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Product Description
Product Description
A tale of the elegant yet ruthless world of science in which Cantor embarks on an experiment that will earn him the Nobel Prize. Celly Price is also pursuing a promising career and her aunt Paula discovers Cantor's other passions - chamber music, erotic art, and her.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the Author
Consider this novel as a teaching tool
This novel is the first volume in a tetralogy of novels in the rarely used genre of "science-in-fiction"--not to be confused with science fiction. (For further explanation, see Djerassi's home page). CANTOR'S DILEMMA came out in paperback in 1991 (Penguin-USA) and has had to be reprinted once or twice every year since then because it is now used as a text or supplementary reading in many colleges and universities (and even some high schools)to illuminate the highly tribal culture of contemporary research scientists. Of particular relevance are the ethical issues raised in this novel and the subsequent volumes (THE BOURBAKI GAMBIT and MENACHEM'S SEED).Though presented in the guise of fiction, they deal with urgent, timely real issues as indicated by the following title of one of Djerassi's lectures: "NOBLE SCIENCE AND NOBEL LUST: DISCLOSING TRIBAL SECRETS THROUGH SCIENCE-IN-FICTION." Queries as well as commentary or criticism are welcome via e-mail (djerassi@stanford.com).
This novel is the first volume in a tetralogy of novels in the rarely used genre of "science-in-fiction"--not to be confused with science fiction. (For further explanation, see Djerassi's home page). CANTOR'S DILEMMA came out in paperback in 1991 (Penguin-USA) and has had to be reprinted once or twice every year since then because it is now used as a text or supplementary reading in many colleges and universities (and even some high schools)to illuminate the highly tribal culture of contemporary research scientists. Of particular relevance are the ethical issues raised in this novel and the subsequent volumes (THE BOURBAKI GAMBIT and MENACHEM'S SEED).Though presented in the guise of fiction, they deal with urgent, timely real issues as indicated by the following title of one of Djerassi's lectures: "NOBLE SCIENCE AND NOBEL LUST: DISCLOSING TRIBAL SECRETS THROUGH SCIENCE-IN-FICTION." Queries as well as commentary or criticism are welcome via e-mail (djerassi@stanford.com).
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Carl Djerassi's "Cantor's Dilemma" appeared right around the time of the "cold fusion" controversy, some 20 years back. The novel's examination of the issue of scientific fraud was thus timely, and remains so now, as a way of examining the potential lengths that scientists may go to get the results that they hope to get. In that sense, scientists are human just like other people, in seeing at times what they want to see. It should be noted that in this scenario of fictional scientists like Isidore Cantor and Jeremiah Stafford, in work that is ground-breaking enough to lead to a Nobel Prize, it is never explicitly stated that one of the parties in the scientific work actually committed fraud in the lab. However, there's enough ambiguity to leave one wondering through the whole story, which is part of Djerassi's point, after all.
The novel reads breezily and goes down easily, even when it expostulates on the fictional tumorigenesis cancer theory. Djerassi is skillful enough to write such that any science doesn't overwhelm the intelligent lay person who isn't necessarily a scientist. However, while the topic is important and worthy of discussion by all people, scientists and non-scientists, to me at least, this novel is not "great literature", by any stretch of the imagination. The prose style is fairly pedestrian, almost journalistic in its straightforwardness. Any deeper resonances come from the dramatic situations and the continually teasing ambiguity of just what happened with respect to the key experiments.
In short: if you read this novel, it'll be for the "big idea" under discussion here, in Djerassi's self-coined genre of "science in fiction", and not because this is a "great novel", which it isn't.
The novel reads breezily and goes down easily, even when it expostulates on the fictional tumorigenesis cancer theory. Djerassi is skillful enough to write such that any science doesn't overwhelm the intelligent lay person who isn't necessarily a scientist. However, while the topic is important and worthy of discussion by all people, scientists and non-scientists, to me at least, this novel is not "great literature", by any stretch of the imagination. The prose style is fairly pedestrian, almost journalistic in its straightforwardness. Any deeper resonances come from the dramatic situations and the continually teasing ambiguity of just what happened with respect to the key experiments.
In short: if you read this novel, it'll be for the "big idea" under discussion here, in Djerassi's self-coined genre of "science in fiction", and not because this is a "great novel", which it isn't.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Part two of "Father of the pill" Djerassi's tetraology dealing with Science in Fiction. Djerassi's novel examines fraud and big science at its seediest.
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Kudos for Dr. Djerassi for sharing with us his knowledge about the inner works of science in an entertaining way. Anyone interested in a career in hardcore science in the U.S. should read this book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
That's what happening!
It reveals the bones of human and tells us the reality.
Published on 1 April 1999
must read for graduate students in science!
this book's reputation precedes inself but the actual book outdoes its reputation. wonderful and insightful and frightfully real. Read more
Published on 15 Jun 1997
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