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Brave Genius: A Scientist, A Philosopher, And Their Daring Adventures From The French Resistance To The Nobel Prize (2013)

by Sean B. Carroll(Favorite Author)

4.14 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0307952339 (ISBN13: 9780307952332)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Crown Publishers

review 1: This is an impressive book, mixing philosophy, literature and good old molecular biology. And all of this mixed with the Resistance in Paris during WW2 and spy-stories of the cold war. Before discovering this book I wasn't too aware of the contributions that Camus and Monod made to the Resistance, neither did I know that Monod then helped to smuggle people out of Hungary during the cold war, more or less all while finding out about mRNA. If you have some interest in the history of science and modern philosophy and/or some interest in WW2 you will like this book.
review 2: The odyssey of Albert Camus and Jacques Monod: From French resistance to Nobel PrizeThis book tells the story of how Albert Camus and Jacques Monod endured the most terrible episode of 20th ce... morentury and blossomed into extraordinarily creative and engaged individuals. This is the story of that adventure, transformation of ordinary lives into exceptional lives by extraordinary events of courage in the face of overwhelming adversity. Years before they received Nobel Prize; Camus for literature and Monod for physiology or medicine, they were quietly pursuing separate ordinary lives in France. In 1940, the German army invaded France and plunged the country into chaos. These events acted as a catalyst and set each man a new path of future greatness and into another's lives. Each of these men were exceptional creatively but also triumphed over great odds. The adventure of Camus began in a very dark dangerous time, so dangerous, in fact that the chances of him would have ever lived to see those latter days were slim.The first half of the book discusses as how these two men were shaped by the world and the second half describes as how they shaped the world. The dividing line is the liberation of Paris and allied forces victory in the war. Monod and Camus bear witness to the progressively harsher life under Nazi occupation. It gradually changed from oppression to enslavement, torture, deportation and mass murder. Each of these men was inspired to join the French resistance against Germans until the allied forces led them to victory. The terror of the cruelty of occupation, the slaughter of tens of a millions in the war and the horrors of holocaust brought despair and abandon any hope for the future of humanity. Denial of any meaning or purpose of life, the nihilism, was the theme of life for many affected by the war. Camus argued that that we have to live life passionately and to the fullest since one cannot escape the certainty of death. Camus offered practical philosophy for living without falling into nihilism or religion.As Camus expounded his philosophical reasoning, Monod was exploring the biological secrets of life with François Jacob. Monod and Jacob's insights were far ahead of their time. Biologists barely had the foggy picture of what a gene was when Monod and Jacob gave a general logic behind DNA transcription and translation at the molecular level. They were explaining how a fertilized egg grows into a complex species and the genetic material is transferred from parent to the offspring with a seminal concept. This led to a rapid progress in molecular biology and genetics that paved the way for recombinant DNA technology and genetic engineering.Professor Sean Carroll of the University of Wisconsin at Madison does a good job of researching the material for this book; but this is also a long book of about 550+ pages. Sometimes his narratives get a little boring and long-drawn. less

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