occasions, life threatening role was followed immediately by service in the First World War during which his gallantry was recognized by the award of a Military Medal; thereafter he made a further significant contribution in writing both the Official History of the British Army Signal Service and the History of the 46th (North Midland) Division in which he served. After the war, whilst at the University of Cambridge, he played a leading role in the establishment of the Scott Polar Research Institute followed by appointments as Vice-Chancellor of the Universities of Melbourne and then Birmingham, as well as helping to establish the University of the West Indies. Later he received a knighthood for his services to education. During his retirement, a complete misnomer in his case, he went with His Royal Highness, The Duke of Edinburgh, as an Antarctic expert on the RY Britannia followed closely as the British Observer on the American Deep Freeze IV Expedition during his tenure as Acting Director of the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (later, the British Antarctic Survey). It was no surprise that, against this background, he was invited to become President of the Royal Geographical Society. Despite the demands made upon him, he maintained a strong and active interest in his family's affairs throughout the whole of his life.

Originally published in 1969, this is the first biography of Susan Isaacs, the first attempt to estimate her incalculable contribution to the theory and practice of the education of young children. As a pioneer of new teaching methods, Susan Isaacs will be remembered mainly for her work at the Malting House School in Cambridge in the 1920s, and her contribution was such that in 1933 the Department of Child Development at the University of London, Institute of Education was specially created for her; she was Head of the Department until 1943. But Susan Isaacs was also a psychoanalyst, and D.W. Winnicott in his Foreword refers to the time when he was supplying cases for her child analysis training: 'I watched with interest her sensitive management of the total family situation, a difficult thing when one is engaged in learning while carrying out a psycho-analytic treatment involving daily sessions over years.' D.E.M. Gardner, who was a close friend as well as student of Susan Isaacs, begins by describing Susan's childhood in a Lancashire cotton town, and throughout the book she helps us to feel the force of Susan's personality and intellect - 'she was a truly great person, one who has had a tremendous influence for good on the attitude of parents and of teachers to the children in their care'.

Champion pigeon racer, lover of wild creatures and wild places, MENSA member, philosopher -in retirement Jim Emerton now devotes his time and energies to sharing his experiences, his observations and his expertise with others who share his interests and concerns. This is a collection of Jim's more philosophical writings as originally published in MENSA publications, including the members' periodical Cognito. They are in general his attempts, as he puts it, to 'verbalise the unknowable'. "I have had a great life...I have travelled a lot, run a business, been a salesman, I was a record-breaking shot and until I was 30 I had never been beaten at arm wrestling. Over the years I have developed my own personal belief system fusing science and art in philosophy."

On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first person in history to leave the Earth's atmosphere and venture into space. His flight aboard a Russian Vostok rocket lasted only 108 minutes, but at the end of it he had become the most famous man in the world. Back on the ground, his smiling face captured the hearts of millions around the globe. Film stars, politicians and pop stars from Europe to Japan, India to the United States vied with each other to shake his hand.
Despite this immense fame, almost nothing is known about Gagarin or the exceptional people behind his dramatic space flight. "Starman" tells for the first time Gagarin's personal odyssey from peasant to international icon, his subsequent decline as his personal life began to disintegrate under the pressures of fame, and his final disillusionment with the Russian state. President Kennedy's quest to put an American on the Moon was a direct reaction to Gagarin's achievement--yet before that successful moonshot occurred, Gagarin himself was dead, aged just thirty-four, killed in a mysterious air crash. Publicly the Soviet hierarchy mourned; privately their sighs of relief were almost audible, and the KGB report into his death remains secret.
Entwined with Gagarin's history is that of the breathtaking and highly secretive Russian space program - its technological daring, its triumphs and disasters. In a gripping account, Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony reveal the astonishing world behind the scenes of the first great space spectacular, and how Gagarin's flight came frighteningly close to destruction.

This unique volume is not just an in-depth analysis of Professor Swaminathan's brilliant contributions to basic cytogenetics, radiation biology, mutagenesis and genomic affinities of cultivated potato and its wild derivatives, but also the application of the new knowledge gained to improve the productivity of agricultural crops, as also to enhance their resistance to a variety of biotic and abiotic stresses. No other earlier biographies of Professor Swaminathan bring out these salient dimensions of his scientific achievements made at the Wageningen University, The Netherlands, Cambridge University, UK, and Wisconsin University, USA as well as Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi. This biography is also unique for its revelation that Professor Swaminathan's contributions par excellence have been in contemporary areas of crop improvement for productivity and resistance to pests and diseases.This volume is also unique in bringing out that Professor Swaminathan, Father of India's Green Revolution, wanted to use this chemically intensified system only to gain 'breathing space' and went on to propose a 'systems approach' - based evergreen revolution in order to 'achieve productivity in perpetuity' through various pathways of ecoagriculture, and also integrated it with avenues for on-farm and non-farm livelihoods. Towards this goal, he made innovative uses of ecotechnologies in a 'biovillage' paradigm and modern information and communication technology (ICT) in Village Knowledge Centres (VKCs) to provide skill and knowledge empowerment respectively of the resource-poor rural women and men towards sustainable management of the natural resources for creating income-generating on-farm and non-farm livelihoods. This volume also brings out how Professor Swaminathan elegantly combined intellect and labour (hard work), and professional zeal with compassion for the poor. He is always open to new ideas, and new technologies without of course, compromising the values of traditional knowledge and ecological prudence of the rural and tribal people. This volume nicely captures how Professor Swaminathan with a deep and comprehensive understanding of the threats to the ecological foundations of agriculture and sustainable rural development, environmental degradation, social inequities and the climate change risks, has also harnessed science and technology to convert challenges into opportunities. This volume is written in a manner to serve also as a text book, going beyond the scope of just a biography. That should benefit generations of students on one hand, and sustain an interest in the book for many years on the other.