Mayonnaise and the Origin of Life: Thoughts of Minds and Molecules - Hardcover

Morowitz, Harold J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684184443 ISBN 13: 9780684184449

Publisher: Scribner, 1985

Synopsis

The writings of Harold Morowitz are well known to readers of the ‘New York Times’, ‘Psychology Today’, ‘Science 82’, and ‘Hospital Practice’. Although there is great breadth of subject matter, a common thread weaves its way through these writings. Each essay in its own idiosyncratic way asks the questions “whit is life?” Whether the author is watching a dying sea lion pup in the Galapagos, contemplating the trial of Socrates in Athens, or sitting in his laboratory, focusing on the beauty of biochemistry, his thoughts always bear on the nature, meaning, and purpose of life. Morowitz does not write principally about science. He rather addresses the way in which science illuminates our humanity and provides clues to who we are, where we have come from, whither we are going. While many of his pieces start with a scientific theme, they all bridge the two cultures and put man firmly in his place as the irreducible element in all scientific analysis. Thus, the chemical structure of mayonnaise leads to thoughts about individuality; musings and E. coli lead to an appreciation of the warm humanitarianism of its discoverer; the internal combustion engine leads to the social role of science; and the evolution-creation controversy leads to the agony of a pre-Darwinian cleric wanting to have it both ways. Morowitz accomplishes all this with a light touch or, as he once noted, “I see the cosmic within the nitty-gritty and the trivial within the infinite”.

Edition details

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 1985
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0684184443
• ISBN 13: 9780684184449
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 244