This collection of linked stories by internationally renowned evolutionist Lynn Margulis reveals science from the inside—its thrills, disappointments, and triumphs. A largely fictional account, it draws on her decades of experience to portray the poor judgment, exhaustion, and life-threatening dedication of real scientists--their emotional preoccupations, sexual distractions, and passions for research. The esoteric, demanding, sometimes exhilarating world of science emerges from the shadows of its passive narrative into the sunlight of the personal voice of those who attempt to wrench secrets directly from nature. All of us who struggle to balance family, professional, and social commitments with intellectual quest will be intrigued by the humanity of these tales.
Luminous Fish: Tales of Science and Love (Sciencewriters)
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
A Distinguished University Professor in the department of geosciences at the University of Massachusetts, Margulis charts the professional and romantic lives of a handful of scientists in her first fiction outing, a mixed bag of sex, seduction and science. In the first story, "Conceits (Howard)," René studies chemistry and dates the monumentally self-absorbed Howard Fein, a medical student whose selfishness results in lifelong repercussions for René. Later, in "Gases (Raoul)," René has a toxic affair with fellow atmospheric chemist Raoul Gautier, who alternately accepts and rejects her advances. In "The Estimator (Georges)," readers meet Georges Standon, a space scientist haunted by the long-ago disappearance of his wife, Odile, who, in the following story ("Meeting"), becomes fast friends with René at a science conference. Margulis's portrayal of the scientific life—isolated, oddly passionate and laced with the joy of discovery—brings out the lyricist in her, though she is less adept at navigating the inner lives of her "dedicated loners." Margulis's ambitious project is partially successful. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"A real encounter between a young Lynn Margulis and J. Robert Oppenheimer and his family complements four gently linked stories. I think of a multidimensional tango, of men and women to be sure, but also of two less predictable partners--love and science. Margulis' first fiction is as intriguing as her research in evolution!"
--Roald Hoffmann, winner, Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Difficult artists and writers are plentiful in fiction, but Lynn Margulis has a unique and vivid gift for portraying work-driven scientists and their mystified, vexed, or frustrated mates and friends. And lurking just behind these highly emotional stories lies the great scientific story (in which Margulis was herself a central participant) of how science reluctantly came to understand that our planet's atmosphere is a biological phenomenon.--Ernest Callenbach, author of Ecotopia
"On transatlantic overnight flights, I often hope the book I've chosen will quickly put me to sleep. Not so with Luminous Fish, which pleasantly kept me awake much of the night. Lynn Margulis has penned a delightful collection of essays of real scientists going about their all-too ordinary lives at work and play. Seldom has the subjective side of science been captured better, nor surprisingly so as Lynn herself very much lives the life of some of those profiled within. A penetrating, realistic work of science and passion if there ever was one."
--Eric Chaisson, Wright Center for Science Education, Tufts University
In the public eye, talented scientists are usually seen to be single-minded individuals who obsessively dedicate their entire lives to the dispassionate elucidation of arcane and complex issues. The emotional distractions which afflict the lives of ordinary beings seem lacking.Lynn Margulis' book exposes the reality of the passions, sexual and other desires which underlie and drive the lives of men and women scientists. This is done through four delightful, linked pieces of fiction spiced with a concluding personal memoir of some very real people.This enjoyable, original and unique book also reflects its unusual title. Luminous fish give flashes of illumination on to their prey by alternately exposing and hiding their radiant tissue (which is packed with symbiotic, luminescent bacteria). In a similar fashion, Lynn Margulis gives brilliant glimpses of the public and private lives of her characters, and their emotional interactions with each other.An excellent, fascinating and very readable portrayal of men and women scientists as the normal human beings they really are!--Sir David Smith, Fellow and former Biological Secretary, Royal Society of London
"Science is often viewed as the cold, objective study of nature. Lynn Margulis shows us that this pursuit is often strongly and wonderfully influenced by the human touch.Luminous Fish is a fascinating read."--Margaret McFall-Ngai, Professor of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Wisconsin
"[Luminous Fish is] unadulterated Lynn Margulis, fascinating and fun all the way as you follow her characters--real and fictionalized--through the challenges and turmoils of life. Great reading!"--J. Woodland Hastings, Paul C. Mangelsdorf Professor of Natural Sciences, Harvard University
--Roald Hoffmann, winner, Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Difficult artists and writers are plentiful in fiction, but Lynn Margulis has a unique and vivid gift for portraying work-driven scientists and their mystified, vexed, or frustrated mates and friends. And lurking just behind these highly emotional stories lies the great scientific story (in which Margulis was herself a central participant) of how science reluctantly came to understand that our planet's atmosphere is a biological phenomenon.--Ernest Callenbach, author of Ecotopia
"On transatlantic overnight flights, I often hope the book I've chosen will quickly put me to sleep. Not so with Luminous Fish, which pleasantly kept me awake much of the night. Lynn Margulis has penned a delightful collection of essays of real scientists going about their all-too ordinary lives at work and play. Seldom has the subjective side of science been captured better, nor surprisingly so as Lynn herself very much lives the life of some of those profiled within. A penetrating, realistic work of science and passion if there ever was one."
--Eric Chaisson, Wright Center for Science Education, Tufts University
In the public eye, talented scientists are usually seen to be single-minded individuals who obsessively dedicate their entire lives to the dispassionate elucidation of arcane and complex issues. The emotional distractions which afflict the lives of ordinary beings seem lacking.Lynn Margulis' book exposes the reality of the passions, sexual and other desires which underlie and drive the lives of men and women scientists. This is done through four delightful, linked pieces of fiction spiced with a concluding personal memoir of some very real people.This enjoyable, original and unique book also reflects its unusual title. Luminous fish give flashes of illumination on to their prey by alternately exposing and hiding their radiant tissue (which is packed with symbiotic, luminescent bacteria). In a similar fashion, Lynn Margulis gives brilliant glimpses of the public and private lives of her characters, and their emotional interactions with each other.An excellent, fascinating and very readable portrayal of men and women scientists as the normal human beings they really are!--Sir David Smith, Fellow and former Biological Secretary, Royal Society of London
"Science is often viewed as the cold, objective study of nature. Lynn Margulis shows us that this pursuit is often strongly and wonderfully influenced by the human touch.Luminous Fish is a fascinating read."--Margaret McFall-Ngai, Professor of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Wisconsin
"[Luminous Fish is] unadulterated Lynn Margulis, fascinating and fun all the way as you follow her characters--real and fictionalized--through the challenges and turmoils of life. Great reading!"--J. Woodland Hastings, Paul C. Mangelsdorf Professor of Natural Sciences, Harvard University
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More About the Author
Lynn Margulis, Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, received the 1999 National Medal of Science from President Bill Clinton. She has been a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences since 1983 and of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences since 1997. Author, editor, or coauthor of chapters in more than forty books, she has published or been profiled in many journals, magazines, and books, among them Natural History, Science, Nature, New England Watershed, Scientific American, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Science Firsts, and The Scientific 100. She has made numerous contributions to the primary scientific literature of microbial evolution and cell biology.
Margulis's theory of species evolution by symbiogenesis, put forth in Acquiring Genomes (co-authored with Dorion Sagan, 2002), describes how speciation does not occur by random mutation alone but rather by symbiotic d©tente. Behavioral, chemical, and other interactions often lead to integration among organisms, members of different taxa. In well-documented cases some mergers create new species. Intimacy, physical contact of strangers, becomes part of the engine of life's evolution that accelerates the process of change. Margulis works in the laboratory and field with many other scientists and students to show how specific ancient partnerships, in a given order over a billion years, generated the cells of the species we see with our unaided eyes.The fossil record, in fact, does not show Darwin's predicted gradual changes between closely related species but rather the "punctuated equilibrium" pattern described by Eldredge and Gould: a jump from one to a different species.
She has worked on the "revolution in evolution" since she was a graduate student. Over the past fifteen years, Margulis has cowritten several books with Dorion Sagan, among them What is Sex? (1997), What is Life? (1995), Mystery Dance: On the Evolution of Human Sexuality (1991), Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Evolution from Our Microbial Ancestors (1986), and Origins of Sex:Three Billion Years of Genetic Recombination (1986).
Her work with K.V. Schwartz provides a consistent formal classification of all life on Earth and has lead to the third edition of Five Kingdoms: An Illustrated Guide to the Phyla of Life on Earth (1998). Their classification scheme was generated from scientific results of myriad colleagues and its logical-genealogical basis is summarized in her single-authored book Symbiosis in Cell Evolution: Microbial Communities in the Archean and Proterozoic Eons (second edition, 1993). The bacterial origins of both chloroplasts and mitochondria are now well established. Currently, with colleagues and students, she explores the possible origin of cilia from spirochetes.
Since the mid-1970s, Margulis has aided James E. Lovelock, FRS, in documenting his Gaia Theory, which posits that the Earth's surface interactions among living beings, rocks and soil, air and water have created a vast, self-regulating system. From the vantage of outer space the Earth looks like an amazing being; from the vantage of biochemistry it behaves in many ways like a giant organism.
Photo by Luis Rico
Margulis's theory of species evolution by symbiogenesis, put forth in Acquiring Genomes (co-authored with Dorion Sagan, 2002), describes how speciation does not occur by random mutation alone but rather by symbiotic d©tente. Behavioral, chemical, and other interactions often lead to integration among organisms, members of different taxa. In well-documented cases some mergers create new species. Intimacy, physical contact of strangers, becomes part of the engine of life's evolution that accelerates the process of change. Margulis works in the laboratory and field with many other scientists and students to show how specific ancient partnerships, in a given order over a billion years, generated the cells of the species we see with our unaided eyes.The fossil record, in fact, does not show Darwin's predicted gradual changes between closely related species but rather the "punctuated equilibrium" pattern described by Eldredge and Gould: a jump from one to a different species.
She has worked on the "revolution in evolution" since she was a graduate student. Over the past fifteen years, Margulis has cowritten several books with Dorion Sagan, among them What is Sex? (1997), What is Life? (1995), Mystery Dance: On the Evolution of Human Sexuality (1991), Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Evolution from Our Microbial Ancestors (1986), and Origins of Sex:Three Billion Years of Genetic Recombination (1986).
Her work with K.V. Schwartz provides a consistent formal classification of all life on Earth and has lead to the third edition of Five Kingdoms: An Illustrated Guide to the Phyla of Life on Earth (1998). Their classification scheme was generated from scientific results of myriad colleagues and its logical-genealogical basis is summarized in her single-authored book Symbiosis in Cell Evolution: Microbial Communities in the Archean and Proterozoic Eons (second edition, 1993). The bacterial origins of both chloroplasts and mitochondria are now well established. Currently, with colleagues and students, she explores the possible origin of cilia from spirochetes.
Since the mid-1970s, Margulis has aided James E. Lovelock, FRS, in documenting his Gaia Theory, which posits that the Earth's surface interactions among living beings, rocks and soil, air and water have created a vast, self-regulating system. From the vantage of outer space the Earth looks like an amazing being; from the vantage of biochemistry it behaves in many ways like a giant organism.
Photo by Luis Rico
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A strong literary debut for Lynn Margulis,
By
This review is from: Luminous Fish: Tales of Science and Love (Sciencewriters) (Hardcover)
A suite of connected short stories concluding with a memoir of a youthful encounter with J. Robert Oppenheimer, Luminous Fish is the first work of literary fiction published by world-class microbiologist Lynn Margulis. Revolving around the work and love lives of practicing scientists, it's delivered with a punch. Margulis has an accomplished style: these fictions are immediately enjoyable and very well constructed. "Raoul" stands out as pulling together the widest range of narrative gambits. This story follows the scientific life of the shy French Jewish protagonist from his adolescent hazing in Vichy France to his emergence on the international circuit of atmospheric and space science (suggestive of the NASA milieu of Margulis's collaboration with the British atmospheric chemist James Lovelock, originator of Gaia theory). His young American lover Rene takes over the narration midway with a long letter of amorous frustration, from which point Margulis lets these characters with whom we're now intimate have increasingly larger portions of the saying of the story. In each piece singly, and as a connected series, the denouement is deft, brutally efficient, and satisfying.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great read--innovative and compelling,
By
This review is from: Luminous Fish: Tales of Science and Love (Sciencewriters) (Hardcover)
Once I started, I couldn't put this book down. Vivid, real characters, touching insights into our place in life and time. I can't forget the haunting encounter with Oppenheimer. Great read for anyone interested in the human side of science.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A lively and different pick many a public library holding will wish to acquire.,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Luminous Fish: Tales of Science and Love (Sciencewriters) (Hardcover)
Evolutionist and author Lynn Margulis examines the scientific personalities she's known in the course of her profession, considers the love lives of three generations of scientists, and provide stories which would be considered scientific biographies were it not for their added ability to shed insights on interactions between scientific colleagues. The blend of biography and science from an insider holds elements of both and thus provides both real and fictionalized observations - while LUMINOUS FISH may prove a challenge to categorize, it will prove a lively and different pick many a public library holding will wish to acquire.
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New York, Maria Elena, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Charles de Gaulle, Van Warden, Alton Brainerd, Steve Ramsey, Georges Standon, Raoul Gautier, Gare du Nord, Place Dauphine, Big Science, Fat Man, Guy Leysson, Don Peterson, Jules Farley, University of Chicago, Grandma Barbara, Dorothy Schiff, Howard Fein, Andy Carelli, Stephen Ramsey, Olden Lane, Max Planck Institute Browse Sample Pages:
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New York, Maria Elena, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Charles de Gaulle, Van Warden, Alton Brainerd, Steve Ramsey, Georges Standon, Raoul Gautier, Gare du Nord, Place Dauphine, Big Science, Fat Man, Guy Leysson, Don Peterson, Jules Farley, University of Chicago, Grandma Barbara, Dorothy Schiff, Howard Fein, Andy Carelli, Stephen Ramsey, Olden Lane, Max Planck Institute Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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