Customer Reviews (1)

Somewhat informative, but juvenile
This book reminded me of the biographies on Roberto Clemente and Teddy Roosevelt that I used to pick up in elementary school, but with slightly more technical subject matter.There are some interesting stories aboutDelbruck's life and discoveries, but these are written in a juvenile mannerand the book does not live up to its title- very little discussion of theimpact of molecular biology on other scientific fields or society ingeneral is provided.The important experiments of Delbruck, Luria, andothers are also described poorly.There are much better books on theorigins of molecular biology.For some fun, hagiographic info on Delbruckthis might work - for anything more, it won't. ... Read more

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The history of molecular biology in Germany is closely linked to the Institute of Genetics in Cologne, the first molecular biological Institute at a German university. Founded in 1959 by the émigré physicist and future Nobel laureate Max Delbrück, the Institute was the first in Germany to implement less hierarchical American organizational structures and research habits. The Institute had already gained an excellent international scientific reputation by the beginning of the 1960s.This volume comprises the recollections of scientists pertaining to the Institute s research, organization and other specificities. Articles by historians of science analyze the historical background and international framework of the Institute's foundations and genetic research. In addition, the scientists discuss contemporary questions of science policy with regard to teaching and the impact of the internal structures of scientific institutions on the quality of research. ... Read more

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How was it possible for that thing we call `mind' to come into being? If natural selection applies, how did the evolutionary process give rise to minds capable of profound insights into mathematics, the structure of matter and the nature of life itself? How could the capacity for knowing and understanding have grown out of inert matter? In this book Max Delbrck calls upon his unusual career in physics and later in biology to analyse these fundamental questions. He traces organic evolution from bacteria to man, and explains how biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology have done so much to advance our understanding of that process. Professor Delbruck was honoured with the Nobel Prize in 1969 for his pioneering studies in viral genetics. After his death in 1981, this manuscript was completed by his collaborators. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

All over the map
Delbruck indicates his objective is to examine three questions:(1) How the mind arose from an lifeless universe, (2) If by evolution for survival, why can it do so much more than is needed for survival?, and (3) How can "understanding" arise from dead matter.(My paraphrasing).The first half of the book is appropriate background material from biology, discussing the evolution of the mind, starting with the cosmos, then life, genomes, and the brain.These are areas that Delbruck knows well and the reading is enjoyable. My expectation was that the second half would bring this together and start to examine his stated questions.The problem is, it doesn't.The second half of the book is similar to the first, providing background material from science and mathematics, including number theory, logical paradoxes, relativity, quantum mechanics, and language.Then it ends. Yes, then it ends. What about a discussion of "Mind from Matter"?Almost nothing.What about a discussion of his three stated questions?Also little or nothing.The best I can see, the entire second half of the book is devoted to showing that humans are smart in a wide variety of fields, and this reinforces the mystery of the mind's origin.THE GOOD: Some readers may enjoy the concise and well written summaries of the key concepts from a wide variety of scientific fields.THE BAD: Misleading title. Doesn't address the stated questions at all.Many of the discussions are directed at a graduate student level, and will not be understood by general readers.I personally found the book unfocused and meandering, with little insight into the topics that the author claimed to be addressing.Dr. Delbruck was clearly a brilliant man, but this book made me want to stop him in mid sentence and say, "Max, what's your point?"

Philosophy meets superb science.
The full title of this book is "Mind From Matter? An Essay of Evolutionary Epistemology". It is a compilation of lectures delivered at Caltech in the mid 70's by Max Delbruck, one of the preeminent biologists of the 20th century. The insights in this book are so refreshing and deep, I must wonder why this book has not received far greater attention than it has. It is one of the best books I have ever come across for demonstrating just how critically important science is to philosophy. If you have any interest in how science impinges on epistemology in particular, this book is a "must read"; put it at the top of your to-do list. Even if your interest is much broader, and you are not intimidated by equations and scientific jargon, then you will enjoy this book greatly. It is extremely well-written, beautifully illustrated with concise line drawings, and best of all, it explores an astonishingly wide range of topics in both science and philosophy. To give you some idea of its breadth, this book covers perception, genetics, time, cognition, causality, number theory, evolution, computability, paradoxes, relativity, quantum mechanics, mind/brain duality, logic and artificial intelligence, and discusses what all of this has to say about how we know anything; that is, epistemology. It's a stunning synthesis.

One of the central tenets of this book, which impinges forcefully on epistemology, is summed up nicely beginning on page 117: "...the empiricist argument that knowledge about the world can enter the mind only through experience is valid if we consider only the ontogenetic development of man, from fertilized human egg to adult person. But once we also take into account the phylogenic development of the human brain through evolutionary history, it becomes clear that persons can know something of the world innately, prior to and independent of their experience."

In essence, Delbruck argues that we acquire knowledge not only through direct interaction, during development onward, but also through the accumulated experience of our ancestors, handed down by way of our genes, which have been shaped by eons of previous experience. The distinction between "ontogenetic" learning and "phylogenetic" learning is revisited many times in the book and explored in great depth, both philosophically and scientifically. As a biologist, Delbruck is not content to simply assert that something happened; he wants to understand the mechanisms. Delbruck offers many deep insights: "What is learned phylogenetically is not how to enter the world with ready-made adaptive concepts but how to have the brain so interact with the world before, during, and after birth that is certain to develop adaptive rather than maladaptive categories of thought."

This is an outstanding book. Be warned, however, that it is not an easy read. It is not science-made-palatable. Rather, it is a carefully argued synthesis of wide-ranging scientific knowledge, and an exploration of the philosophical implications. If you are prepared to think hard, this book will reward you. ... Read more

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This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Professor Max Delbrück was a charismatic scientist, and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1969, who gathered around him numerous students, colleagues and friends to explore modern quantitative approaches to biology. This small book is a collection of personal reminiscences given at a Centennial Celebration of his birth at the University of Salamanca, Spain, in October 2006 by those who primarily joined Max in a search for understanding sensory transduction.Included among the twenty-three chapters and three appendices are several chapters by persons unable to attend as well as some talks presented at other centenary celebrations for Max. In addition three of Max and Manny's children shared memories of their family life and activities.The book was organized and edited by Walter Shropshire, Jr., at the invitation of the Salamanca organizing committee, to make these stories available to a wider audience, even though Max is well known and respected within both biology and physics research communities. It is hoped that these anecdotes and insights honoring the life and work of Max will be an inspiration to others as an example of how to enjoy the creative play of innovative and significant scientific research. ... Read more

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Der Erwerb des Buches enthält gleichzeitig die kostenlose Mitgliedschaft im Buchklub des Verlags zum Ausprobieren - dort können Sie von über einer Million Bücher ohne weitere Kosten auswählen. Das Buch besteht aus Wikipedia-Artikeln: Reiner Pommerin, James C. McReynolds, Max Delbrück, Dietmar Herz, Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, Michael Kearney, Albert J. Reiss, Carl Keenan Seyfert, Waltraut Seitter, Paul Greengard, Lenn Evan Goodman, Loretta Bradley, Heinrich Meyer, Matthias Schulz, Hugh Davis Graham, Harry Igor Ansoff, Anthony Oberschall, Taylor Gun-Jin Wang, Walter C. Reckless,. Online finden Sie die kostenlose Aktualisierung der Bücher. Nicht dargestellt. Auszug: Reiner Pommerin (* 17. Juni 1943 in Ress am Rhein) ist ein deutscher Historiker mit dem Schwerpunkt deutsche und internationale Politik- und Militärgeschichte des 18. bis 20. Jahrhunderts. Der im nordrhein-westfälischen Rees geborene Reiner Pommerin trat noch vor seinem 18. Geburtstag 1961 seinen Wehrdienst in der deutschen Bundeswehr an. Als Soldat auf Zeit diente er dort vier Jahre bei der Teilstreitkraft Luftwaffe bis er die Bundeswehr 1965 ordentlich verließ. Danach holte er sowohl die Mittlere Reife als auch das Abitur an einem Abendgymnasium in Hamburg nach und studierte schließlich ab 1969 Didaktik der Geschichte, Psychologie, Pädagogik und Soziologie an der Pädagogischen Hochschule Rheinland in Bonn und Köln. Sein Studium schloss er 1973 mit der Ablegung der Ersten und der Zweiten Staatsprüfung sowie mit der Erlangung eines Diploms als Pädagoge ab. Im selben Jahr noch nahm Pommerin dann ein Promotionsstudium für Mittlere und Neuere sowie Anglo-Amerikanische Geschichte und Pädagogik an der Universität zu Köln auf. Dort wurde er 1976 im Fach Neuere Geschichte promoviert. Nach einem kurzen Intermezzo als Lektor in einem Schulbuchverlag kehrte er 1978 an die Universität zu Köln als Wissenschaftlicher Assistent des Historischen Seminars zurück. Dort war er mehrere...http://booksllc.net/?l=de&id=4430898 ... Read more

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Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: James D. Watson, Francis Crick, Max Delbrück, Frank Macfarlane Burnet, Stefan Ślopek, Félix D'herelle, François Jacob, Sydney Brenner, Joshua Lederberg, Roy Mackal, Seymour Benzer, Alfred Hershey, Salvador Luria, Bruce Alberts, Werner Arber, Hamilton O. Smith, Gunther Stent, Allan Campbell, Walter Fiers, André Michel Lwoff, Franklin Stahl, Norton Zinder, Richard Lenski, Lin Chao, James J. Bull. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: Francis Harry Compton Crick OM FRS (8 June 1916 28 July 2004), was a British molecular biologist, physicist, and neuroscientist, and most noted for being one of two co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953, together with James D. Watson. He, Watson and Maurice Wilkins were jointly awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material". Crick was an important theoretical molecular biologist and played a crucial role in research related to revealing the genetic code. He is widely known for use of the term central dogma to summarise an idea that genetic information flow in cells is essentially one-way, from DNA to RNA to protein. During the remainder of his career, he held the post of J.W. Kieckhefer Distinguished Research Professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. His later research centered on theoretical neurobiology and attempts to advance the scientific study of human consciousness. He remained in this post until his death; "he was editing a manuscript on his death bed, a scientist until the bitter end" said Christof Koch. Francis Crick was the first son of Harry Crick (18871948) and Annie Elizabeth Crick, née Wilkins, (18791955)...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=11461 ... Read more

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Kapitel: Luigi Galvani, Manfred Eigen, Bernard Katz, Hermann Von Helmholtz, Max Delbrück, Norman J. Holter, Stefan Hell, James Lovelock, Petra Schwille, Boris Rajewsky, Bert Sakmann, Jens Frahm, Roland Benz, Seymour Benzer, Richard Axel, Peter Fromherz, Fritz-Albert Popp, Walter Friedrich, Helmut Tributsch, Hermann Gaub, Frank Jülicher, Erwin Neher, Wolfgang M. Heckl, Jens Christian Skou, G. N. Ramachandran, Warren Mcculloch, Eugene Rabinowitch, Herbert Lüthy, Georg Von Békésy, Gerold Adam, Nikolaus Rajewsky, Wolfgang Baumeister, Markolf Niemz, Kurt Wüthrich, Mildred Cohn, Peter Läuger, Ilme Schlichting, Andrew Fielding Huxley, Terrence J. Sejnowski, Hanns-Christof Spatz, Ephraim Katzir, Winfried Denk, Michail Wladimirowitsch Wolkenstein, Daniel Jobst Müller, Christof Koch, Ernst Bamberg, Erich Sackmann, Rudolf Steiner, Wolfgang Junge, Herbert A. Hauptman, Alexander Kaul, Cecil Edwin Hall, Henri Broch, Kevin Granata, Detlev Riesner, Ernst-Georg Niemann, Cees Dekker, Wojciech Świętosławski, Hal Anger, Robert Haynes, Otto Schmitt. Aus Wikipedia. Nicht dargestellt. Auszug: Luigi Galvani (September 9, 1737 - December 4, 1798) was an Italian physician and physicist who lived and died in Bologna. In 1771, he discovered that the muscles of dead frogs legs twitched when struck by a spark. This was one of the first forays into the study of bioelectricity, a field that still today studies the electrical patterns and signals of the nervous system. He was cutting the frogs legs as an experiment trying to prove that a frog´s testicles were actually in their legs. He was quickly proved wrong by other biologists at the University of Pavia. At first he wished to enter the church, but he was educated by his parents for a medical career. Galvani attended Bologna's medical school and became a doctor, like his father. At the University of Bologna, he was in 1762 appointed public lecturer in anatomy, and gained a reputation as a skilled though not...http://booksllc.net/?l=de ... Read more

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Chapters: Alain Connes, Bill Frist, Max Delbrück, Stanley Cohen, Mitchell A. Seligson, John Seigenthaler, Dana D. Nelson, Alp Ikizler, Chester E. Finn, Jr., Rubel Shelly, Pierre Colas, Albert Gore, Sr., Earl Wilbur Sutherland, Jr., John Crowe Ransom, Langdon Brown Gilkey, Houston A. Baker, Jr., Taylor Wang, Virginia Abernethy, Donald Ault, Melvyn P. Leffler, Mark Jarman, Richard C. Mccarty, Karl Dean, Elijah Embree Hoss, Jeff Balser, Ronald Spores, Jim Rossi, George W. Stocking, Sr., Charlotte Froese Fischer, Arthur Demarest, Larry Dalton, Rick Hilles, James Barr, Tinsley Randolph Harrison, David Keene, Colin Dayan, Lyman Ray Patterson, Carol M. Swain, Roy Clyde Clark, Michael Kearney, Kate Daniels, Steven C. Hebert, Sandy Solomon, John Donald Wade, Robert Donaldson, Steven Gabbe, Kenneth C. Catania, Tony Earley, Kent D. Syverud, Jim Foglesong, Raymond Winbush, Larry Soderquist, Tomlinson Fort, Jr., Beth Bachmann, James Cullen Martin, William Malone Baskervill, David Charles, Andrew C. Porter, Walter Nance, John Cowper Granbery, Suzanna Sherry, Jon Kaas, Richard Arenstorf, Charles Kiesler, Bjarni Jónsson, Elijah Millgram, Martha Craig Daughtrey, Brian T. Fitzpatrick, Gary Allan Polis, Dennis Kezar, Gary Gerstle, Tom Dillehay, Idit Dobbs-Weinstein, Lisa Schultz Bressman. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 257. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Harvard Medical School William Harrison "Bill" Frist, Sr. (born February 22, 1952) is an American physician, businessman, and politician. He began his career as an heir and major stockholder to the for-profit hospital chain of Hospital Corporation of America. Frist later served two terms as a United States Senator representing Tennessee. He was the Republican Majority Leader from 2003 until his retirement in 2007. Frist was born in Nashville, Ten...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=160128 ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Macmillan Reference USA Science Library: Genetics, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 438 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.A comprehensive collection of articles on all aspects of genetics, from Mendel to the decoding of the human genome. Explains the workings of genes and chromosomes, genetic diseases, and biotechnology. Covers the ethical, legal, and social issues connected to genetic science and includes coverage of careers in the field. ... Read more

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Der Erwerb des Buches enthält gleichzeitig die kostenlose Mitgliedschaft im Buchklub des Verlags zum Ausprobieren - dort können Sie von über einer Million Bücher ohne weitere Kosten auswählen. Das Buch besteht aus Wikipedia-Artikeln: Heilanstalten in Berlin-Buch, Friedhof Pankow XII, Schlosskirche Buch, Karpfenteiche, Max-Delbrück-Centrum für Molekulare Medizin, Bogensee, Evangelische Lungenklinik Berlin, Sowjetisches Ehrenmal, Bucher Forst, SV Berlin-Buch, Windkraftanlage Pankow, Heizkraftwerk Berlin-Buch, Stener Berg, Dählingsberg,. Online finden Sie die kostenlose Aktualisierung der Bücher. Nicht dargestellt. Auszug: Die Heilanstalten in Berlin-Buch sind eine Ansammlung mehrerer Krankenhäuser und Heime im Berliner Ortsteil Berlin-Buch, die dort zwischen 1898 und 1930 unter der Leitung des Berliner Architekten und Stadtbaurates Ludwig Hoffmann entstanden. Zu dem Komplex gehören zwei Lungensanatorien, ein Alters- und Pflegeheim und zwei Irrenanstalten. Hoffmann baute hier außerdem noch diverse Einzelbauten, etwa eine Zentrale für Beleuchtung, Heizung und Wasserversorgung der Heilanstalten, mehrere Wohnhäuser, Verwaltungsgebäude sowie einen Anstaltsfriedhof. Das letzte Projekt war die Anlage einer Wohnsiedlung für das Krankenhauspersonal. Das Gut Buch kaufte der Magistrat der Stadt Berlin im Jahr 1898, ursprünglich um auf den Flächen rund um den kleinen Ort Rieselfelder für die Abwasserverrieselung anzulegen. Bereits kurz nach dem Kauf wurde jedoch beschlossen, dass das Gebiet für die Gesundheitsversorgung genutzt werden sollte, da neue Krankenhausanlagen in der Berliner Innenstadt keinen Platz mehr fanden. Die umfangreichen Bauprojekte fanden auch die Zustimmung der Berliner Stadtverordnetenversammlung, die allerdings bei mehreren Projekten Einsparungen forderte. Als erstes Sanatorium auf dem Gelände südlich von Alt-Buch entstand das Lungenkrankenhaus unter der Bezeichnung „Heimstätte für Brustkranke". Hier sollten nach den P...http://booksllc.net/?l=de&id=582290 ... Read more

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This digital document is a journal article from Studies in History and Philosophy of Biol & Biomed Sci, published by Elsevier in 2006. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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The received view on the contributions of the physics community to the birth of molecular biology tends to present the physics community as sharing a basic level consensus on how physics should be brought to bear on biology. I argue, however, that a close examination of the views of three leading physicists involved in the birth of molecular biology, Bohr, Delbruck, and Schrodinger, suggests that there existed fundamental disagreements on how physics should be employed to solve problems in biology even within the physics community. In particular, I focus on how these three figures differed sharply in their assessment of the relevance of complementarity, the potential of chemical methods, and the relative importance of classical physics. In addition, I assess and develop Roll-Hansen's attempt to conceptualize this history in terms of models of scientific change advanced by Kuhn and Lakatos. Though neither model is fully successful in explaining the divergence of views among these three physicists, I argue that the extent and quality of difference in their views help elucidate and extend some themes that are left opaque in Kuhn's model. ... Read more