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Of Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies,
winner of the Pulitzer Prize, E.O. Wilson writes, “…this remarkably readable
book shows how history and biology can enrich one another to produce a
deeper understanding of the human condition.”
Diamond’s formal training was in physiology and membrane biophysics.
Among his best-known contributions to this field have been the elucidation
of how water transport across epithelial cell layers is coupled to active solute
transport; the formulation of differences between tight and leaky epithelia;
and identification of the physical principles by which biological membranes
discriminate among related nonelectrolytes and related ions.
At the same time, Diamond has pursued a parallel career in ecology and
evolutionary biology based on an ongoing series of expeditions to study
the birds of New Guinea and other tropical Southwest Pacific Islands.
These expeditions have done much to clarify the ecological assembly of
species communities, the factors controlling extinction and immigration
(and hence species diversity), and the mechanism of allopatric speciation
in seemingly uninterrupted expanses of tropical habitats. More recently,
he has pursued an additional parallel career in comparative environmental
history.
Diamond’s other books include the award-winning The Third Chimpanzee,
a popular account of human evolution and human nature, emphasizing the
development of uniquely human traits from their animal precursors. He
recently transferred from UCLA’s Physiology Department to its Geography
Department to concentrate on his interests in environmental history and
evolutionary biology. In 1999 he was awarded the U.S. National Medal of
Science. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical
Society, and was a MacArthur Foundation Fellow from 1995 to 1998.
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Throughout history, scientists and poets have sought to
unveil the secrets of the natural world. Their methods
vary: scientists use tools of rational analysis to slake
their compelling thirst for knowledge; poets delve below
the surface of language, and deliver urgent communiqués
from its depths. The Lewis Thomas Prize honors the rare
individual who is fluent in the dialects of both realms —
and who succeeds in spinning lush literary and philosophical
tapestries from the silken threads of scientific and natural
phenomena — providing not merely new information but
cause for reflection, even revelation.
