Word: essayed
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Journeying through centuries of placebo usage, the first essay of the book aims to determine whether or not the placebo is "much ado about nothing"; co-authors Arthur Shapiro and his wife Elaine present the reader with a flurry of esoteric yet entertaining historical tidbits. Though the knowledge that the 17th-century drug called "Vigo's plaster" was made of viper's flesh, live frogs, and worms may not necessarily be the best conversation-starter, such detail paints an elaborate portrait of the blind, haphazard healing practices of prescientific medics at which even the least scientifically-inclined person can gasp...
...welcome divergence arrives in the ninth essay, David B. Morris' "Placebo, Pain, and Belief: A Biocultural Model," which departs from the heavily clinical investigations of preceding chapters to reestablish the broader, sociological approach utilized by the Shapiros. Linking human behavioral biology to cultural conceptions which range from early Native American culture to present-day society, Morris' argument discusses the resurgence of placebo research and the role of endorphins with vivid allusions to historical and religious conceptions of pain. The capstone of the essay section of the book, Morris' work also prepares the reader for the long-awaited highlight of Harrington...
...comes historian Linda Lear with Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature (Henry Holt; 634 pages; $35), a probing and scrupulously footnoted account of this extraordinary woman's life. Carson was a publishing oxymoron--a prodigy who published her first essay in St. Nicholas Magazine at age 11, and a late bloomer who found success as a writer only in her 40s. Through letters and interviews Lear reconstructs an early life in which Carson had to defer dreams of becoming a scientist in order to help support her family following the failed schemes of an ineffectual father and tragedies that befell hapless...
Frequent readers of this column will recall that, during the nearly two years I have written it. I have never published an essay on the Undergraduate Council. The reason is simple: I have served on the council for the last two years, and have felt uneasy at the prospect of being a critic as well as a member. However, our President's recent submission to the newspaper and the fact that the council year has not yet started makes me less wary-so here goes...
Garry Trudeau intended to be humorous in his satiric look at the home life of Russian cosmonaut Vasily Tsibliyev and his wife [ESSAY, Sept. 1], but succeeded only in painting a very negative image of Tsibliyev as a bumbler. How easy it is for Trudeau to take the difficulties of the Mir space station and place them squarely on the shoulders of one person. Putting a space station thousands of miles above the earth is a great scientific achievement. Just because Tsibliyev is a Russian, he is ridiculed. Don't forget that Mir is the only manned space station...