Reviews for Seafaring Scientist: Alfred Goldsborough Mayor, Pioneer in Marine Biology

The average rating for Seafaring Scientist: Alfred Goldsborough Mayor, Pioneer in Marine Biology based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-08-02 00:00:00 Cheuk Lai Sarah Au I'm at odds about this book. On one hand, I very much enjoyed learning more about herpetology and field biology. The best parts of the book, I thought, delved into advances in the classification of snakes and description of key species. Did you know that virtually all snakes are poisonous but that some are simply not toxic enough to affect humans? I didn't. That some "primitive" snakes such as pythons have pairs of organs (kidneys, lungs, etc.), but that more "evolved" snakes have single organs, making them more streamlined and efficient? Or that those who survive the nearly-always-fatal bite of the Russell's viper undergo a peculiar pituitary reversal, taking on childlike characteristics and becoming hairless, impotent, and sterile? This sort of snake lore provided a fascinating glimpse into a little-known world. However, overall the book is structured as a biography with herpetological interludes. It commences at the moment when Joe Slowinski, a gifted but reckless herpetologist, was bitten by one of the world's most deadly snakes during an ill-fated expedition in a remote region of Burma. The book then breaks off and returns to Slowinski's childhood and progresses gradually back to the point of the fatal bite, which ultimately kills Slowinski after prolonged and heroic efforts to keep him alive. Author James, in the epilogue, makes the connection between Slowinski's rashness and overconfidence and his death, but I still had difficulty overcoming an aversion to the beer-swilling, macho Slowinski, who at thirty-eight still behaved like a disarmingly charming but socially stunted twelve-year-old. I suppose I've met too many characters in this mold over the years to retain much regard for them. They gravitate toward the never-never land of labs and field research, places that allow them to obsess over a chosen subject, insulated from significant moral and social development. James does a good job of scrupulously telling Slowinski's tale, and he has a clear, easy-to-digest style that makes for rapid reading. But I found myself wondering if his efforts to be even handed about his subject -- not to mention safeguard access to his sources of information, including Slowinski's parents, sister, and friends -- led him to indulge in a bit of hagiography. Slowinski's manner of death may have been sensational, but I didn't feel his life merited the full biographical treatment.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-02-06 00:00:00 Wesley Gregory "No snake kills with more ruthless efficiency than the many-banded krait, which dwells in the jungles of India and Southeast Asia." How can you not love a book that starts out like this?! The Snake Charmer appears on the surface to be a biography of a "herper", or snake guy, but it's much more than that. It's a travelogue of both far away places and local fossil hunting grounds, it's a treatise on the academic world of scientists, it's a terrifying study of venomous snakes worldwide. It's an adventure story following the exploits of Joe Slowinski, one of the most brilliant biologists of his time'and the first academic herpetologist ever to die of snakebite in the field. This book contains fascinating information about spitting cobras, flying snakes, pythons, the deadly Australian Inland taipan, coral snakes, copperheads, and the many-banded krait, which is the most toxic land snake found outside of Australia. And it contains the record of Joe's slow death as the neurotoxin affects his ability to move, breathe, or speak'as his colleagues perform round the clock CPR on him while they try to get a helicoptor to save him. Even though you know from the beginning that Joe is killed by the snake, the writing is riveting and you hope against hope that he is saved... I recommend for anyone who likes science, snakes, or true adventure books!