In this collection of forty vignettes, biologist Harold Morowitz delights in discovering scientific principles behind such everyday phenomena as doing laundry or registering a car with the DMV. The title essay reflects on the circumstances that caused the name of Joseph Ignace Guillotin to become connected to a mechanical contraption he neither invented, built, nor used. While he relies on the disciplines of science to illuminate life on earth, Morowitz celebrates--with wonder and wit--the worlds unfathomable mysteries. Biologist Harold Morowitz delights in discovering scientific principles behind everyday phenomena, from doing laundry to registering a car with the department of motor vehicles.Now the author of The Thermodynamics of Pizza and Mayonnaise and the Origin of Life gives us The Kindly Dr. Guillotin , a charmingly idiosyncratic collection of forty vignettes reflecting the observations of a deeply inquisitive thinker. Who else but Morowitz could explain exactly what takes place every time we put a load of dirty laundry into the washer? In the essay Thermal Underthoughts he ponders the scientific foundations of laundry day: thermal physics, centrifugal force, and vaporization. His detailed analysis describes the way detergent is dissolved in water, the processes involved in removing soil, and the inefficiencies inherent in the conversion of water to vapor in the dryer. Not even the lint trap escapes his keen eye. Yet these pieces range far beyond the laboratory. It is not possible to reduce all of experience to the logic of science, he says, and much of his writing engages his thoughts on philosophy, history, language, and people.The title essay reflects on the circumstances that caused the name of Joseph Ignace Guillotin to become connected to a mechanical contraption he neither invented, built, nor used. A distinguished physician and humanitarian, Dr. Guillotin proposed mechanical decapitation in 1789 as a more humane alternative to the ax and the noose. The technology had been used in other countries since the thirteenth century, and the device that came to bear the kindly doctors name--la guillotine--was fabricated by someone else in Germany.Irony of this sort is a common ingredient in The Kindly Dr. Guillotin. While he relies on the disciplines of science to illuminate life on earth, Morowitz celebrates--with wonder and wit--the worlds unfathomable mysteries.
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Editorial Reviews
From Kirkus Reviews
More short takes (40 of them) from polymath biophysicist Morowitz (Entropy and the Magic Flute, 1993), ensconced now on the faculty at George Mason University in Virginia. The order of the essays is derived from Buddhist groupings called skandas, so that, for instance, Morowitz's ``People and Places'' section ``resonates'' with the skanda of feeling, ``Language'' with the skanda of form. Readers who already know Morowitz's pithy way with words will read the new essays as though they were letters from an old friend whose mind leaps from one thing to another as inspiration hits. Generally, his approach is to celebrate rather than denigrate. And so we stumble upon unsung heroes like the Ukrainian Ivan Puluj, who appears to have been a co-discoverer of X-rays. We learn about the real achievements of Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotin, the 18th-century French physician and humanitarian who favored mechanical decapitation for all executions as more democratic (and merciful) than the two-class system of the noose for the hoi polloi and the ax for nobility. Some essays are purely personal and meant to charm. In ``The Proctological Truth,'' the author shares his reveries while visiting the History of Medicine Library at Yale, his nose buried in The Romance of Proctology (``I have certainly acquired a knowledge of the history of proctology that goes way beyond what cultural literacy would require of me''). While traveling in Hawaii, he explores the lore of ficus trees. And he confesses that ``for two years I was faculty adviser to the Esperanto Club of George Mason University.'' ``People and Places'' has Morowitz uncharacteristically facing off against that other celebrated scientist/essayist, Stephen Jay Gould, whom he takes to task for accusing the Jesuit Teilhard de Chardin of being a conspirator in the Piltdown hoax. There is something here for nearly anyone who appreciates graceful, seasoned, casual wisdom. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Morowitz can do, and has done, better,
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This review is from: The Kindly Dr. Guillotin.: And Other Essays on Science and Life (Paperback)
It seems that Dr. Joseph Guillotin has gotten a bum rap. His proposal, which was not even original, for a mechanical executor was inspired by humanitarian thoughts.
According to Professor Harold Morowitz, headsmen often did a careless job with their axes, and all Guillotin wanted was quicker, cleaner death for victims of the French Revolution. Nor, and this is a surprise, did Guillotin die under the blade of his own suggestion. I must have read in 20 different places that he did, but Morowitz says he died peacefully in 1814. The death of Dr. Guillotin on the guillotine turns out to be an urban legend, but we may well wonder why it has been so popular in America, where it is hard to commit any crime heinous enough to be killed for it. Morowitz would have it be impossible and suggests that such a policy be called thurgood, after the late Supreme Court associate justice Thurgood Marshall, who considered the death penalty unconstitutional. Though Morowitz has published several collections of essays, I did not know that when I picked up "The Kindly Dr. Guillotin." I wanted to hear more from the man who wrote "Beginnings of Cellular Life: Metabolism Recapitulates Biogenesis." That 1993 book by Morowitz is one of the best at explaining how life could have arisen from non-life without the assistance of a Big Spook. These essays, on the other hand, are much lighter in weight. A good many relate to what he learned on his vacations. He is probably one of very few visitors to Lahaina, Maui, who spent a lot of time at the library. He started out to Lahaina Jodo Mission, home of one of the biggest Buddha statues outside Asia, which led him to wonder about the fig tree that the Buddha sat under. That led him to the library, then to Dan's Greenhouse, and he ended up taking a bonsai back home. Some of his essays are a little more consequential than that. He makes several attempts to deal with the question of how we educate our young. This leads him to some plausible, trendy ideas that, perhaps, do not bear close examination. Back at George Mason University, where he is a distinguished professor of biology and natural philosophy, Morowitz teaches a course called "Biological Themes in Literature." He has a hidden agenda he admits -- teaching biology to English majors who might otherwise reject science and teaching literature to biology majors who might shy away from the humanities. One book studied is Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," written, says Morowitz, "in an age of few women authors." Oh, really? What about Jane Austen? Or Maria Edgeworth, probably the best-selling novelist in England at that time? Another woman, Germaine de Stael, was the best-selling non-fiction writer in all Europe. What men were writing novels in English then? Sir Walter Scott. Bet you can't name another in 30 seconds. It makes me glad I finished by schooling before the study of literature ws turned into an intellectual slum in the name of feminism. I really wanted to like this book, I have several volumes of Morowitz' essays. This is the least of them, though it has its moments.
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