Biografier: videnskab, teknologi og medicin

Elizabeth Holmes (f. 1984) har altid været bange for nåle. Hendes livsmission var at opfinde en nem og billig metode til at tage blodprøver, der kunne afdække en lang række sygdomme. Som 19-årig droppede hun ud af universitetet og stiftede biotekvirksomheden Theranos, der ti år senere blev vurderet til en værdi på ti milliarder dollars. I 2015 var hun USA’s både yngste og rigeste selvskabte kvindelige milliardær. En lang række af USA’s mest magtfulde folk lovpriste den ambitiøse iværksætter, der kom på forsiden af magasiner som Forbes og Fortune og blev udråbt som den kvindelige Steve Jobs. Der var kun ét problem. Hendes produkt virkede ikke. Det stoppede hende dog ikke. Hun afviste al kritik, fyrede alle medarbejdere, der sagde hende imod, og fortsatte med at markedsføre sit produkt over for investorer. Hun fik endda sit apparat ind i USA’s næststørste apotekerkæde, hvor amerikanerne fik taget blodprøver. Elizabeth Holmes og Theranos blev afsløret af bogens forfatter, John Carreyrou, der har interviewet over 150 personer til bogen, heriblandt 60 tidligere ansatte hos Theranos.Kåret til årets businessbog 2018 af Financial Times og McKinsey. Udnævnt til en af årtiets ti bedste nonfiktionbøger af The Times.

I I embeds medfør får du historier om læger, der har udført forsøg på egen krop. Der er eksempler, der er tankevækkende, og eksempler, der er grænseoverskridende. Revolutionerende opdagelser og tragiske ulykker - nobelpriser og dødsfald. Der er eksempler fra 1614 og frem til i dag. Bogen præsenterer nogle af de mest betydelige tilfælde, og selv-forsøgene introduceres i deres rette medicinhistoriske kontekst. Bogens forfatter, Lasse Romer Olsen, forsøger ligeledes at adressere årsagerne til selvforsøgene: Er det rent etisk det mest forsvarlige? Det hurtigste? Eller har der slet og ret ikke været andre muligheder?

Marie Curie - Et lys i mørketMarie Curie var den første kvindelige professor ved Sorbonne i Paris og den første nogensinde til at modtage to Nobelpriser. Hendes forskning har været banebrydende for menneskeheden og en inspirator for alle videnskabskvinder verden over.Forsker i stjernestøv, Anja C. Andersen, og Dr.odont., Frances Andreasen Østerfelt, fortæller i Marie Curie - Et lys i mørket deres historie om en af nyere tids helt ekstraordinære personligheder.

Baseret på mere end fyrre interviews med Steve Jobs selv og en lang række samtaler med familie, venner, modstandere, konkurrenter og kolleger har Walter Isaacson skrevet et hudløst og nuanceret portræt af Steve Jobs’ intense og ekstraordinære liv. Biografien giver indblik i det enestående og solide brand, som Jobs har skabt omkring Apple – og ikke mindst sig selv. Walter Isaacson går bag om brandet og skriver ærligt om Steve Jobs’ smittende kreativitet og engagement, men også om hvordan han kæmpede med perfektionisme og et overdrevent behov for kontrol. Det er en fortælling, som både er til inspiration og advarsel, når Walter Isaacson også forholder sig til de omkostninger, det har haft for Steve Jobs at revolutionere tech-industrien med hans kompromisløse tilgang og innovative designs.Om forfatteren:Walter Isaacson (f. 1952) er professor i historie, journalist samt forfatter og er især kendt for at være en af vor tids største biografister med fokus på at portrættere visionære og innovative personligheder, der har sat deres præg på verden.

Chosen as a BOOK OF THE YEAR in The Times, The Spectator, Prospect, Sunday Times, Economist, New Statesman, Telegraph, Financial Times, TLS, New York Times, and Washington Post. 'This is ridiculous. No book about German philosophy has any right to be this fun. This witty, gossipy, sparkling history . . . fizzed with creative energy' The Times, Book of the YearMagnificent Rebels is - well - magnificent. This is how such books should be written, with clarity, passion and delight. A thrilling intellectual adventure' JOHN BANVILLE, Book of the Year'History writing at its best' The Spectator, Book of the Year'A thrilling page-turner, by turns comical & tragic... My book of the year so far' TOM HOLLANDIn the 1790s an extraordinary group of friends changed the world. Disappointed by the French Revolution's rapid collapse into tyranny, what they wanted was nothing less than a revolution of the mind. The rulers of Europe had ordered their peoples how to think and act for too long. Based in the small German town of Jena, through poetry, drama, philosophy and science, they transformed the way we think about ourselves and the world around us. They were the first Romantics.Their way of understanding the world still frames our lives and being.We're still empowered by their daring leap into the self. We still think with their minds, see with their imagination and feel with their emotions. We also still walk the same tightrope between meaningful self-fulfilment and destructive narcissism, between the rights of the individual and our role as a member of our community and our responsibilities towards future generations who will inhabit this planet. This extraordinary group of friends changed our world. It is impossible to imagine our lives, thoughts and understanding without the foundation of their ground-breaking ideas.

When Oliver Sacks was twelve years old, a perceptive schoolmaster wrote in his report: 'Sacks will go far, if he does not go too far'. It is now abundantly clear that Sacks has never stopped going. From its opening pages on his youthful obsession with motorcycles and speed, On the Move is infused with his restless energy. As he recounts his experiences as a young neurologist in the early 1960s, first in California and then in New York, where he discovered a long-forgotten illness in the back wards of a chronic hospital, as well as with a group of patients who would define his life, it becomes clear that Sacks's earnest desire for engagement has occasioned unexpected encounters and travels - sending him through bars and alleys, over oceans, and across continents.With unbridled honesty and humour, Sacks shows us that the same energy that drives his physical passions - bodybuilding, weightlifting, and swimming - also drives his cerebral passions. He writes about his love affairs, both romantic and intellectual, his guilt over leaving his family to come to America, his bond with his schizophrenic brother, and the writers and scientists - Thom Gunn, A. R. Luria, W. H. Auden, Gerald M. Edelman, Francis Crick - who influenced him.On the Move is the story of a brilliantly unconventional physician and writer - and of the man who has illuminated the many ways that the brain makes us human.

A moving, evocative account of a rural GP in a remote rural location.

This exclusive boxed set from beloved New York Times bestselling author Walter Isaacson features his definitive biographies: Steve Jobs, Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, and Leonardo da Vinci. “If anybody in America understands genius, it’s Walter Isaacson.” —SalonCelebrated historian, journalist, and bestselling author Walter Isaacson’s biography collection of geniuses now available in one boxed set—the perfect gift for history lovers everywhere. Steve Jobs: The “enthralling” (The New Yorker) worldwide bestselling biography of legendary Apple cofounder Steve Jobs. The story of the roller-coaster life and intense creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. Isaacson’s portrait touched millions of readers. Einstein: How did his mind work? What made him a genius? Isaacson’s biography of Albert Einstein—also the basis for the ten-part National Geographic series starring Geoffrey Rush—shows how Einstein’s scientific imagination sprang from the rebellious nature of his personality. His fascinating story is a testament to the connection between creativity and freedom. Benjamin Franklin: In this colorful and intimate narrative, Isaacson provides the full sweep of Ben Franklin’s amazing life, showing how the most fascinating Founding Father helped forge the American national identity. Leonardo da Vinci: History’s consummate innovator and most creative thinker. Isaacson illustrates how Leonardo’s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy.

A Best Book of 2020: The Washington Post * NPR * Chicago Tribune * Smithsonian A “remarkable” (Los Angeles Times), “seductive” (The Wall Street Journal) debut from the new cohost of Radiolab, Why Fish Don’t Exist is a dark and astonishing tale of love, chaos, scientific obsession, and—possibly—even murder.​ “At one point, Miller dives into the ocean into a school of fish…comes up for air, and realizes she’s in love. That’s how I felt: Her book took me to strange depths I never imagined, and I was smitten.” —The New York Times Book ReviewDavid Starr Jordan was a taxonomist, a man possessed with bringing order to the natural world. In time, he would be credited with discovering nearly a fifth of the fish known to humans in his day. But the more of the hidden blueprint of life he uncovered, the harder the universe seemed to try to thwart him. His specimen collections were demolished by lightning, by fire, and eventually by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake—which sent more than a thousand discoveries, housed in fragile glass jars, plummeting to the floor. In an instant, his life’s work was shattered. Many might have given up, given in to despair. But Jordan? He surveyed the wreckage at his feet, found the first fish that he recognized, and confidently began to rebuild his collection. And this time, he introduced one clever innovation that he believed would at last protect his work against the chaos of the world. When NPR reporter Lulu Miller first heard this anecdote in passing, she took Jordan for a fool—a cautionary tale in hubris, or denial. But as her own life slowly unraveled, she began to wonder about him. Perhaps instead he was a model for how to go on when all seemed lost. What she would unearth about his life would transform her understanding of history, morality, and the world beneath her feet. Part biography, part memoir, part scientific adventure, Why Fish Don’t Exist is a wondrous fable about how to persevere in a world where chaos will always prevail.

The dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of one man's forty-year obsession to find a solution to the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day--"the longitude problem."Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that "the longitude problem" was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day-and had been for centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Thousands of lives and the increasing fortunes of nations hung on a resolution. One man, John Harrison, in complete opposition to the scientific community, dared to imagine a mechanical solution-a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had ever been able to do on land. Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of Harrison's forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking, and opens a new window on our world.

En underholdende, livsbekræftende og rørende historie om at hage sig fast i livet og insistere på at være lykkelig. Komikeren Geo blev i 2012 erklæret rask efter at have haft kræft to gange - en kæmpe lettelse, der dog hurtigt blev afløst af spørgsmålet: Hva' så nu? Vejen tilbage til en almindelig hverdag har været lang og udfordrende. Geo sammenligner sig med bjergbestigeren, der minutiøst har planlagt, hvordan han når toppen, men ikke er forberedt på turen ned ad bjerget. Og det er netop på den krævende nedstigning, de alvorlige ulykker sker. I denne bog fortæller han hudløst ærligt om sine op- og nedture. Om kriser og kærlighed. Om angsten for kontroldatoer og den evige frygt for, at sygdommen kommer igen.

I det 19. århundrede var operationer ikke for de sarte. Datidens kirurger arbejdede under primitive uhygiejniske forhold uden bedøvelse. En god kirurg skulle først og fremmest være stærk og hurtig med sit værktøj. Det krævede styrke og held at overleve en operation, men dermed var trængslerne ikke forbi. Tiden efter indgrebet var ofte farligere end den sygdom eller de skader, patienten oprindeligt led under. Aggressive infektioner gjorde nemlig dødeligheden blandt nyopererede alarmerende høj. En ung melankolsk kirurg, Joseph Lister, løste mysteriet om desinfektionen og ændrede historiens gang. Listers metoder forandrede kirurgien fra at være et brutalt og primitivt håndværk til at være en moderne videnskab - og reddede samtidig hundredtusindvis af menneskeliv.

Den danske læge og passionerede samler Agner Møller (1892-1976) havnede i 1920’erne på den lille indonesiske ø Nias ud for Sumatras kyst. Agner Møller var langt mere interesseret i kulturen og etnografien end i at passe sit arbejde som læge – og en af Møllers bedrifter for eftertiden er, at han opkøbte et stort antal kulturgenstande og et helt høvdingehus, som han fik bugseret til København og Nationalmuseet.Den egensindige Møller giftede sig desuden med en purung høvdingedatter fra Nias, som han tog med hjem til Dan-mark trods stor modstand fra myndighederne og hustruen.Museumsinspektør på Nationalmuseet og forfatter Jesper Kurt-Nielsen har skrevet et biografisk portræt af en stor, kantet personlighed, hvis liv rummede mange konflikter og dramaer.Bogen er rigt illustreret.

Manden, der opfandt den moderne verden.Newton er en enestående skikkelse i menneskehedens historie – på den ene side måske den mest geniale videnskabsmand,der nogensinde har levet, på den anden sidealkymist og religiøs tænker.For første gang nogen sinde på dansk samler dr.phil. Carl Henrik Koch de mange facetter af geniet, og skriver levende, ikke bare om tænkeren, men også om mennesket Newton."... milepæl af en bog om geniet Newton" - Information"... et værk, der udfylder et tomrum, og som givetvis vil blive stående som standardværket herhjemme om en af Vestens største ånder." - Politiken"... imponerende indsigt i europæisk filosofi- og videnskabshistorie." - Berlingske

“Du kan hvis du vil er en imponerende fortælling om, hvad det kræver at blive mønsterbryder: et vist talent, en tryg opvækst og ikke mindst flid. Under vejs i denne personlige beretning får læseren også indblik i et stykke Danmarkshistorie, fortalt med glæde, entusiasme og en let pen.Denne vidunderlige bog er også en hyldest til livet!"- Professor Bente Klarlund

"A surprising, groundbreaking, and fiercely entertaining medical history that is both a collective narrative of women's bodies and a call to action for a new conversation around women's health."--

Piet Hein. En biografi er et smukt illustreret værk i to bind om en af Danmarks største og internationalt mest anerkendte kulturpersonligheder gennem tiden – digteren, tegneren, opfinderen og designeren Piet Hein (1905-1996).Piet Hein opnåede i sin levetid en popularitet, som er uden sidestykke i nyere dansk kulturhistorie. Hans ’Gruk’ er i bogform solgt i mere end halvanden million eksemplarer og oversat til mere end 20 sprog. Piet Hein er en af de mest citerede danske digtere nogensinde – formentlig dén mest citerede. Dertil kommer 3.100 registrerede og katalogiserede idéer, hvoraf kun en brøkdel har set dagens lys, og hvor superellipsen og superægget for længst har manifesteret sig i toppen af dansk design.Værket præsenterer den første store, samlede og folkelige biografi om Piet Hein. I oktober 2023 udkommer bind 1, De unge år 1905-1956, der omhandler de tidlige år og følger den unge Piet Heins udvikling som designer og digter og berømthed i Danmark. Andet bind, De modne år 1957-1996, udkommer i oktober 2024.Peter Borberg (f. 1972) har gennem Piet Heins søn, Hugo Piet Hein, fået eksklusivt adgang til Piet Heins private arkiv, som tæller tusinder af breve, avisartikler, dokumenter, fotografier, tegninger og udkast til produkter, der aldrig før har været fremme.Peter Borberg er mag.art. i nordisk sprog og litteratur og journalist. Han har udgivet flere kulturhistoriske og dokumentariske bøger, bl.a. Storm P. En biografi (2017), der blev særdeles godt modtaget i pressen og af danske anmeldere, og for hvilken forfatteren modtog Storm P. Prisen 2018.

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLERWINNER OF THE 2024 NATIONAL OUTBOOK AWARD FOR JOURNEYSSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 SPEAKER'S BOOK AWARDFINALIST FOR THE BANFF MOUNTAIN BOOK COMPETITION FOR ADVENTURE TRAVELFrom Canada’s most accomplished adventurer and storyteller comes a gripping journey into the vastness of Canada’s landscape and history.Looking out his porch window one spring morning, Adam Shoalts spotted a majestic peregrine falcon flying across the neighbouring fields near Lake Erie. Each spring, falcons migrate from southernmost Canada to remote arctic mountains. Grabbing his backpack and canoe, Shoalts resolved to follow the falcon’s route north on an astonishing 3,400-kilometre journey to the Arctic.Along the way, he faces a huge variety of challenges and obstacles, including storms on the Great Lakes, finding campsites in the urban wilderness of Toronto and Montreal, avoiding busy commercial freighter traffic, gale force winds, massive hydroelectric dams, bushwhacking without trails, dealing with hunger, multiple bear encounters, and navigating white-water rapids on icy northern rivers far from any help.In his signature style, Shoalts roams as much across space as he does time, winding his way through a stunning diversity of landscapes ranging from lush Carolinian forests to lonely windswept mountains, salty seas to trackless swamps, pristine lakes to glittering mega-cities, as well as the sites of long ago battles, shipwrecks, forgotten forts, and abandoned trading posts. Through his travels, he reveals how interconnected wild places are, from the loneliest depths of the northern wilderness to busy urban parks, and the vital importance of these connections.Where the Falcon Flies invites readers on an extraordinary armchair adventure that spans five ecoregions and centuries of fascinating history, and is a masterwork by one of Canada’s most successful and audacious authors.

`Locked-in syndrome: paralysed from head to toe, the patient, his mind intact, is imprisoned inside his own body, unable to speak or move. In my case, blinking my left eyelid is my only means of communication.'

A scientist's journey from observation to discovery is anything but straightforward. It is littered with failure, unexpected diversions and joyous realizations. Science helps us to understand ourselves - but what we know about the world around us, what has already been explored and discovered, is only half of science's story. Dr Camilla Pang will look at some of the biggest mysteries facing science today and how some of the best, most cutting-edge scientists can illuminate our own approaches to observation, hypothesis, exploration, troubleshooting and discovery in our own lives.

"As a pioneer of ubiquitous computing-the embedding of technology in everyday objects from thermostats to doorbells-computer scientist Mark Weiser's descriptions of smart homes, now thirty years later, might seem to approach our reality. Weiser's views certainly influenced our technology's developers-his 1991 Scientific American article 'The Computer for the 21st Century' was flagged a must-read by Microsoft's Bill Gates and then circulated among the day's digirati, including those Silicon Valley insiders who crowded his beer garden-based 'office hours.' Unlike many of his contemporaries, Weiser's vision was motivated by the philosophies of Michael Polanyi and Martin Heidegger, collaboration with anthropologists such as Lucy Suchman, and insights from artists including Natalie Jeremijenko. He hoped to realize 'tacit computing' as an escape from a single attention-grabbing screen as a portal to work, entertainment, and education. When rivals such as Nicholas Negroponte at MIT's Media Lab championed the development of smart agents (the ancestors of Siri and Alexa) or pervasive sensing in wearable technologies (proto-Fitbits or Apple Watches), Weiser balked. Weiser wanted computers to be something closer to the white cane a person with low vision might use to navigate the world. Good technology, he argued, should not mine our experiences for data to sell or demand our attention. Technology should not rob its users of the hardships that establish their expertise, but instead give them the ability to conceive of the world in new ways. In this compelling biography of a person and idea, digital studies scholar John Tinnell shows Weiser, who died of cancer at 46, would be heartbroken if he had lived to see the ways we use technology today. Informed by deep archival research and interviews with Weiser's family and Xerox PARC colleagues, this book uses Weiser's life to offer a new history of today's technological reality, an inside view of Xerox PARC during its heyday, and a compelling vision of what computers failed to be"--

From the 2021 Nobel Prize winner in Physics, a remarkable journey into the practice of groundbreaking science 'Giorgio Parisi is renowned for his scientific creativity, originality, and power. In this exhilarating little book, he shows his human side, too. By its end, readers will feel they've made a charming, witty new friend' Frank WilczekThe world is shaped by complexity. In this enlightening book, Nobel Prize winner Giorgio Parisi guides us through his unorthodox yet exhilarating work to show us how. It all starts with investigating the principles of physics by observing the sophisticated flight patterns of starlings. Studying the movements of these birds, he has realized, proves an illuminating way into understanding complex systems of all kinds - collections of everything from atoms to planets to other animals like ourselves. Along the way, Parisi reflects on the lessons he's taken from a life in pursuit of scientific truth: the importance of serendipity to the discovery of new ideas, the surprising kinship between physics and other fields of study and the value of science to a thriving society. In so doing, he removes the practice of science from the confines of the laboratory and into the real world. Complexity is all around us - from climate to finance to biology, it offers a unique way of finding order in chaos. Part elegant scientific treatise, part thrilling intellectual journey, In a Flight of Starlings is an invitation to find wonder in the world around us.

A doctor's powerful and deeply human memoir about the mysteries of the brain and his 40-year quest to find a treatment for multiple sclerosis.Stephen L. Hauser is an acclaimed physician and neuroimmunologist who has spent his career performing cutting-edge research on multiple sclerosis (MS), a devastating brain disease that affects millions of people worldwide. His work has revolutionized our understanding of the genetics, immunology and treatment of MS, and led to the development of B cell therapies-the most effective therapy for all forms of MS and the only therapy currently in place for progressive MS patients.The Face Laughs While The Brain Cries is a riveting memoir that follows Dr. Hauser from his unorthodox upbringing among the colorful cast of characters responsible for his development into a tenacious and innovative researcher, to the life-changing medical breakthroughs he has made against extremely long odds. Along the way, readers will learn the incredible stories of many of his patients, whose bravery, strength, and optimism in the face of a debilitating illness were instrumental to the progress that has been made in the fight against MS. This heartwarming book, written in accessible prose and related with equal measures of humor, empathy, and excitement, is sure to inspire.

'If you did not think that gallium and iridium could move you, this superb book will change your mind' The Times In Uncle Tungsten, Oliver Sacks evokes, with warmth and wit, his upbringing in wartime England. He tells of the large science-steeped family who fostered his early fascination with chemistry. There follow his years at boarding school where, though unhappy, he developed the intellectual curiosity that would shape his later life. And we hear of his return to London, an emotionally bereft ten-year-old who found solace in his passion for learning. Uncle Tungsten radiates all the delight and wonder of a boy's adventures, and is an unforgettable portrait of an extraordinary young mind.

"An insider's perspective into technological innovation and public affairs during the 20th century, from the distinguished scientist and policy-maker who played an active and decisive role in shaping them. Vannevar Bush offers lessons and observations from one of the most fruitful periods of the innovation ecosystem, and shares insights for future generations seeking to advance scientific and technological progress"--