The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher

The medusa, a tiny jellyfish that lives on the ventral surface of a sea slug, becomes a metaphor for eternal issues of life and death as Thomas further extends the exploration of man and his world which he began inThe Lives of a Cell. Among the treasures in this magnificent book are essays on the human genius for making mistakes, on disease and natural death, on cloning, on warts, and on Montaigne, as well as an assessment of medical science and health care. In these essays and others, Thomas once again conveys his observations of the scientific world in his eloquent prose marked by wonder and wit.