Interesting connection in this section between the textile industry and medicine.
Golden: "Biology was chemisty: perhaps even a human body was no different from a bag of busily reacting chemicals--a beaker with arms, legs, eyes, brain, and soul" (83).
So, has anyone picked up the "Spark Notes" version of this book? It probably isn't Sparknotes, actually, but some other brand. What is the comparison between those and the regular text? I don't own those and so I am curious.
What are you noticing?
At the beginning of the chapter I thought why is this being put in the book it makes no sense but then towards the middle I noticed the connection! I thought it was very interesting to read about the mustard gas and how it was used and the effects it had. It surprised me when they found out it could potentially help people with leukemia but then they did not act on it. they just passed over it as if it wouldn't be worth trying! The way they found out about chemotherapy was very intriguing, kind of humorous that it was discovered in the middle of the night on a train instead of in some laboratory in a basement. Also on a side note it was very cool to learn about how they made different dyes back then and how it all began, especially how Germany wanted to become apart of this breakthrough but didn't have the natural dyes so instead made artificial ones! Extremely interesting!
ReplyDeleteHey! I thought you were someplace fun!
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I wrote "Golden Line!" in margin before I even read this post! That's really exciting for me. Secondly, I'm completely with Emma- I was struggling to make the connection and then all of a sudden it made sense. The way that Mukherjee tied everything together in a moment of revelation was pretty amazing. It definitely added to my experience with this chapter.
ReplyDeleteHere's an article I saw that reminded me of our reading:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/08/science/after-decades-of-research-henrietta-lacks-family-is-asked-for-consent.html?s