Title: Epigenetics in the age of Twitter : pop culture and modern science /
Authors: Weissmann, Gerald.
Publisher: Bellevue Literary Press,
Year: 2012
Subjects: Science and civilization; Science Social aspects; Science and the arts.; Science in popular culture.; Epigenetics.; Epigenomics; Culture; Environment; Medicine in the Arts
Abstract: From the publisher. Epigenetics, which attempts to explain how our genes respond to our environment, is the latest twist on the historic nature vs. nurture debate. In addressing this and other controversies in contemporary science, Gerald Weissmann taps what he calls "the social network of Western Civilization," including the many neglected women of science: from the martyred Hypatia of Alexandria, the first woman scientist, to the Nobel laureates Marie Curie, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, and Elizabeth Blackburn, among other luminaries in the field. Always instructive and often hilarious, this is a one-volume introduction to modern biology, viewed through the lens of today's mass media and the longer historical tradition of the Scientific Revolution. Whether engaging in the healthcare debate or imagining the future prose styling of the scientific research paper in the age of Twitter, Weissmann proves to be one of our most incisive cultural critics and satirists.
Contents: Walter Benjamin and Biz Stone: the scientific paper in the age of Twitter -- Epigenetics in the Adirondacks -- A Nobel is out of order: "J.Lo" vs. Hypatia of Alexandria -- Epigenetics and Alma Mahler -- Inflammation is complicated: from Metchnikoff to Meryl Streep -- An Arrowsmith for the NASDAQ era: Extraordinary measures -- Sarah Palin and Marie-Antoinette: post-traumatic tress disorder -- Coca-Cola and H.G. Wells: dietary supplements as subprime drugs -- Voodoo economics and voodoo healing: witchcraft persists in Massachusetts -- Myrna Loy: co-principal investigator -- Dr. Ehrlich and Dr. Atomic: beauty vs. horror in science -- Free radicals can kill you: Lavoisier and the oxygen revolution -- Experimental errors: Paul Bert and the Alabama tenure killings -- Monumental revolutions: scientific, sanitary, and 'omic -- Quorum sensing on the Airbus wing -- SiCKO statistics: Michael Moore and L'École de Paris -- Ask your doctor: Justice Holmes and the marketplace of ideas -- Filter the dogs: microbial mishaps in Massachusetts -- Pattern recognition and Gestalt psychology: the day Nüsslein-Volhard shouted "Toll!" -- Not by the sword, but disease: Doctor Howe and General Shinseki -- Science as oath and testimony: Joshua Lederberg -- X-ray politics: the Nazi war on Röntgen and Einstein -- Wild horses and The doctor's dilemma -- Glass ceilings at the Nobel Prizes -- Medea and the microtubule -- Wiki-science and Molière's beast -- Arts and science: Lewis Thomas and F. Scott Fitzgerald -- Icarus and Fukushima Daiichi: human factors in a meltdown (Sv=1J/kg.w).