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The Search for Solutions
Scientists are building explanatory structures, telling stories which are scrupulously tested to see if they are stories about real life. Because of new information, we change the ways in which we view the world. We are not so much the center of things any more, because of science. We feel lost, or at least not yet found. We are not as informed about our role in the universe as we thought we were a few centuries ago. Is it an issue, or a puzzle, or a conundrum, or an obstacle, or a recipe?
- GenresScience
266 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1987
About the author
Horace Freeland Judson
15 books18 followersHorace Freeland Judson is a historian of molecular biology and the author of several books, including The Eighth Day of Creation, a history of molecular biology, and The Great Betrayal: Fraud In Science, an examination of the deliberate manipulation of scientific data.
The Eighth Day of Creation is a monumental work. Arising out of Judson's acquaintance with Max Perutz in 1968 came the idea of a book about the discovery of the structures of cellular macromolecules. Following a discussion with Jacques Monod in 1969, Judson expanded his planned book to a general history of molecular biology. The result is based on interviews of over 100 scientists, cross-checked and re-interviewed over a period of seven years. The book was partially serialized in three issues of The New Yorker in November and December, 1978. Following the publication of the book, Judson deposited the tapes and transcripts of the interviews at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Judson graduated from the University of Chicago in 1948, and worked for seven years for Time Magazine as a European correspondent in London and Paris. He subsequently wrote for The New Yorker, Harper's, and Nature among others. Judson spent four years as a research scholar at Stanford University and then nine years on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University. He was the director of the now defunct Center for History of Recent Science and Research Professor of History at George Washington University. In 1987 Judson won a MacArthur Fellowship.
He appears in Don't Look Back, D. A. Pennebaker's documentary film about Bob Dylan, in which he was subjected to what he believes to be a contrived tirade of abuse from Dylan. During Judson's interview, Dylan launched into a verbal attack on Time magazine, and Judson himself. The film's producer Pennebaker does not believe the tirade was planned, but notes that Dylan backed off, not wanting to come across as being too cruel. However, Judson believes the confrontation was contrived to make the sequence more entertaining. "That evening," says Judson, "I went to the concert. My opinion then and now was that the music was unpleasant, the lyrics inflated, and Dylan, a self-indulgent whining show off."
The Eighth Day of Creation is a monumental work. Arising out of Judson's acquaintance with Max Perutz in 1968 came the idea of a book about the discovery of the structures of cellular macromolecules. Following a discussion with Jacques Monod in 1969, Judson expanded his planned book to a general history of molecular biology. The result is based on interviews of over 100 scientists, cross-checked and re-interviewed over a period of seven years. The book was partially serialized in three issues of The New Yorker in November and December, 1978. Following the publication of the book, Judson deposited the tapes and transcripts of the interviews at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Judson graduated from the University of Chicago in 1948, and worked for seven years for Time Magazine as a European correspondent in London and Paris. He subsequently wrote for The New Yorker, Harper's, and Nature among others. Judson spent four years as a research scholar at Stanford University and then nine years on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University. He was the director of the now defunct Center for History of Recent Science and Research Professor of History at George Washington University. In 1987 Judson won a MacArthur Fellowship.
He appears in Don't Look Back, D. A. Pennebaker's documentary film about Bob Dylan, in which he was subjected to what he believes to be a contrived tirade of abuse from Dylan. During Judson's interview, Dylan launched into a verbal attack on Time magazine, and Judson himself. The film's producer Pennebaker does not believe the tirade was planned, but notes that Dylan backed off, not wanting to come across as being too cruel. However, Judson believes the confrontation was contrived to make the sequence more entertaining. "That evening," says Judson, "I went to the concert. My opinion then and now was that the music was unpleasant, the lyrics inflated, and Dylan, a self-indulgent whining show off."
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 6, 2012
Some books will forever influence how you look at things. This is one of them. I read it thirty years ago, but I still flip through its pages from time to time.
Displaying 1 of 1 review