Did you see the article in the New York Times this week about The Immortalists?
In 1935, two geniuses made a tantalizing step towards the lofty goal of eternal life, when they removed a cat's thyroid gland and attached it to a pump designed to flood the organ with nutrients and oxygen. The surgeon was Dr Alexis Carrel, winner of the 1912 Nobel Prize for Medicine. Carrel is regarded as the father of organ transplants and open heart surgery. The inventor of the pump was Charles A. Lindbergh, famous pilot and accomplished engineer. Together they were determined to find life without death. Their collaboration went off-track from scientific experiment to social engineering, as they shared a growing interest in eugenics and a dominant race.
David Friedman has written the first account of this friendship and scientific partnership. He explains the science in lay person's language and reveals how fascism and anti-Semitism tainted two heroic reputations.
Friedman will speak on The Immortalists at the Library on Thursday September 6 at 7:30 pm.