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The Egg and Sperm Race: The Seventeenth-Century Scientists Who Unlocked the Secrets of Sex and Growth - Hardcover
Where do we come from? Where do animals come from? For thousands of years we really had no clue how living things were created - great thinkers like Aristotle and Plato had attempted to explain what became known as the problem of 'generation', but neither really had the tools or the insight to solve the mystery. The result was a wealth of weird and wonderful ideas about the components necessary to create new life - blood, 'vapours', strange pulses in the air. Nor did people make intuitive leaps that now seem self-evident: it was widely accepted that animals could breed different species, for example; the notion that two sheep can only make another sheep is a surprisingly modern idea. But all this confusion changed in a flurry of discovery in the mid-seventeenth century. In just a decade, a group of young scientists in Europe, all known to each other and in competition with each other, established the existence first of the human egg and then of the human sperm. At last, the building blocks were in place - although, in one of the great ironies of science, it would be another 150 years before someone worked out how fertilisation actually took place. Focusing on the personalities and rivalries of this extraordinary period, Matthew Cobb has shed new light not just on an under-reported story of science but on our very nature - what makes us, and how little we still know about one of the greatest miracles of Nature.
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Review:
'A fascinating subject, full of arresting material and personalities' -- Lisa Jardine, Sunday Times
'Lively . . . You can almost smell the formaldehyde on the page' -- Financial Times
About the Author:
'Lively . . . You can almost smell the formaldehyde on the page' -- Financial Times
MATTHEW COBB is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Manchester. He has translated five books from French into English, and spent most of his adult life as a researcher in Paris, before returning to the UK in 2002.
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- PublisherFree Press
- Publication date2006
- ISBN 10 0743276094
- ISBN 13 9780743276092
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages352
- Rating
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The Egg and Sperm Race: The Seventeenth-Century Scientists Who Unlocked the Secrets of Sex and Growth
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Free Press, London
(2006)
ISBN 10: 0743276094
ISBN 13: 9780743276092
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good+. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good+. First Edition. Yellowed paper; Index, chronology. "sheds light on our very nature - what makes us, and how little we still know about one of the greatest miracles of Nature. "550gms weight; B&W Illustrations; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 338 pages. Seller Inventory # 38658
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The Egg & Sperm Race: The Seventeenth Century Scientists Who Unravelled the Secret of Sex, Life and Growth
Published by
Free Press, London
(2006)
ISBN 10: 0743276094
ISBN 13: 9780743276092
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First Edition. First impression. Size: 8vo <9 3/4". xvi + 333pp. Internally clean. Binding firm, spine cocked. Dust Jacket slightly creased. Edges browned. Corners bumped. Illustrated. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilogram. Category: Natural History & Resources; Renaissance 16thc to 17thc; Science & Technology. ISBN: 0743276094. ISBN/EAN: 9780743276092. Pictures of this item not already displayed here available upon request. Inventory No: 48776. Seller Inventory # 48776
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The Egg and Sperm Race : The Seventeenth-Century Scientists Who Unlocked the Secrets of Sex and Growth
Published by
Simon & Schuster, London
(2006)
ISBN 10: 0743276094
ISBN 13: 9780743276092
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: As New. Dust Jacket Condition: As New. First Edition. Hardcover. *** PUBLISHING DETAILS: Simon & Schuster, London, 2006. First Edition. *** CONDITION: The book itself is in as new condition and comes in as new dust jacket. More specifically: Boards have no wear, rubbing or soiling. Dust jacket is in excellent condtion. . Pages are clean and unmarked and in excellent condition. This book is an unread copy. *** ABOUT THIS BOOK: Where do we come from? Where do animals come from? For thousands of years we really had no clue how living things were created - great thinkers like Aristotle and Plato had attempted to explain what became known as the problem of 'generation', but neither really had the tools or the insight to solve the mystery. The result was a wealth of weird and wonderful ideas about the components necessary to create new life - blood, "vapours", strange pulses in the air. Nor did people make intuitive leaps that now seem self-evident: it was widely accepted that animals could breed different species, for example; the notion that two sheep can only make another sheep is a surprisingly modern idea. But all this confusion changed in a flurry of discovery in the mid-seventeenth century. In just a decade, a group of young scientists in Europe, all known to each other and in competition with each other, established the existence first of the human egg and then of the human sperm. At last, the building blocks were in place - although, in one of the great ironies of science, it would be another 150 years before someone worked out how fertilisation actually took place. Focusing on the personalities and rivalries of this extraordinary period, Matthew Cobb has shed new light not just on an under-reported story of science but on our very nature - what makes us, and how little we still know about one of the greatest miracles of Nature. *** Quantity Available: 7. Category: History; Renaissance 16thc to 17thc; ISBN: 0743276094. ISBN/EAN: 9780743276092. Inventory No: 09010182. This item is in stock in our Australian warehouse. We are not dropshippers. Seller Inventory # 09010182
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