Showing results by author "Carl Djerassi" in All Categories

Im Dezember 2001 feiert die Königlich-Schwedische Akademie das hundertjährige Bestehen des Nobelpreises, und anlässlich dessen soll ein Retro-Nobelpreis verliehen werden - für herausragende Leistungen aus der Zeit, bevor es den Nobelpreis gab. Das Chemikomitee der Akademie beschließt, sich mit der Entdeckung des Sauerstoffs zu befassen, denn diese läutete die Chemische Revolution ein.

Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park may be good science fiction, but it's lousy science-in-fiction. Professor Carl Djerassi, who collaborated in producing the first oral contraceptive, talks about the "science-in-fiction" genre and how it differs from its implausible, inaccurate counterpart. Djerassi also discusses his novel, Menachem's Seed, the third volume in his science-in-fiction tetralogy (which includes Cantor's Dilemma, 1989; The Bourbaki Gambit, 1994).

Dr. Melanie Laidlaw is a scientist developing the first use of ICSI, short for intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Her collaborator, Dr. Felix Krankenthaler, turns out to have his own ideas about how to implement their new procedure. The wild card is Melanie's new lover, Menachem Dvir, a fellow scientist. This darkly comic ménage à trois plays out not only in bedrooms and labs, but also in test tubes and under the microscope. A Brave New World indeed!