Science: Scientists' Biographies

David Baltimore is one of the most brilliant, powerful, and controversial scientists of our time. In his early sixties, Baltimore has made major discoveries in molecular biology, established the prestigious Whitehead Institute at MIT, been president of Rockefeller University, won the Nobel Prize, and been vilified by detractors in one of the most scandalous and protracted investigations of scientific fraud ever. He is now president of Caltech and a leader in the search for an AIDS vaccine. This book also treats the reader to a lucid account of the amazing revolution that has occurred in biology during the past forty years.

Beginning in the 1670s, using microscopes he made himself, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek discovered tiny, single-celled living things that he called little animals. His curiosity led him to examine lake water, moldy bread, the plaque build-up on his own teeth, blood, and more. For his discoveries of microscopic life, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek is remembered today as one of the great minds of science.

James D. Watson, who shares the Nobel Prize for revealing the structure of DNA, presents a personal account of the making of a scientist. Watson shares the secrets he has found to getting along and getting ahead in a competitive world. Each phase of his life yields age-specific practical advice.

Barbara McClintock studied corn's hereditary characteristics, for example the different colors of its kernels. She studied how these characteristics are passed down through generations and linked this to changes in the plants' chromosomes. During the 1940s and 1950s McClintock proved that genetic elements can sometimes change position on a chromosome and that this causes nearby genes to become active or inactive.

Barbara McClintock became fascinated with science in high school, was drawn to genetics in college, and pursued a career in that field despite the many obstacles in her path. Her meticulous work on the genetics of maize led to a Nobel Prize in 1983. The book focuses on her devotion to her research and her ability to do important work even in a period when women were unwelcome in her field. Though readers with no knowledge of genetics may have trouble following the explanations of her research, the import of McClintock’s work is made apparent.

Before Darwin, before Audubon, there was Merian. An artist turned naturalist, known for her botanical illustrations, she was born just sixteen years after Galileo proclaimed that the Earth orbited the sun. At the age of fifty she sailed from Europe to America on a solo scientific expedition to study insect metamorphosis, an unheard-of journey for any naturalist at that time, much less a woman. When she returned she produced a book that secured her reputation, only to have it savaged by scientists who disdained the work of "amateurs." This book takes us from golden-age Amsterdam to the Surinam tropics to modern laboratories where Merian's insights fuel a new branch of biology.

The story of David Douglas, the premier botanical explorer in the Pacific Northwest and other areas of western North America. Douglas' discoveries include hundreds of western plants--most notably the Douglas Fir. The Collector tracks Douglas, from his humble birth in Scotland in 1799 to his botanical training under the famed William Jackson Hooker to his adventures in North America discovering "exotic" new plants for the English and European market.

Biographies of contemporary physicists. To access click on the title and then click the words "Ebscohost eBook Community College Collection" to go directly to the book.

The brilliant maverick Robert Hooke was an engineer, surveyor, architect, and inventor who worked tirelessly with Christopher Wren to rebuild London after the Great Fire of 1666. He was the first Curator of Experiments at the Royal Society, and his engravings of natural phenomena seen under the new microscope appeared in his masterpiece, the acclaimed Micrographia, one of the most influential volumes of the day. But Hooke's irascible temper and his passionate idealism proved fatal for his relationships with important political figures. As a result, historical greatness eluded Robert Hooke.

In this study, historian Janet Browne delves into the long genesis of Darwin's theories, from his readings as a university student and his five-year voyage on the Beagle, to his debates with contemporaries and experiments in his garden. She explores the shock to Darwin when he read of a competing scientist's similar discoveries, and the wide and immediate impact of Darwin's theories on the world, showing why The Origin of Species can fairly claim to be the greatest science book ever published.

Eugenie Clark, popularly known as The Shark Lady, was an American ichthyologist known for both her research on shark behavior and her study of fish in the order Tetraodontiformes. Clark was a pioneer in the field of scuba diving for research purposes. In addition to being regarded as an authority in marine biology, Clark was popularly recognized and used her fame to promote marine conservation.

Before DNA and the molecular revolution, Barbara McClintock's tireless analysis of corn led her to uncover some of the deepest, most intricate secrets of genetic organization. Nearly forty years later, her insights would bring her a MacArthur Foundation grant, the Nobel Prize, and long overdue recognition.

The true adventures of David Fairchild, a late-nineteenth-century food explorer who traveled the globe and introduced diverse crops like avocados, mangoes, seedless grapes--and thousands more--to the American plate. As a young botanist with an insatiable hunger to explore and experience the world, he set out in search of foods that would enrich the American farmer and enchant the American eater. His culinary ambition came during a formative era, and through him, America's food system was transformed into the most diverse ever.

Robert Hooke was an inventive, versatile, and prolific scientist and architect in an age of brilliant minds. But for three hundred years his reputation has been overshadowed by those of his two great contemporaries, his friend Sir Christopher Wren and his rival Sir Isaac Newton. He was an inventor, astronomer, and anatomist, as well as a candid diarist, braggart, hoarder of money and secrets, and an implacable rival. In Stephen Inwood’s biography of this forgotten genius, Hooke and his world are vividly recreated with all their contradictions, successes, and failures.

A portrait of scientist Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of the double helix structure of DNA, traces his life from a middle-class English upbringing and lackluster education to his ultimate history-making journey into the field of biology.

A self-taught scientist determined to bring science into the practical arena, Felix d'Herelle made history in two different fields of biology. He was first to demonstrate the use and application of bacteria for biological control of insect pests, he also became a seminal figure in the history of molecular biology. This book is the first full biography of d'Herelle, a complex figure who emulated Louis Pasteur and influenced the course of twentieth-century biology, yet remained a controversial outsider to the scientific community.

Examines the life and work of the nineteenth-century Austrian monk who discovered the laws of genetics.

A biography of the nineteenth-century Austrian monk who discovered the laws of genetics.

This book explores the controversial life and scientific contributions of Alfred Russel Wallace - Victorian traveler, scientist, spiritualist, and co-discover with Charles Darwin of natural selection. After examining his early years, the biography turns to Wallace's twelve years of often harrowing travels in the tropics. Tracing step-by-step his discovery of natural selection the book then follows the remaining fifty years of Wallace's eccentric and entertaining life.

Recounts the story of Joseph Priestley-- scientist and theologian, protege of Benjamin Franklin-- an 18th-century radical thinker who played pivotal roles in the invention of ecosystem science, the founding of the Unitarian Church, and the intellectual development of the U.S.

A biography of James Watson, one of the scientists who helped discover the structure of DNA, the carrier of heredity in all organisms.

Learn about the life of the man who developed a successful vaccine against polio.

An illuminating memoir of a woman in science; a moving portrait of a longtime friendship; and a stunningly fresh look at plants that will forever change how you see the natural world. Jahren's probing look at plants, her astonishing tenacity of spirit, and her acute insights on nature enliven every page of this extraordinary book.

The story of the man who achieved one of the greatest feats of our era--the mapping of the human genome. The tale involves as much politics (personal and political) as science. Venter also describes the other startling projects he has conducted since his team mapped the human genome.

A pioneering scientist describes her challenge as a working wife, single parent, and field biologist studying forest treetops around the world.

This book gives a fascinating and rounded portrait of Carl Linnaeus, the man who gave living organisms two Latin names, charting his rise from a poor student at Lund University to Professor of Medicine at Uppsala and a founder of the Royal Academy of Sciences. Linnaeus's family life and his relations with pupils are explored alongside his scientific achievements. William Stearn's appendix on Linnean classification provides a concise survey of the basics necessary for understanding Linnaeus's work.

Bonner's scientific interests are nearly as varied as the concerns of biology, ranging from animal culture to evolution, from life cycles to the development of slime molds. And the cast of characters he introduces is equally diverse, among them Julian Huxley, J.B.S. Haldane, Leon Trotsky, and Evelyn Waugh.

The Madame Curie Complex gives fresh insight into the barriers and successes for women in science, and sheds light on the way our cultural ideas of gender have shaped the profession.

As part of the team who isolated a gene from a chromosome of a living organism, Jon Beckwith warned in 1969 against the dangers of genetic engineering. His treatise on science's social responsibility covers his history to the present day, including his conviction that research--while necessary and ambivalent in and of itself--can have unforeseen social outcomes.

Archie Carr helped find a new and critical role for natural history and systematics in a post-1950s world dominated by the glamorous science of molecular biology. Carr championed endangered sea turtles, and his work reflects major shifts in the study of ecology and evolution. A gifted nature writer, Carr's conservation ethic grew from his field work as well as his friendships with the fishermen who supplied him with many of the stories he retold so engagingly. With Archie Carr as the focus, The Man Who Saved Sea Turtles explores the evolution of the naturalist tradition, biology, and conservation during the twentieth century.

In this book, Georgina Ferry tells the extraordinary story of the father of molecular biology, Max Perutz, whose famous research team uncovered the structure of DNA.

In 1962, Maurice Wilkins, Francis Crick, and James Watson received the Nobel Prize, but it was Rosalind Franklin's data and photographs of DNA that led to their discovery. Brenda Maddox tells a powerful story of a remarkably single-minded, forthright, and tempestuous young woman who, at the age of fifteen, decided she was going to be a scientist, but who was airbrushed out of the greatest scientific discovery of the twentieth century.

Rosalind Franklin's research was central to the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA. She never received the credit she was due during her lifetime. In this classic work Anne Sayre, a journalist and close friend of Franklin, puts the record straight.

English scientist Rosalind Franklin is remembered for making the X-ray diffraction image that led to Watson and Crick's discovery of the structure of DNA. She died of cancer at 37, never knowing that they had seen that image or that it had been crucial to their breakthrough. This is a story of a woman becoming a scientist in an age when that was still unusual and of the complex dynamics of personalities in a field sometimes thought of as impersonal.

Alfred Goldsborough Mayor, a Harvard-trained marine biologist and close associate of Alexander Agassiz, founded and directed the first tropical marine biological laboratory in the Western Hemisphere. The Tortugas Laboratory attracted some of America's most brilliant scientists. The authors enumerate the contributions made by Mayor and other investigators at the laboratory. Mayor achieved international prominence in the field of biology for his work on jellyfishes and coral reefs.

Although devoted naturalist Gerd Heinrich specialized in wasps, Bernd Heinrich distanced himself from his father, becoming a hybrid: a modern, experimental biologist with a naturalist's sensibilities. In this extraordinary memoir, the author shares the ways his relationship with his father, combined with his unique childhood, molded him into the scientist, and man, he is today. From Gerd's days as a soldier in Europe and the family's daring escape from the Red Army in 1945 to the rustic Maine farm they came to call home, Heinrich makes science accessible and awe-inspiring.

Barbara McClintock was a geneticist who integrated classical genetics with microscopic observations of the behavior of chromosomes - regarded as a genius and as an unorthodox, nearly incomprehensible thinker. In 1946, she discovered mobile genetic elements, which she called "controlling elements." Thirty-seven years later, she won a Nobel Prize for this work. Using McClintock's research notes, newly available correspondence, and dozens of interviews with McClintock and others, Comfort shows that McClintock's work was neither ignored in the 1950s nor wholly accepted two decades later. Nor was McClintock marginalized by scientists; throughout the decades of her alleged rejection, she remained a distinguished figure in her field. Comfort replaces the "McClintock myth" with a new story, rich with implications for our understanding of women in science and scientific creativity.

This book introduces Thomas Edison and some of his most important inventions and explains how he changed the way we live.

A to Z of Biologists uses the device of biography to put a human face on science. This comprehensive survey features more than 180 entries and 50 black-and-white photographs. Each profile focuses on a particular biologist's research and contributions to the field and his or her effect on scientists whose work followed. Their lives and personalities are discussed as well through incidents, quotations, and photographs.

Candid, provocative, and disarming, this is the widely-praised memoir of the co-discoverer of the double helix of DNA.