Download or read book The Pill Pygmy Chimps and Degas Horse written by Carl Djerassi and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2019-08-15 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unusually wide-ranging memoir, moving from Europe to America, academia to industry, science to art, triumph to tragedy, is the idiosyncratic life story of Carl Djerassi, teenage refugee from Nazism and prodigiously gifted chemist who experimented with a local yam in Mexico, synthesized steroids and, along with Gregory Pincus and John Rock, fathered the birth control pill. In this personal, incisive account, Djerassi tells the story of an extraordinarily driven and successful scientist-businessman, who taught for decades at Stanford University while maintaining a foothold in industry, married three times, had two children, and became an art collector as well as author and playwright. He describes how he lost his only daughter to suicide and his beloved third wife, biographer Diane Middlebrook, to cancer and how he has continued to live his extraordinary life. “Mr. Djerassi has a great deal to be immodest about… He is the very model of the scientist-businessman who knows how to turn his discoveries into commercially useful and profitable enterprises without jeopardizing his academic standing…” — The New York Times “Djerassi became enormously wealthy thanks to the soaring value of the Syntex stock acquired when he worked at the company... where he led the research team that synthesized the first orally active steroid contraceptive compound... and he took up art (and house) collecting. Emotionally, his life was turbulent: he married three times, and had to face the tragedy of his daughter’s suicide in 1978. His marvellous first autobiography, The Pill, Pygmy Chimps and Degas’ Horse, covers this era in his life.” — Nature “The pill here is the first oral contraceptive, synthesized by the author at age 28 in 1951; pygmy chimps were the subjects of a mid-career biomedical experiment and Degas's horse represents the delights of art collecting, to which the award-winning scientist turned in later life… Shattering the cliche of scientists as one-dimensional technocrats, the book reveals a singular life with more than its share of pain, self-discovery, danger, wit, joy and irony.” — Publishers Weekly “Carl Djerassi, who is a scientist, artist, philosopher and mensch all in one, has produced the very best of scientific autobiography… Read this book.” — Stephen Jay Gould “I found the first few pages so interesting that for two days I neglected my work in order to read the book from beginning to end.” — Linus Pauling, Nobel Laureate “Delightfully unconventional… hilarious and wide-ranging.” — Arthur C. Clarke
Download or read book Cantor s Dilemma written by Carl Djerassi and published by Doubleday. This book was released on 2012-11-21 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Professor Isidore Cantor reveals his latest breakthrough in cancer research, his promising research fellow, Dr. Jeremiah Stafford, has only to conduct the experiment and win Cantor the Nobel prize. But how far will Stafford go to guarantee the results? Carl Djerassi draws from his career as a world-famous scientist to describe the fierce competition driving scientific superstars in this gripping novel.
Download or read book Devices and Desires written by Andrea Tone and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2002-05 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From thriving black market to big business, the commercialization of birth control in the United States In Devices and Desires, Andrea Tone breaks new ground by showing what it was really like to buy, produce, and use contraceptives during a century of profound social and technological change. A down-and-out sausage-casing worker by day who turned surplus animal intestines into a million-dollar condom enterprise at night; inventors who fashioned cervical caps out of watch springs; and a mother of six who kissed photographs of the inventor of the Pill -- these are just a few of the individuals who make up this riveting story.
Download or read book Breasts A Natural and Unnatural History written by Florence Williams and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2012-05-07 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A 2012 New York Times Notable Book A 2013 Los Angeles Times Book Award Winner in the Science & Technology category An engaging narrative about an incredible, life-giving organ and its imperiled modern fate. Did you know that breast milk contains substances similar to cannabis? Or that it’s sold on the Internet for 262 times the price of oil? Feted and fetishized, the breast is an evolutionary masterpiece. But in the modern world, the breast is changing. Breasts are getting bigger, arriving earlier, and attracting newfangled chemicals. Increasingly, the odds are stacked against us in the struggle with breast cancer, even among men. What makes breasts so mercurial—and so vulnerable? In this informative and highly entertaining account, intrepid science reporter Florence Williams sets out to uncover the latest scientific findings from the fields of anthropology, biology, and medicine. Her investigation follows the life cycle of the breast from puberty to pregnancy to menopause, taking her from a plastic surgeon’s office where she learns about the importance of cup size in Texas to the laboratory where she discovers the presence of environmental toxins in her own breast milk. The result is a fascinating exploration of where breasts came from, where they have ended up, and what we can do to save them.
Download or read book On the Pill written by Elizabeth Siegel Watkins and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2001-09-14 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In 1968, a popular writer ranked the pill's importance with the discovery of fire and the developments of tool-making, hunting, agriculture, urbanism, scientific medicine, and nuclear energy. Twenty-five years later, the leading British weekly, the Economist, listed the pill as one of the seven wonders of the modern world. The image of the oral contraceptive as revolutionary persists in popular culture, yet the nature of the changes it supposedly brought about has not been fully investigated. After more than thirty-five years on the market, the role of the pill is due for a thorough examination."—from the Introduction In this fresh look at the pill's cultural and medical history, Elizabeth Siegel Watkins re-examines the scientific and ideological forces that led to its development, the part women played in debates over its application, and the role of the media, medical profession, and pharmaceutical industry in deciding issues of its safety and meaning. Her study helps us not only to understand the contraceptive revolution as such but also to appreciate the misinterpretations that surround it.
Download or read book Four Jews on Parnassus a Conversation written by Carl Djerassi and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2008-11-25 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book features a CD of rarely performed music, including a specially commissioned rap by Erik Weiner of Walter Benjamin's "Thesis on the Philosophy of History." Theodor W. Adorno was the prototypical German Jewish non-Jew, Walter Benjamin vacillated between German Jew and Jewish German, Gershom Scholem was a committed Zionist, and Arnold Schönberg converted to Protestantism for professional reasons but later returned to Judaism. Carl Djerassi, himself a refugee from Hitler's Austria, dramatizes a dialogue between these four men in which they discuss fraternity, religious identity, and legacy as well as reveal aspects of their lives-notably their relations with their wives-that many have ignored, underemphasized, or misrepresented. The desire for canonization and the process by which it is obtained are the underlying themes of this dialogue, with emphasis on Paul Klee's Angelus Novus (1920), a canonized work that resonated deeply with Benjamin, Adorno, and Scholem (and for which Djerassi and Gabrielle Seethaler present a revisionist and richly illustrated interpretation). Basing his dialogue on extensive archival research and interviews, Djerassi concludes with a daring speculation on the putative contents of Benjamin's famous briefcase, which disappeared upon his suicide.
Download or read book The SciArtist written by Walter Grünzweig and published by LIT Verlag Münster. This book was released on 2012 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title presents criticism, commentaries, and creative responses to Carl Djerassi's literary texts, taking the author's achievements far beyond 'the Pill'
Download or read book The Matter Factory written by Peter J. T. Morris and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2015-04-15 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: White coats, Bunsen burners, beakers, flasks, and pipettes—the furnishings of the chemistry laboratory are familiar to most of us from our school days, but just how did these items come to be the crucial tools of science? Examining the history of the laboratory, Peter J. T. Morris offers a unique way to look at the history of chemistry itself, showing how the development of the laboratory helped shape modern chemistry. Chemists, Morris shows, are one of the leading drivers of innovation in laboratory design and technology. He tells of fascinating lineages of invention and innovation, for instance, how the introduction of coal gas into Robert Wilhelm Bunsen’s laboratory led to the eponymous burner, which in turn led to the development of atomic spectroscopy. Comparing laboratories across eras, from the furnace-centered labs that survived until the late eighteenth century to the cleanrooms of today, he shows how the overlooked aspects of science—the architectural design and innovative tools that have facilitated its practice—have had a profound impact on what science has been able to do and, ultimately, what we have been able to understand.
Download or read book Bodies of Technology written by Ann Rudinow Saetnan and published by Ohio State University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work is based on a concern for women's health and autonomy and on the premise that technology and society mutually shape one another. A basic question is one of cultural appropriation. Do technologies take on different shapes, different practices, and have different impacts as they spread from one place to another? By juxtaposing a number of culturally and historically contextualized studies of similar technologies, the editors demonstrate that although technologies globalize by spreading among cultures, they are also localized by the cultures they encounter.
Download or read book Recent Progress in Hormone Research Volume 50 written by C. Wayne Bardin and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2013-10-22 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent Progress in Hormone Research, Volume 50: Proceedings of the 1993 Laurentian Hormone Conference focuses on the advancements of processes, methodologies, techniques, and approaches involved in hormone research. The selection first offers information on the molecular design of the NMDA receptor channel; synthesis and signaling of growth hormone-releasing hormone; and signaling mechanisms during the response of pituitary gonadotropes to GnRH. The discussions focus on calcium economy of gonadotropes, role of oscillations, structure and expression of the GHRH gene, transgenic animal models for GHRH action, and functional determinants in NMDA receptors. The text then elaborates on signaling mechanisms during the response of pituitary gonadotropes to GnRH; molecular genetic analysis of cAMP and glucocorticoid signaling in development; and activins and the receptor serine kinase superfamily. The publication takes a look at MAP kinase cascade, expression and signal transduction pathways of gonadotropin-releasing hormone receptors, ovarian cell differentiation, and the role of oxytocin and its receptor in parturition. The book also examines the role of prolactin in developmental differentiation of hypophysiotropic tuberoinfundibular dopaminergic neurons and calcitonin gene expression in rat uterus during pregnancy. The selection is a valuable source of data for researchers interested in hormone research. - Neuroendocrinology - Transmembrane signaling - Reproduction - Steroids and the steroid receptor family - Hypertension
Download or read book An Immaculate Misconception written by Carl Djerassi and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2000-06-21 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most challenging issues of the 21st century is the impending separation of sex (in bed) and reproduction (under the microscope) as a result of recent advances in contraception and assisted reproduction. Many of the ethical and societal issues associated with these new reproductive technologies, notably intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), are raised in an unusual format — namely in dialogic form — which is both entertaining and pedagogically informative./a
Download or read book Triumph of the Heart written by Jie Jack Li and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-04-03 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over 25 million people in the U.S. alone have benefited from statins--such drugs as Lipitor, Zocor, Crestor, Pravachol, and other cholesterol-lowering medicines--in preventing stroke, heart attack, and other forms of coronary heart disease. But how did these remarkable, life-saving drugs come into being? In Triumph of the Heart, Dr. Jie Jack Li, a medicinal chemist and expert on drug discovery, tells for the first time the fascinating story of statins. Drawn from discussions with many scientists involved in the discovery and development of these drugs, the book illuminates the human side of science by revealing the role played by persistence, luck, and sudden insight that characterize major discoveries. For scientists in the drug industry, health care professionals, students of medicine, and all those intrigued by the basic human drive to explore and discover, Triumph of the Heart offers a compelling view of one of the most important drug discoveries of our time.
Download or read book Disciplining Reproduction written by Adele E. Clarke and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2022-03-25 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reproductive issues from sex and contraception to abortion and cloning have been controversial for centuries, and scientists who attempted to turn the study of reproduction into a discipline faced an uphill struggle. Adele Clarke's engrossing story of the search for reproductive knowledge across the twentieth century is colorful and fraught with conflict. Modern scientific study of reproduction, human and animal, began in the United States in an overlapping triad of fields: biology, medicine, and agriculture. Clarke traces the complicated paths through which physiological approaches to reproduction led to endocrinological approaches, creating along the way new technoscientific products from contraceptives to hormone therapies to new modes of assisted conception—for both humans and animals. She focuses on the changing relations and often uneasy collaborations among scientists and the key social worlds most interested in their work—major philanthropists and a wide array of feminist and medical birth control and eugenics advocates—and recounts vividly how the reproductive sciences slowly acquired standing. By the 1960s, reproduction was disciplined, and the young and contested scientific enterprise proved remarkably successful at attracting private funding and support. But the controversies continue as women—the targeted consumers—create their own reproductive agendas around the world. Elucidating the deep cultural tensions that have permeated reproductive topics historically and in the present, Disciplining Reproduction gets to the heart of the twentieth century's drive to rationalize reproduction, human and nonhuman, in order to control life itself. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1998.
Download or read book A Cultural History of Chemistry in the Modern Age written by Peter J. T. Morris and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-12-14 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Cultural History of Chemistry in the Modern Age covers the period from 1914 to the present. The impact of chemistry and the chemical industry on science, war, society, and the economy has made this era the “Chemical Age”. Having prospered in the West, chemical science spread across the globe and slowly became more diversified in terms of its ethnic and gendered mix. After flourishing for sixty years, the chemical industry was impacted by the Oil Crisis of the 1970s and became almost invisible in the West. While the industry has clearly delivered many benefits to society-such as new materials and better drugs-it has been excoriated by critics for its impact on the environment. The 6 volume set of the Cultural History of Chemistry presents the first comprehensive history from the Bronze Age to today, covering all forms and aspects of chemistry and its ever-changing social context. The themes covered in each volume are theory and concepts; practice and experiment; laboratories and technology; culture and science; society and environment; trade and industry; learning and institutions; art and representation. Peter J. T. Morris is Honorary Research Associate at the Science Museum, London, and at University College London, UK Volume 6 in the Cultural History of Chemistry set. General Editors: Peter J. T. Morris, University College London, UK, and Alan Rocke, Case Western Reserve University, USA.
Download or read book The Rhubarb Connection and Other Revelations written by Lars Öhrström and published by Royal Society of Chemistry. This book was released on 2018-12-05 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pink warships that vanish at dusk, urinary maladies of an emperor, and a gold test for cocaine - behold the chemistry of metal ions as never before. In this book you will learn about the sarcophagus molecule, the Chen-Kao test, and how murderers can be caught blue-handed with the wonders of glowing luminol. You will also meet the hidden chemistry of metal ions in everyday life, from the clever modern devices that measure blood-sugar levels, to the leather on your shoes and chewing gum stuck to their soles. Expect to encounter a fair share of heroes and villains, real and fictional, scientist and layperson. Such characters include an ex-MI5 employee running a hospital ward in London amid falling German V1 rockets, a notorious racing cyclist, a proud butler and the lady who first proposed nuclear fission (it's not who you think it is). With engaging, humorous and intelligent prose, the reader will discover the fascinating back-stories of chemical discoveries and inventions where metal ions have played a major role. Featuring a foreword by popular science communicator Dr Raychelle Burks of St. Edward's University, Texas.
Download or read book The Psychopharmacologists 3 written by David Healy and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2020-10-14 with total page 613 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Psychopharmacologists 3 completes a trio of interview-based books about the process of therapeutic innovation in clinical psychiatry. David Healy's method is to interview key individuals involved in the discovery and deployment of drugs that have proved useful to psychiatry, and to draw them together within a model of the mechanism and clinical discovery that he uses as an overall framework. These are historical accounts but highly relevant to the clinical psychiatrist of today, emphasising the importance of research, and of the marketing strategies of pharmaceutical companies in formulating disease entities as well as treatments for them.
Download or read book Austria and America 20th Century Cross Cultural Encounters written by Joshua Parker and published by LIT Verlag Münster. This book was released on 2017 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through literature, film, diplomatic relations, and academic exchanges, this volume examines key historical points in Austrian-American relations of the past century, pondering the roots of how and why "austrianness" was adapted to American culture, and how America's cultural lens focused on the two countries' exchanges. From Freud's early reception, to FDR's policy toward Austrian refugees in the Pacific, and from film adaptations to film-writing, literature and Freudianism during the McCarthy era, it reviews encounters between Austria and the United States, between Austrians and Americans, between each's images of the other, and the lives of those caught in between. (Series: American Studies in Austria, Vol. 15) [Subject: Politics, American Studies, Austrian Studies, Sociology]
