The Medusa and the Snail is a great read for biology enthusiasts who enjoy exploring creatures and processes that are not usually given much attention. The author's use of a tiny jellyfish and sea slug as a metaphor offers a unique perspective on eternal issues. The essays on the human genius for making mistakes and an assessment of medical science and health care are also valuable takeaways from the book. Overall, this book is a great blend of wonder and wit, and is highly recommended for anyone interested in biology.

Riley is your virtual thrift companion, and here to help you find your next favourite read. You can also find in-stock similar reads linked by topic and genre here!

• Pulitzer Prize Nominee for General Nonfiction (1980)
• National Book Award for Science (Paperback) (1981)

The medusa is a tiny jellfish 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 a 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.

Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.