The classic pacifist novel by a major Polish writer, who was nominated for the Nobel Prize At the beginning of the twentieth century the villagers of the Carpathian mountains lead a simple life, much as they have always done. Among them is Piotr, a bandy-legged peasant, who wants nothing more from life than an official railway cap, a cottage, and a bride with a dowry. But then the First World War reaches the mountains and Piotr is drafted into the army. All the weight of imperial authority is used to mould him into an unthinking fighting machine, forced to fight a war he does not understand, for interests other than his own. The Salt of the Earth is a classic war novel and a powerfully pacifist tale about the consequences of war for ordinary men.

This delightful collection of essays by Nobel Laureate Max Perutz explores a wide range of scientific and personal topics with great insight and lucidity. The pages of the book are filled with stories of some of the intellectual giants of twentieth century science -- Pauling, Meitner, Medawar, Krebs and Jacob, among others.

"America's most interesting and important essayist." --Eric Kandel, Nobel Prize-winning author of The Age of Insight "[Gerald Weissmann] bridges the space between science and the humanities, and particularly between medicine and the muses, with wit, erudition, and, most important, wisdom." --Adam Gopnik 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 contemporary 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 himself as an incisive cultural critic and satirist. Gerald Weissmann (August 7, 1930 - July 10, 2019) was a physician, scientist, editor, and essayist whose collections include The Fevers of Reason: New and Selected Essays ; Epigenetics in the Age of Twitter: Pop Culture and Modern Science ; Mortal and Immortal DNA: Science and the Lure of Myth ; and Galileo's Gout: Science in an Age of Endarkenment .

"America's most interesting and important essayist." --Eric Kandel, Nobel Prize-winning author of The Age of Insight "[Gerald Weissmann] bridges the space between science and the humanities, and particularly between medicine and the muses, with wit, erudition, and, most important, wisdom." --Adam Gopnik Admired by Nobel prize-winning scientists and literary tastemakers alike, Gerald Weissmann amazes and beguiles as both a masterful commentator on contemporary culture and a transcendent intellectual historian. By turns satirical and insightful, Mortal and Immortal DNA takes us on a nuanced exploration of the western canon, from Greek mythology through Dante to W.H. Auden and offers hilarious insights into popular culture along the way, from Paris Hilton to the true life story of Kathryn Lee Bates, the lesbian poet who penned "America the Beautiful." Gerald Weissmann (August 7, 1930 - July 10, 2019) was a physician, scientist, editor, and essayist whose collections include The Fevers of Reason: New and Selected Essays ; Epigenetics in the Age of Twitter: Pop Culture and Modern Science ; Mortal and Immortal DNA: Science and the Lure of Myth ; and Galileo's Gout: Science in an Age of Endarkenment .