To Know a Fly [Paperback]

Vincent G Dethier (Author), N. Tinbergen (Foreword)

Product Details

• Paperback: 127 pages
• Publisher: Holden Day; no edition noted edition (June 1963)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816222401
• ISBN-13: 978-0816222407
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #423,199 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An entertaining classic, May 10, 2000

By 

Michael J Edelman (Huntington Woods, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: To Know a Fly (Paperback)

"To Know a Fly" is very well known among researchers in the life sciences, but almost completely unknown to the general reading public. That's a great pity, as this is one of the clearest and wittiest books ever written about how science is actually done. Dethier does a superb job in conveying the excitement of discovery, even in as mundane a subject as the common housefly.

Amidst entertaining passages describing how to anethesize a fly (pop it in in the freezer) or make fly scapels (break up razor blades) or surgical probes (drop dressmaker's pins on the floor) you'll learn, in passing, a lot about the neurophysiology of the fly.

If you're student in the life sciences, you owe it to yourself to hunt down a copy of this book. If you're a reader with even a casual interest in science, grab this one if you come across a copy.