The Threat and the Glory: Reflections on Science and Scientists

Nobel Prize-winning biologist Medawar was not only a brilliant researcher, but an excellent prose stylist who wielded extraordinary explanatory powers. This collection of essays, spanning more than 30 years, ranges over topics from the philosophy of science to the question of a possible decline in the average human intelligence, to the importance of pure research, to ``death with dignity'' hype. Medawar, who survived two strokes, strongly rejects the notion of ``death with dignity.'' He wrote: ``There is no more deep-seated biological instinct than that which expresses itself as a firm grasp upon life; there is more dignity, as there is more humanity, in fighting for life than in a passive abdication from our hardly won and most deeply prized possession.'' He died of a final series of strokes in 1987. Readers who enjoyed his The Limits of Science and Aristotle to Zoos will want to add this volume to their collections. (Aug.)