"Stories focus on the uses and misuses of science as it affects both the scientists and their families and contemporaries... Ramn y Cajal was himself an eminent scientist who retained a faith in the scientific method and its potential for progress if properly used. Otis translates these stories skillfully, giving the flavor of the author's convoluted 19th-century Spanish, high diction, and technical terms without allowing his style to overwhelm the reader." -- Choice "Explores the allure and danger of scientific curiosity in these tales first published in 1905, a year before [Ramn y Cajal] was awarded the Nobel Prize." -- Discover Magazine "The translator has done a remarkable job of translating nineteenth-century Spanish into twenty-first century English, making these works accessible to the modern non-Spanish reader... Should be read for the insight it provides tino the mind of one of history's most important neuroscientiests." -- Daniel E. Greenblatt, Journal of the History of Neurosciences "Many aspects [of these stories] have a disturbingly perennial relevance, not least the deliberate use of bacterial contamination for revenge. Cajal's target is less the marvels and methods of science than the minds and machinations of scientists, and there is stringent criticism of those who manipulate scientific knowledge to dehumanize and suppress ignorant people. At the same time, science, used benevolently, represents Cajal's only faith for the future of humanity." -- Roslynn Haynes, Bulletin of Historical Medicine ADVANCE PRAISE "Those in the scientific world who know him only though his scientific works will find a different Cajal in the Vacation Stories: less constrained by the formulaic demands of anatomical description typical of the era in which he wrote, and at liberty to indulge wit and flights of fancy that, while commonly showing through in his scientific works, are here unbounded... Laura Otis has done a fine job of producing a readable and at times racy account which preserves much of the lan of the original." - Edward G. Jones, director, Center for Neuroscience, University of California at Davis "Fascinating reading ... Laura Otis provides a superb introduction to Cajal's visual thinking as well as to the relationship between his creative writing and his science. Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended to anyone interested in neuroscience or the thinking of this great neuroanatomist!" - Hugh R. Wilson, York University, Toronto
Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934) won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1906 for proving that neurons are independent cells.
Laura Otis is a professor of English and liberal arts at Emory University. She holds an M.A. in neuroscience, a Ph.D. in comparative literature, and is the recipient of a MacArthur "genius" grant.