Carl Djerassi was responsible for the chemical synthesis of the first steroid oral contraceptive: he is widely referred to as the 'father of the Pill'. In This Man's Pill, Djerassi reflects on the impact the invention of the oral contraceptive pill has had on the world, and on Djerassi himself.
When Professor Isidore Cantor reveals his latest breakthrough in cancer research, his promising research fellow, Dr. Jeremiah Stafford, has only to conduct the experiment and win Cantor the Nobel prize. But how far will Stafford go to guarantee the results? Carl Djerassi draws from his career as a world-famous scientist to describe the fierce competition driving scientific superstars in this gripping novel.
A compelling novel based on the high-stakes biotech industry and the science behind Viagra from the internationally known “Father of the Pill.” The fourth installment of Carl Djerassi’s pioneering “science-in-fiction” tetralogy tells the story of a husband and wife team who devise new solutions to problems associated with sex and reproduction. Renu Krishnan is an Indian-born, American-educated scientist who discovers how NO (nitric oxide) can help men with erectile dysfunction—the scientific rationale behind Viagra. At the same time, her husband, Israeli scientist Jephtah Cohn, develops a new approach to ovulation prediction, which is also based on factual research. When Wall street gets wind of their discoveries, the couple catapults in the fast paced world of lawyers and IPOs, where scientists are now a hot commodity. Deftly exploring the demanding worlds of academia and high finance, Djerassi brings back many characters from his three earlier novels for a satisfying conclusion.
Carl Djerassi crafts a shrewd collection of comedies of manners, exposing the foibles of elite tribes—business executives, chefs, scientists, professors, musicians, and other clever characters. They spar in battles of one-upmanship using class, education, gender, or prestige as their weapons, sometimes leaving damaged bystanders in their wake but sometimes finding their superiority deflated by unexpected turns of events.
“A beautifully ingenious, funny, brilliantly intelligent, and moving tale of very human scientists. A splendid novel.”—Iris Murdoch At the age of 68, distinguished Princeton science professor Max Weiss is bribed into taking an early retirement. Frustratingly aware that his best years are not yet behind him, Weiss devises an inventive revenge in the form of “Dr. Diana Skordylis”—a pseudonym for a partnership among Weiss and three aging colleagues, each with an ax to grind against the scientific community. What the Skordylis group doesn’t anticipate, however, is the unbridled success of their venture: the discovery of PCR, one of the most important breakthroughs in contemporary biomedical science. Professional jealousy soon threatens Diana Skordylis’s life. As the force of ego tests the bonds of collaboration, the reader is treated to a fascinating glimpse inside the worlds of academia and scientific enterprise. “A subtle meditation on scientific personality . . . An odd blend of literature, philosophy, and science writing, as creative as any organic potpourri that Djerassi might have mixed up in his laboratory.”—The Washington Post “This is a novel of ideas, quite literally, yet it flashes with wit and is often quite charming, thanks to well-drawn characters at ease with mind-boggling concepts who talk about them in a down-to-earth way.”—San Francisco Chronicle
In Menachem's Seed, Carl Djerassi, world-renowned scientist and inventor of the birth-control pill, brings us a new novel that explores the human--and passionate--side of science. Melanie Laidlaw and Menachem Dvir meet at a series of international conferences where jet-setting scientists come together to discuss the global implications of their discoveries. Melanie runs a foundation that awards grants for innovations in reproductive technology; Menachem is an infertile nuclear engineer and a married man. Naturally, they fall in love. What follows is a story of sexual steam, stolen seed, and religious conversion--a very modern romance that hinges on a cutting-edge scientific breakthrough. As Melanie and Menachem discover, what science makes possible, only two hearts can make right.
This book examines the questions “What can science do for the theatre?” and “What can the theatre do for science?” which raise challenges for both theatre professionals and scientists. Unusually, this book deals with plays first and foremost as reading material — as texts to be read alone or in dramatic readings — rather than emphasizing performances on the stage. Concrete examples are given to demonstrate the potential pedagogic value of using the dialogic style and plot structure of plays in science, with a special focus on chemistry.Very few books have dealt with the subject of science-in-theatre and virtually none with chemistry-in-theatre. Texts of the author's two recent plays, Insufficiency and Phallacy, are included in their entirety to offer concrete examples of plays dealing with actual (rather than invented) chemistry. Insufficiency represents an example from the field of beer and champagne bubbles, where the topics of academic tenure and fashion in chemistry are analyzed, whereas in Phallacy, a case history of the similarities and differences between science and art is presented for debate./a
Am 8. Mai 1983 wird Carl Djerassi von der Liebe seines Lebens, Diane Middlebrook, verlassen. Der Naturwissenschaftler und "Vater der Pille" macht sich an ein für ihn neuartiges Experiment: Gekränkt und unglücklich nimmt er Rache in Form einer "poetischen Vulkaneruption". Er beginnt, Gedichte zu schreiben, die in jeder Hinsicht offen sind - zum einen, weil sie einen höchst persönlichen und intimen Einblick in die Gefühlswelt Djerassis erlauben, zum anderen, weil sie formal frei gestaltet sind. Dieser Gedichtband ist das lyrische Tagebuch eines Mannes, der voll Zorn und Selbstmitleid, aber auch mit schonungsloser Ehrlichkeit das Ende seiner Beziehung betrauert, bis Diane 1984 zu ihm zurückkehrt und ihn wenig später heiratet. Erst mehrere Jahre nach ihrem Tod 2007 hat sich Djerassi abermals mit diesen Gedichten beschäftigt und sie überarbeitet. Das Zusammenspiel seiner beiden Lebenssprachen eröffnet neue Blickwinkel auf den Wissenschaftler, den Kunstkenner und vor allem auf den Menschen Carl Djerassi. On May 8th 1983, Carl Djerassi was left by the love of his life, the biographer Diane Middlebrook. The scientist, sometimes called the "Father of the Pill", embarks on a totally new experiment: Wounded and despondent, he takes revenge in the form of a "poetic volcanic eruption." He starts writing brutally open poems in free verse which allow a deeply personal and intimate insight into Djerassi's emotional world. This German-English poetry volume is the lyrical diary of a man, full of anger and self-pity, who grieves with unsparing honesty about the end of a relationship, until unexpectedly Diane Middlebrook returns to him in 1984 and becomes his wife. Only some years after her death in 2007 did Djerassi return again to these poems to revise and partly rewrite them. The bilingual interplay between his mother tongue and his adopted literary language provides a new perspective on the scientist, the art connoisseur and especially the persona of Carl Djerassi.
In an age of creative and intellectual specialisation Carl Djerassi stands out for his virtuosity in both science and the arts. His transition, at a time of life when many men are thinking about retirement, from being a star organic chemist to being a writer of fiction, poetry, novels and plays which have been published and translated and performed all round the world, is surely unique. This final installment of autobiography is deeply expressive of the man: feisty, witty, candid, totally committed to the life of the mind yet susceptible to powerful emotions triggered by love and death, and humorously, but unapologetically, aware of his own driven nature."David LodgeNovelist, critic and Emeritus Professor of English Literature, University of Birmingham"Carl Djerassi is a great scientist who has rare skill as a creative writer as well as a deep interest in the arts, in education and in global issues. This wide-ranging book, written reflectively and with great eloquence, would fascinate scientists and non-scientists alike and deserves a very broad readership."Lord Martin ReesAstronomer Royal and former President of the Royal Society"Carl Djerassi, novelist, playwright, poet and memoirist, is a writer of exceptional versatility who brings his scientific, historical and literary knowledge to a dazzling range of themes. He is not afraid of big ideas or of personal issues and animates them with wit and invention."Dame Margaret DrabbleNovelist, biographer and criticThese are the reflections of a nonagenarian polymath describing the shift from a fifty-year-long career as a world-famous chemist to a subsequent twenty-five-year immersion in "science-in-fiction" and "science-in-theater, " which is virtually unique among contemporary scientists. Sharply self-critical, yet full of humor, this autobiographical account covers themes such as the future of sex in an age of technological reproduction, the history of the Pill seen through the eyes of one of its inventors, innovative -- even unique -- pedagogic experiments, the insoluble homelessness of a refugee, suicide, and art collecting. This book is also heavily illustrated with 94 individual pictures.
”What purpose is served by showing that England's greatest natural philosopher is flawed … like other mortals?” asks one of the characters in Newton's Darkness. “We need unsullied heroes!” But what if the hero is sullied? At stake is an issue that is as germane today as it was 300 years ago: a scientist's ethics must not be divorced from scientific accomplishments. There is probably no other scientist of whom so many biographies and other historical analyses have been published than Isaac Newton — all of them in the standard format of documentary prose because of their didactic purpose to transmit historical information. Newton's Darkness, however, illuminates the darker aspects of Newton's persona through two historically grounded plays dealing with two of the bitterest struggles in the history of science.The name of Isaac Newton appears in virtually every survey of the public's choice for the most important persons of the second millennium. Yet the term “darkness” can be applied to much of Newton's personality. Adjectives that have been used to describe facets of his personality include “remote”, “lonely”, “secretive”, “introverted”, “melancholic”, “humorless”, “puritanical”, “cruel”, “vindictive” and, perhaps worst of all, “unforgiving”. The trait most relevant to the present book is Newton's obsessively competitive nature, which was often out of proportion to the warranted facts, as demonstrated in three of Newton's best-known bitter conflicts: with the physicist Robert Hooke, the astronomer royal John Flamsteed, and a German contemporary of almost equal intellectual prowess, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz — the last fight eventually turning into an England vs Continental Europe competition. It is two of these three relentless drawn-out battles that are illuminated in Newton's Darkness in the form of historically grounded drama.After a summary of the historical evidence, the book starts with the Newton-Hooke struggle (Chapter 2), which was conducted mano a mano, and is then followed by little-known aspects of the Newton-Leibniz confrontation (Chapter 3), which was fought largely through surrogates — notably the infamous, anonymous committee of 11 Fellows of the Royal Society./a
One of the most challenging issues of the 21st century is the impending separation of sex (in bed) and reproduction (under the microscope) as a result of recent advances in contraception and assisted reproduction. Many of the ethical and societal issues associated with these new reproductive technologies, notably intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), are raised in an unusual format -- namely in dialogic form -- which is both entertaining and pedagogically informative.
What motivates a scientist? One key factor is the pressure from the competition to be the first to discover something new. The moral consequences of this are the subject of the play "Oxygen", dealing with the discovery of this all-important element. The focus of the play is on chemical and political revolutions, as well as the Nobel Prize, which will be awarded for the 100th time in 2001. The action takes place in 1777 and 2001; and the play is written for 3 actors and 3 actresses who play a total of 11 characters. The world premiere will take place in early 2001 in San Diego, and the German premiere in September. The world-famous authors Carl Djerassi and Roald Hoffmann are a guarantee of excellence and suspense, both in their role as scientists -- Carl Djerassi is known as the "Father of the Pill" while Roald Hoffmann received the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1982 - as well as in their role as authors -- Djerassi has written several successful novels, while Hoffmann is renowned for his poetry.
Carl Djerassi, world famous for the first synthesis of the active progestational ingredient of the Pill, speaks out on a wide variety of topics in this captivating book. Djerassi's personal growth from laboratory scientist to spokesman on scientific issues as well as the myriad ways that developments in the laboratory can affect people all over the world are presented in this engaging collection of essays. Djerassi's starting point is the Pill; he describes the history of its development and its future in view of the public's unattainable desire for a risk-free Pill, special testing requirements, and the unfavorable climate for contraception research. From contraceptives, Djerassi broadens his scope to include the entire area of birth control and gives his opinions on factors influencing abortion, the relationship of abortion to the availability of contraceptives, the problem of teenage pregnancy in the United States, the need for chemical abortion inducers, and the possibilities for a male contraceptive agent. He also delves into the reasons why Orwellian approaches to birth control, such as adding contraceptives to the water supply, will not work. From this point, Djerassi branches out even further to discuss the danger of extrapolating animal toxicity studies to humans. He examines the multifaceted role of the pharmaceutical industry in bringing a new drug to market and focuses on the deleterious effects of over-regulation, inappropriate testing requirements, and litigation. He proposes changes that the FDA should make in approval procedures and stresses the need for an appeal procedure. He emphasizes the necessity of doing collaborative research with Third World countries and thedesirability of establishing centers for basic research. But Djerassi's interests are still wider. He informs us on topics as varied as insect control, pesticide development, why there are not more women in academia, and how improved mentoring could be a remedy for preventing ethical misconduct among scientists. He describes his use of fiction to explain the culture of scientists by way of a literary medium that he calls "science-in-fiction". Finally, he discusses the pleasures of collecting art, his collection of the works of Paul Klee, and his sponsorship of artists through the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. In this intriguing book, this very learned and cultured man shows us the breadth of his interests and knowledge. Anyone who is interested in the very important issues of our time will profit from and enjoy this book.
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