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The Fragile Species
A distinguished physician sums up his love for his profession and addresses the major issues of our time--AIDS, drug abuse, aging, and especially his vital concern for the environment.
193 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1992
About the author
Lewis Thomas
69 books204 followersLewis Thomas (November 25, 1913–December 3, 1993) was a physician, poet, etymologist, essayist, administrator, educator, policy advisor, and researcher.
Thomas was born in Flushing, New York and attended Princeton University and Harvard Medical School. He became Dean of Yale Medical School and New York University School of Medicine, and President of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute. His formative years as an independent medical researcher were at Tulane University School of Medicine.
He was invited to write regular essays in the New England Journal of Medicine, and won a National Book Award for the 1974 collection of those essays, The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher. He also won a Christopher Award for this book. Two other collections of essays (from NEJM and other sources) are The Medusa and the Snail and Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony. His autobiography, The Youngest Science: Notes of a Medicine Watcher is a record of a century of medicine and the changes which occurred in it. He also published a book on etymology entitled Et Cetera, Et Cetera, poems, and numerous scientific papers.
Many of his essays discuss relationships among ideas or concepts using etymology as a starting point. Others concern the cultural implications of scientific discoveries and the growing awareness of ecology. In his essay on Mahler's Ninth Symphony, Thomas addresses the anxieties produced by the development of nuclear weapons.[1] Thomas is often quoted, given his notably eclectic interests and superlative prose style.
The Lewis Thomas Prize is awarded annually by The Rockefeller University to a scientist for artistic achievement.
Thomas was born in Flushing, New York and attended Princeton University and Harvard Medical School. He became Dean of Yale Medical School and New York University School of Medicine, and President of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute. His formative years as an independent medical researcher were at Tulane University School of Medicine.
He was invited to write regular essays in the New England Journal of Medicine, and won a National Book Award for the 1974 collection of those essays, The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher. He also won a Christopher Award for this book. Two other collections of essays (from NEJM and other sources) are The Medusa and the Snail and Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony. His autobiography, The Youngest Science: Notes of a Medicine Watcher is a record of a century of medicine and the changes which occurred in it. He also published a book on etymology entitled Et Cetera, Et Cetera, poems, and numerous scientific papers.
Many of his essays discuss relationships among ideas or concepts using etymology as a starting point. Others concern the cultural implications of scientific discoveries and the growing awareness of ecology. In his essay on Mahler's Ninth Symphony, Thomas addresses the anxieties produced by the development of nuclear weapons.[1] Thomas is often quoted, given his notably eclectic interests and superlative prose style.
The Lewis Thomas Prize is awarded annually by The Rockefeller University to a scientist for artistic achievement.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
July 20, 2017
I love his quirky essays, but this book got demoted to 2 stars because of the section on AIDS. I can't forgive the blatant dismissal of gays who were suffering and dying in their thousands while he writes about the concern that the "general population" was likely to be infected at some point, too. The clear sense that this only matters if heterosexuals might suffer is too painful a reminder of those days (and thanks to the orange one, those days are back, at least until he and Pence are removed from office). I would not be reviewing this book at all, except that I read the last three essays -- Cooperation, Communication, and Connections -- with so much interest and enjoyment that I decided to note the good along with the bad. He was certainly not the only one to express the attitude I find so offensive back then, nor was he the worst, by a long shot. But in someone so admirable generally, the offense is more painful to note. I suspect I'll go on reading his other collections, unless this kind of crap pops up again.
June 14, 2016
Hard to go wrong with Lewis Thomas. Lucid and luminescent writing about nature and science.
October 26, 2021
I put this down part-way through. I was hoping for an extension from Late Night Thoughts, but he tripped one of my wires. I do not care for books on the human mind or human nature that use experiments on animals as their evidence. It feels like eating fruit of a poisoned tree, and my hunger for insight does not extend that far. Your results may vary.
June 2, 2009
Wonderful essays. No idea why I pulled it off the shelf. Glad I did.
Very good essay (p. 158) on cultural evolution, linguistics. Another (p. 99) on "Comprehending my Cat Jeoffry." Includes the author's use of Fibonacci numbers (p. 113).
Very good essay (p. 158) on cultural evolution, linguistics. Another (p. 99) on "Comprehending my Cat Jeoffry." Includes the author's use of Fibonacci numbers (p. 113).
October 30, 2011
Not my favorite of Thomas's, but still--I always fall in love with his writing; it's science made poetry. And I feel like he had some really interesting ways of looking at things--his stuff just clicks with me...
August 9, 2012
Lucid prose for a scientist. Now obsessed with our origins as bacteria.
June 24, 2015
Thomas writes so eloquently of medicine and science; but when he pays tribute to nurses and the importance of their role in health care. it just makes my heart sing.
September 11, 2017
Although this was published in 1992 and doesn't include the advances in DNA sequencing that has happened since, Dr. Thomas is a visionary that is forseeing those things to come. He scans a broad time frame from the creation of the universe to the start life on earth as simple organisms to human life to the complex organism that is earth itself. Each chapter is a jewel. You do not need to have any more than high school science to understand it but you will come away with much more. He sees science and humans as wonder and not as life under a microscope.
This is not a quick read but one to be savored and understood.
This is not a quick read but one to be savored and understood.
November 5, 2020
I love reading Lewis Thomas - his essays are written conversationally, include just enough science for my science-loving brain, and enough hyperbole to get me thinking. The topics in this collection are broad and a few of the discussions and tone are dated to the point of being culturally insensitive. Still glad to find one of his books I hadn't read and to take the good with the bad and think it all over.
April 21, 2021
An enjoyable and thought-provoking collection of essays on science, medicine, and nature. The final essay “Connections” is particularly prescient in light of events occurring at the beginning of this decade.
October 6, 2021
Enjoyable collection of essays. Thomas is better than a lot of contemporary science writers. Covered topics like nuclear weapons, evolution, symbiosis, psychology, psuedoscience and anti-science, etc.
Some essays dragged a bit for me
Some essays dragged a bit for me
June 26, 2022
Very well written, but I found it difficult to read because so much has changed since 1993 when it was published. Knowing what has taken place (with regards to AIDS, for instance) interfered with the book's discussion of AIDS, interrupting the flow of the narrative.
June 21, 2018
Extraordinary. Lewis Thomas is a wise man; what an honour it would be to dine with him!
Read
April 23, 2023DNF.
June 16, 2023
Interesting subject matter but one of the most pretentious writers I’ve ever come across
May 7, 2024
Well written, and well argued, with wonderful narration by George Guidall.
August 30, 2016
Well written, but out of date. Not the most scientific conjectures either.
June 7, 2020
Some essays more interesting than others. "Obligations" was worth the whole book.
March 29, 2023
bacteria, language, past, future !
April 26, 2017
This a wide range of essays by a medical doctor known for his forays onto the best seller list with bioscience essay collections. In this one he strays further out of his field with interesting thoughts, some of which I thought off base but still worth reading.
The essays were originally drafted over about a decade of years, and there is occasional repetition, but that is a minor detail.
The essays were originally drafted over about a decade of years, and there is occasional repetition, but that is a minor detail.
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September 11, 2018Thomas’s most recent collection of essays. He seems to have recovered some of the optimism he appeared to have lost in Late Night Thoughts.... Especially enjoyed his musings on cooperation as the essential basis of genetic evolution and on children as the inventors of language.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews