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Dear Doctor Franklin: E-mails to a Founding Father about Science, Medicine and Technology
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by Stuart A. Green
Sales Rank: 723474
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List Price: $24.95
$24.95
At Amazon
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Perfect Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Diane Publishing January 31, 2008
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1422394700
ISBN-13: 978-1422394700
Shipping Information:
Product Description
In this unique book on the history of science, Green writes e-mails to Benjamin Franklin, who died in 1790 but whom Green imagines being brought back to life now, about developments over the past two centuries: I've written these e-mails assuming that you carried out the wish you described in 1773: I should prefer to any ordinary death, being immersed in a cask of Madeira wine . . . to be later recalled to life by the solar warmth of my dear country . These e-mails inform Franklin of progress in science, medicine and technology from his time til now. Includes more than seventy portraits of Franklin s friends ad relatives, and of those researchers who ve led medical and scientific advances during the past two centuries. Illustrations.
Customer Reviews & Comments
Some of us are lucky in life to master one discipline. And probably content to do so. Clearly that was not the agenda of Benjamin Franklin, arguably the closest thing to a Renaissance Man since well, the Renaissance. Author, printer, politician, satirist, statesman, diplomat, educator, musician, bon vivant and most assuredly, scientist, Ben has rightfully earned his epithet of "Founding Father." It seems if there was something to find back in the 18th century, he found it. What's so utterly charming about this Franklin book by Stuart Green (who happens to be a fellow doctor, scientist, globetrotter, photographer and Franklinophile) is it's sheer originality. Certainly the inventor of the lightning rod, bifocals, the eponymous Franklin stove, flexible urinary catheter, et al, would be just as conversant in today's web-based e-communications. After all, what Renaissance Man would be caught dead without email? Of course, given Old Ben's predilection for eternal entombment in a cask of madeira wine, one can speculate on whether he's not among us in the first place. Hence, this book. Doctor Green to Doctor Franklin in an assortment of edifying, humorous, satirical email observations about the state of the scientific state over the past couple of hundred years is eye-opening, smile-inducing and just plain readable fun. It's like HG Wells' time-machine all over again. Only the machine is a laptop (one can only assume that Ben had an early design for this device as well; my hunch is it would have been a Mac). It's science for both scientist and layman (count me in the latter) with a wonderful twist. Pull up a chair, pour yourself some madeira and dig in. It'll make you healthy, wealthy and wise.
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Dear Doctor Franklin: E-mails to a Founding Father about Science, Medicine and Technology
List Price: $24.95
Available from Amazon
Price: $24.95
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