Jellyfish and Snails: A Journal of a Biological Observer (Continued)

Author: Lewis Thomas
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-11-01
Features: The tiny jellyfish Medusa lives on the surface of a sea slug that inhabits the Bay of Naples, and the two organisms depend on each other. At different stages of their lives, they exchange roles as predator and prey. How entangled this self is! "Thinking about these living creatures gives me a strange feeling. They remind me of nothing I have ever seen before. Really nothing. I have never heard of such a cycle of life. These things are bizarre. Yes, they are peculiar. And at the same time, like a dimly remembered dream, they remind me of the entire Earth." Those who have read and admired Lewis Thomas's The Lives of a Cell cannot help but worry about the fate of the jellyfish and the snail. Thomas has this charm—the ability to explain eternal themes like life and death through such seemingly impossible yet insightful observations. This book contains some brilliant new treasures: On the genius of human error; On disease and natural death, including the peaceful death of a mouse; On asexual reproduction; On warts; On Montaigne, as Edward O. Wilson puts it, if Montaigne had possessed the profound knowledge of 20th-century biology, he would have been Lewis Thomas today.