Author: Publisher: The New Press ISBN: 1595584099 Category : Literary Collections Languages : en Pages : 306
Book Description
This is a collection in which meditations on imagination and the process of writing mingle with keen discussions of global affairs, geography and colonialism, cultural change, and the deeply lasting influences of the past.
Author: Bob Dylan Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1501189409 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 32
Book Description
"On October 13, 2016, Bob Dylan became the first American musician in history to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. In his Nobel lecture, he reflects on his life and literary influences, providing both an eloquent artistic statement and an intimate look at one of the world's most fascinating cultural figures."--Back cover
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro Publisher: Knopf ISBN: 0525654968 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 28
Book Description
The Nobel Lecture in Literature, delivered by Kazuo Ishiguro (The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans) at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, Sweden, on December 7, 2017, in an elegant, clothbound edition. In their announcement of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy recognized the emotional force of Kazuo Ishiguro’s fiction and his mastery at uncovering our illusory sense of connection with the world. In the eloquent and candid lecture he delivered upon accepting the award, Ishiguro reflects on the way he was shaped by his upbringing, and on the turning points in his career—“small scruffy moments . . . quiet, private sparks of revelation”—that made him the writer he is today. With the same generous humanity that has graced his novels, Ishiguro here looks beyond himself, to the world that new generations of writers are taking on, and what it will mean—what it will demand of us—to make certain that literature remains not just alive, but essential. An enduring work on writing and becoming a writer, by one of the most accomplished novelists of our generation.
Author: Mario Vargas Llosa Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux ISBN: 9781429930789 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 48
Book Description
On December 7, 2010, Mario Vargas Llosa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. His Nobel lLecture is a resounding tribute to fiction's power to inspire readers to greater ambition, to dissent, and to political action. "We would be worse than we are without the good books we have read, more conformist, not as restless, more submissive, and the critical spirit, the engine of progress, would not even exist," Vargas Llosa writes. "Like writing, reading is a protest against the insufficiencies of life. When we look in fiction for what is missing in life, we are saying, with no need to say it or even to know it, that life as it is does not satisfy our thirst for the absolute—the foundation of the human condition—and should be better." Vargas Llosa's lecture is a powerful argument for the necessity of literature in our lives today. For, as he eloquently writes, "literature not only submerges us in the dream of beauty and happiness but alerts us to every kind of oppression."
Author: J. Michael BISHOP Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 0674020979 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 288
Book Description
In 1989 Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus were awarded the Nobel Prize for their discovery that normal genes under certain conditions can cause cancer. In this book, Bishop tells us how he and Varmus made their momentous discovery. More than a lively account of the making of a brilliant scientist, How to Win the Nobel Prize is also a broader narrative combining two major and intertwined strands of medical history: the long and ongoing struggles to control infectious diseases and to find and attack the causes of cancer. Alongside his own story, that of a youthful humanist evolving into an ambivalent medical student, an accidental microbiologist, and finally a world-class researcher, Bishop gives us a fast-paced and engrossing tale of the microbe hunters. It is a narrative enlivened by vivid anecdotes about our deadliest microbial enemies--the Black Death, cholera, syphilis, tuberculosis, malaria, smallpox, HIV--and by biographical sketches of the scientists who led the fight against these scourges. Bishop then provides an introduction for nonscientists to the molecular underpinnings of cancer and concludes with an analysis of many of today's most important science-related controversies--ranging from stem cell research to the attack on evolution to scientific misconduct. How to Win the Nobel Prize affords us the pleasure of hearing about science from a brilliant practitioner who is a humanist at heart. Bishop's perspective will be valued by anyone interested in biomedical research and in the past, present, and future of the battle against cancer. Table of Contents: List of Illustrations Preface 1. The Phone Call 2. Accidental Scientist 3. People and Pestilence 4. Opening the Black Box of Cancer 5. Paradoxical Strife Notes Credits Index Reviews of this book: Despite his book's encouraging title, Bishop--who won a Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1989--cautions that "I have not written an instruction manual for pursuit of the prize." Instead, he has written an amiable reflection on the experience of being a Nobelist, intertwined with some history and anecdotes about the award, and balanced by a wide-ranging review of his own career as an "accidental scientist"...Along the way, Bishop reflects on the history of our knowledge of microbes, cancer, the politics of funding research and present-day disenchantment with science. His main purpose in writing this book, Bishop says, is to show that "scientists are supremely human"--which he does with grace and charm. --Publishers Weekly Reviews of this book: How to Win the Nobel Prize is typical Bishop: modest, funny, insightful and offering an extremely clear and brief explanation of the basic scientific achievement that won the 1989 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for himself and longtime colleague, Harold Varmus, now president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. --David Perlman, San Francisco Chronicle Reviews of this book: In these pages Bishop reveals himself as a good writer blessed with enviable clarity, someone sensible and levelheaded who likes people and is enamored of his science. --John Tyler Bonner, New York Times Book Review Reviews of this book: This is a treasure...Above all, How to Win the Nobel Prize is a civilised book and a lavishly rewarding one. --Roy Herbert, New Scientist Reviews of this book: At its heart this analysis of science and the scientific world is a jewel. How to Win the Nobel Prize is an inspirational book, full of careful analysis and judgement. --John Oxford, Times Higher Education Supplement Reviews of this book: Bishop is a gifted communicator and teacher, and he sets about his task of educating scientists and the public by describing his career in science and science politics...In the end, Bishop's book provides a road map for scientists and the public to build a robust scientific community that serves our society well. --Andreas Trumpp and Daniel Kalman, Nature Cell Biology J. Michael Bishop has written his book 'to show that scientists are supremely human.' The book is also a lucid explanation of how science has been harnessed to fight the human afflictions of cancer and infectious disease. And the story ends with a wide-ranging overview of today's challenges to the scientific enterprise. Overall, a must-read for all those interested in science and scientists--even those with absolutely no interest in winning a Nobel Prize! --Bruce Alberts, President, National Academy of Sciences J. Michael Bishop is that rare scientist who is widely read in literature and poetry. Most importantly, he remembers what he reads and thinks deeply about it, as well as about all else in his rich life. The Nobel Prize he won and richly deserved, his political activism, his understanding of cancer and microbiology, his devotion to the practice of science--all these provide fodder for his writerly craft. Quite a wonderful book! --David Baltimore, Nobel Laureate and President, California Institute of Technology
Author: Lars Brink Publisher: World Scientific ISBN: 9814612707 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 384
Book Description
This volume is a collection of the Nobel lectures delivered by the prizewinners, together with their biographies and the presentation speeches by Nobel Committee members for the period 2006-2010. The criterion for the Physics award is to the discoverer of a physical phenomenon that changed our views, or to the inventor of a new physical process that gave enormous benefits to either science at large or to the public. The biographies are remarkably interesting to read and the Nobel lectures provide detailed explanations of the phenomena for which the Laureates were awarded the Nobel Prize.Aspiring young scientists as well as more experienced ones, but also the interested public will learn a lot from and appreciate the geniuses of these narrations.List of prizewinners and their discoveries:(2006) to John C Mather and George F Smoot “for their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation” The very detailed observations that the Laureates have carried out from the COBE satellite have played a major role in the development of modern cosmology into a precise science.(2007) to Albert Fert and Peter Grünberg “for the discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance” Applications of this phenomenon have revolutionized techniques for retrieving data from hard disks. The discovery also plays a major role in various magnetic sensors as well as for the development of a new generation of electronics. The use of Giant Magnetoresistance can be regarded as one of the first major applications of nanotechnology.(2008) to Yoichiro Nambu “for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics“, and to Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa “for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature” Why is there something instead of nothing? Why are there so many different elementary particles? The Laureates presented theoretical insights that give us a deeper understanding of what happens far inside the tiniest building blocks of matter.(2009) to Charles Kuen Kao “for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication“, and to Willard S Boyle and George E Smith “for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit — the CCD sensor” Kao's discoveries have paved the way for optical fiber technology, which today is used for almost all telephony and data communication. Boyle and Smith have invented a digital image sensor — CCD, or charge-coupled device — which today has become an electronic eye in almost all areas of photography.(2010) to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov “for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene” The Laureates have shown that a thin flake of ordinary carbon, just one atom thick, has exceptional properties that originate from the remarkable world of quantum physics.