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Sam Kean

    1 janvier 1953

    Sam Kean explore les intersections fascinantes et souvent inattendues entre la science et les histoires humaines. Avec un sens aigu du détail et une prose accessible, il révèle des liens cachés au sein des sciences naturelles et leur impact sur la société. Son écriture entraîne les lecteurs dans un monde de découvertes et de faits insolites, tout en les ancrant dans l'expérience humaine. Kean possède un talent unique pour rendre les sujets complexes captivants et compréhensibles, incitant les lecteurs à réfléchir plus profondément.

    Sam Kean
    The Violinist´s Thumb
    The disappearing spoon : and other true tales from the Periodic Table
    The Icepick Surgeon
    The Bastard Brigade
    Caesar's Last Breath
    The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons
    • The Icepick Surgeon

      Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science

      • 368pages
      • 13 heures de lecture

      Obsession in the scientific community can lead to dangerous consequences, as illustrated in this true story. Bestselling author Sam Kean explores how ambition can drive otherwise rational individuals to breach ethical boundaries and commit crimes, all in the pursuit of knowledge. The narrative delves into the darker side of science, revealing the potential for noble intentions to warp into sinister actions when the pursuit of discovery becomes an all-consuming obsession.

      The Icepick Surgeon2021
      4,2
    • The Bastard Brigade

      • 496pages
      • 18 heures de lecture

      New York Times bestselling author Sam Kean tells the incredible story of how a renegade group of spies kept Hitler from obtaining his ultimate prize: a nuclear bomb.

      The Bastard Brigade2020
      4,4
    • Caesar's Last Breath

      • 384pages
      • 14 heures de lecture

      ** GUARDIAN SCIENCE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 ** 'Popular science at its best' Mail on Sunday 'Eminently accessible and enjoyable' Observer With every breath, you literally inhale the history of the world. On the ides of March, 44 BC, Julius Caesar died of stab wounds in the Roman Senate, but the story of his last breath is still unfolding. In fact, you're probably inhaling some of it now. Of the sextillions of molecules entering or leaving your lungs at this moment, some might also bear traces of Cleopatra's perfumes, German mustard gas, particles exhaled by dinosaurs or emitted by atomic bombs, even remnants of stardust from the universe's creation. In Caesar's Last Breath, New York Times bestselling author Sam Kean takes us on a journey through the periodic table, around the globe and across time to tell the epic story of the air we breathe.

      Caesar's Last Breath2018
      4,4
    • The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons

      • 432pages
      • 16 heures de lecture

      From the author of the bestsellers The Disappearing Spoon and The Violinist's Thumb, fascinating tales of the brain and the history of neuroscience. Early studies of the functions of the human brain used a simple method: wait for misfortune to strike-strokes, seizures, infectious diseases, lobotomies, horrendous accidents-and see how the victim coped. In many cases survival was miraculous, and observers could only marvel at the transformations that took place afterward, altering victims' personalities. An injury to one section can leave a person unable to recognize loved ones; some brain trauma can even make you a pathological gambler, pedophile, or liar. But a few scientists realized that these injuries were an opportunity for studying brain function at its extremes. With lucid explanations and incisive wit, Sam Kean explains the brain's secret passageways while recounting forgotten stories of common people whose struggles, resiliency, and deep humanity made modern neuroscience possible.

      The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons2015
      4,4
    • Was treibt die Fruchtfliege in der Milchflasche? Warum häuten wir uns, wenn wir die Leber eines Eisbären essen? Wieso war John F. Kennedy selbst im Weißen Haus immer sonnengebräunt? Weshalb sahen die ägyptischen Pharaonen aus wie Außerirdische? Weswegen waren Paganinis Finger schneller als die aller anderen Geiger? Und warum war Einstein eigentlich so schlau? Diese und viele weitere Fragen beantwortet Sam Kean in seinem neuen Buch. Er entführt den Leser in die wundersame Welt der Genetik und erzählt von faszinierenden Erkenntnissen, die diese Wissenschaft seit dem vorletzten Jahrhundert gewonnen hat. In einem gekonnten Mix aus humorvollen Geschichten und anschaulichen Erklärungen öffnet Sam Kean für uns Nichtwissenschaftler ein verführerisches Tor zu einem elementaren Bereich des Lebens.

      Doppelhelix hält besser2013
      3,5
    • The Violinist´s Thumb

      • 496pages
      • 18 heures de lecture

      Did the human race almost go extinct? Can genetics explain a cat lady's love for felines? And how did the right combination of genes create the exceptionally flexible thumbs and fingers of a truly singular violinist? This title explains how genetics has shaped our past and how DNA will determine humankind's future.

      The Violinist´s Thumb2012
      4,0
    • Why did Gandhi hate iodine (I, 53)? Why did the Japanese kill Godzilla with missiles made of cadmium (Cd, 48)? How did radium (Ra, 88) nearly ruin Marie Curie's reputation? And why did tellurium (Te, 52) lead to the most bizarre gold rush in history? The periodic table is one of our crowning scientific achievements, but it's also a treasure trove of passion, adventure, betrayal and obsession. The fascinating tales in The Disappearing Spoon follow carbon, neon, silicon, gold and every single element on the table as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, conflict, the arts, medicine and the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them. Why did a little lithium (Li, 3) help cure poet Robert Lowell of his madness? And how did gallium (Ga, 31) become the go-to element for laboratory pranksters? The Disappearing Spoon has the answers, fusing science with the classic lore of invention, investigation, discovery and alchemy, from the big bang through to the end of time

      The disappearing spoon : and other true tales from the Periodic Table2011
      4,0