Epigenetics in the age of Twitter
Subtitle: pop culture and modern science
By: Gerald Weissmann
Publisher: Bellevue Literary Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 256
ISBN-13: 9781934137390
Subjects: Biology; Epigenetics; Science in popular culture; Women scientists; Social aspects; Science; Social aspects..
Description: 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.