Synopses & Reviews
Smells can make you fall in love. Parasites can make you crazy. Faith is in the genes. There are fires burning inside your cells and lies flaming in your thymus...Intensely personal and brilliantly scientific, Faith, Madness, and Spontaneous Human Combustion reveals the startling ways in which science--especially immunology and pathology-shapes our destinies, and how something as intimate as our own identities can be connected to the intricate workings of the machines known as our bodies.
Synopsis
Smells can make you fall in love. Parasites can make you crazy...What immunology and pathology can teach us about self-perception.
Synopsis
Intensely personal and brilliantly scientific, Faith, Madness, and Spontaneous Human Combustion reveals the startling ways in which science especially immunology and pathology shapes our destinies, and how something as intimate as our own identities can be connected to the intricate workings of the machines known as our bodies.
Each of the dozen essays in this far-ranging collection could be expanded into a book...Analogizing to striking effect, Callahan conveys both science and sympathy. It is hard to think of a type of reader who wouldn t be intrigued by this fascinating book. Booklist
Callahan is a Carl Sagan, an Isaac Asimov of our times. Albuquerque Journal"
About the Author
Gerald N. Callahan, Ph.D., is a professor of immunology at Colorado State University. He has more than thirty years of experience in modern biomedical research. His science articles have appeared in Nature, Journal of Experimental Medicine, and Journal of Immunology. Callahan is also a poet and essayist, and his writings have been published by Creative Nonfiction, Southern Poetry Review, and Cream City Review.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Self-Creation
Chimera
Self and Antiself
Eating Dirt
Self-Defense
Self-Improvement
Light and Shadow
Watermarks
The Flame Within
Madness
Self-Transformation
Acorns of Faith
Forgiving the Father
Saved by Death
The Metamorphosis
Epilogue
Sources