Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher

Description: A Pulitzer Prize Finalist

In this captivating exploration of the natural world, acclaimed author Lewis Thomas takes readers on a compelling journey into the intricacies of life and mortality.

The medusa is a tiny jellyfish that lives on the ventral surface of a sea slug found in the Bay of Naples. Readers will find themselves caught up in the fate of the medusa and the snail as a metaphor for eternal issues of life and death as Lewis Thomas further extends the exploration of man and his world begun in The Lives of a Cell.

Among the treasures in this magnificent book are essays on the human genius for making mistakes, on disease and natural death, on cloning, on warts, and on Montaigne, as well as an assessment of medical science and health care. In these essays and others, Thomas once again conveys his observations of the scientific world in prose marked by wonder and wit.

Review Quotes: Winner of a National Book Award

Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize

"( The Medusa and the Snail) remains among the finest, most insightful writing I have ever savored." --Maria Popova

"Thomas' unexpected turns of phrase and love of words and their origins is revealed again and again...Read Thomas for his estimable style--often disarmingly simple, even colloquial--and the wit and insight into life and medicine his writing embodies." --Kirkus Reviews