Memoir of a Thinking Radish by P B Medawar

Memoir of a Thinking Radish by P B Medawar

The self-deprecating image of man - an amalgam of Pascal's "thinking reed" and Falstaff's "forked radish" - that provides a title for Peter Medawar's autobiography stems from his belief that the professional lives of scientists usually make dull reading. Sir Peter Medawar is a scientist of world renown, a member of the Royal Society and a Fellow of the British Academy. He won a Nobel Prize in 1960 for work that formed the basis of modern immunology and organ transplantation. He also wrote a series of essays: "Pluto's Republic", and two books: "Advice to a young scientist" and "The limits of science". He was awarded the order of merit in 1981. He describes this autobiography, loosely modelled on Coleridge's "Biographia Literaria", as "a book of opinions which my life may be regarded as a pretext for holding". He covers his early years in Rio de Janeiro, Oxford in the 1930s, illness and recovery and his work in a wide variety of institutions around the world.

bout the Author: Sir Peter Medawar, OM, 1915-87, was born in Rio de Janeiro and educated at Magdelen College, Oxford. He began research in H. W. Florey's department at Oxford in the early days of the development of penicillin. After professorships at Birmingham and University College London, he
became Director of the National Institute for Medical Research. His scientific reputation is based mainly on his research in immunology, which helped make transplant surgery possible. In 1960 he won the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work on tissue transplantation. Elected to the Royal Society at
the age of 34, he was also a Fellow of the British Academy - a rare honour for a scientist. Sir Peter wrote a number of books for a general audience, including Pluto's Republic (1982), The Limits of Science (1985), and Aristotle to Zoos (1983, with Jean Medawar). A further collection of his essays,
The Threat and the Glory (1990), was published after his death.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780192820839
ISBN 10	0192820834
Title	Memoir of a Thinking Radish
Author	P B Medawar
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Year published	1988-01-01
Number of pages	224
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable