Apprentice to Genius

Robert Kanigel is a professional science writer. His recent book, The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan, was a national bestseller and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for biography in 1992.

• Introduction1. Nobel Laureate2. A Wartime Urgency3. Steve Brodie, Methyl Orange, and the New Pharmacology4. Brodie and Axelrod: "Let's Take a Flier on It"5. Building 3: "All He Had to Do Was Whistle"6. Separate Ways7. Julie's Lab8. The Golden Era9. Johns Hopkins10. The Opiate Receptor: "Just Get Hysterical and Do It"11. The Lasker Flap12. The Mentor Chain13. 198514. Epilogue: 1993AcknowledgmentsIndex

A beguiling combination of sociological and scientific scholarship, straight reporting and titillating voyeurism. Isis Making extensive use of interviews and anecdote, Kanigel depicts how, in a mentor-to-protege chain starting with James Shannon and moving to Bernard Brodie and then to Julius Axelrod, the legacy of creativity and empirical style has passed to Snyder and then to Pert. Science As compelling as a Jackie Collins novel, though with bigger words. Chicago Tribune