Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior (Paperback)

~ (Author) "SEYMOUR BENZER'S laboratory runs along two corridors of Church Hall at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena..." (more)
Key Phrases: transformation cocktail, countercurrent machine, labellar lobes, Fly Room, Cold Spring Harbor, Jeff Hall (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In the words of Jonathan Weiner, "Time, love, and memory are ... three cornerstones of the pyramid of behavior." While some find it difficult to view humans as mere machines, molecular biologists maintain that most behavior is genetically based. Even skeptics and opponents agree that molecular biology may well change the way we all live in the 21st century. Little-known outside this exploding field, Seymour Benzer, his mentors, and his generations of students have studied the common fruit fly, Drosophila, and discovered genes that seem to have some influence upon our internal clock, our sexuality, and our ability to learn from our experiences.

Weiner (whose last book, The Beak of the Finch, won a Pulitzer Prize) has written an affectionate history about the development of the science while offering charming glimpses of the people involved--trading haircuts to stretch their grant money in the early years, roaming the laboratory into the wee hours, naming the genes associated with learning after Pavlov's dogs. It's not all sweetness and light, however; ethical questions are raised, some of the hype (and hysteria) surrounding the human genome project is dissipated, and the complicated "clockwork" gene "looks less like an invitation to human intervention and more like a cautionary tale or object lesson for anyone who might try, in the 21st century, to improve on nature's four-billion-year-old designs." That said, the scientists in Weiner's tale reveal a very human side of this fast-moving science, and their belief that they'll find answers to important questions is contagious and compelling. As Benzer himself said, "It's a wonderful, fabulous world, and it's been kicking around a long time." --C.B. Delaney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

From the winner of the 1995 Pulitzer for nonfiction (for The Beak of the Finch) comes a vigorously engrossing scientific biography that brings out from the shadows one of the unsung pioneers of molecular biology: brash, eccentric, Brooklyn-born California Institute of Technology physicist-turned-biologist Seymour Benzer. In 1953Athe year Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the structure of DNAABenzer, then at Purdue, invented a way to use viral DNA to map the interior of a gene. Benzer's mapping techniques would help Crick crack the genetic code in the early 1960s. Forsaking viruses and E. coli bacteria for the fruit fly, in the mid-1960s, Benzer began tracking tiny genetic mutations in scores of generations passing through his contraptionAa maze of test-tube tunnels with a light source to which the flies instinctively gravitated. With his wife, neuropathologist Carol Miller, Benzer discovered that the fly brain and the human brain surprisingly share nearly identical genetic sequences. Today their fellow scientists, using mutant fruit flies or mice, attempt to throw light on the genetic coding of memory, learning, courtship, sex assignment, disease and aging. An unresolved question hangs over this enterprise: Will solid links between genes and human behavior ever be established? Weiner answers with a cautious "yes" in this elegantly written scientific detective story told with panache and great lucidity. Benzer, a free spirit with a taste for crashing Hollywood funerals and eating strange food (filet of snake, crocodile tail), may lack the charisma of his Caltech colleague, the late physicist Richard Feynman, but, through Weiner's absorbing presentation, his unorthodox ways in and out of the laboratory will grow on readers. 50 illustrations. Agent, Victoria Pryor. BOMC dual main selection; first serial to the New Yorker.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; 1 edition (April 4, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679763902
• ISBN-13: 978-0679763901
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #211,561 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book I've read all year., August 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior (Hardcover)

This book is a work of art. It has everything! It is not just a great book about an unsung hero in science. It is a suspenseful story (will they or won't they discover the genes for time, love, and memory?), a touching story (Seymour Benzer is a character--a real character that is--you will remember forever), and an important story (all the headlines of a gene for this kind of behavior, a gene for that kind of behavior: This is the real story, the science behind the headlines). You might not think a serious book about science is a good summer book, but it is! Take it to the beach, the mountains, wherever you go--or read it at home. You will not be sorry. Your life will be greatly enriched. I loved The Beak of the Finch (which won the Pulitzer). I love this book even more.

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't believe everything they taught you, January 9, 2000

By	Richard S. Sullivan (Santa Fe, New Mexico) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior (Hardcover)

... This is a great book by the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Beak of the Finch. It moves right along and was a cliff hanger, it kept me on the edge of my seat waiting to see which next of my cherised beliefs was going to dashed in the name of science.

...

If you think that human nature is largely a result of nurture and you wish to hang on to this belief for dear life, be very afraid, this is not your book.

The book is well written with lots of interviews and original research by the author who already has proven his chops as a science writer. If biology, evolution or genetics is an interest, this is your book.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The story behind the headlines, April 28, 2000

By A Customer

There is so much about genes in the news these days, especially how they affect our behavior, our personality, etc. A lot of the headlines are overblown--"popularizations" of the science. If you want to really know the connection between genes and behavior--and the remarkable scientists who are figuring it out, read Time, Love, Memory. It explains it all so simply and clearly that you can actually explain it to others (a feat for me since I did not take any science courses beyond the requirements Freshman year of college!). Plus Mr. Weiner is obviously an incredibly well-read person because he pulls in all kinds of things from literature, poetry, and myth. These references illuminate the science, bringing it home, so to speak, so that you can really draw the parallels between flies and human beings, between science and literature. I loved The Beak of the Finch and I adore this book. Time, Love, Memory just won the National Book Critics Circle Award, I understand. It deserved it, and it deserves to be read--and enjoyed--by all. Bravo! I can't wait for the next one by this talented writer.