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Oliver Sacks has always been fascinated by islands - their remoteness, their mystery, above all the unique forms of life they harbor. For him, islands conjure up equally the romance of Melville and Stevenson, the adventure of Magellan and Cook, and the scientific wonder of Darwin and Wallace.
Drawn to the tiny Pacific atoll of Pingelap by intriguing reports of an isolated community of islanders born totally colorblind, Sacks finds himself setting up a clinic in a one-room island dispensary, where he listens to these achromatopic islanders describe their colorless world in rich terms of pattern and tone, luminance and shadow.
And on Guam, where he goes to investigate the puzzling neurodegenerative paralysis endemic there for a century, he becomes, for a brief time, an island neurologist, making house calls with his colleague John Steele, amid crowing cockerels, cycad jungles, and the remains of a colonial culture.
The islands reawaken Sacks' lifelong passion for botany - in particular, for the primitive cycad trees, whose existence dates back to the Paleozoic - and the cycads are the starting point for an intensely personal reflection on the meaning of islands, the dissemination of species, the genesis of disease, and the nature of deep geologic time.
Out of an unexpected journey, Sacks has woven an unforgettable narrative which immerses us in the romance of island life, and shares his own compelling vision of the complexities of being human.
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Previews available in: German English
Subjects
Diseases, Medical anthropology, Chamorro (Micronesian people), Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Cycads, Color blindness, Dementia, Parkinson's disease, Pingelap (Micronesian people), Description and travel, Autobiography, Physicians, Achromatopsie, Travel, Nerveux, Système, Paralysie, Voyages, Neurobiologie, Dégénérescence, Kleurenblindheid, Personal Narratives, Color Vision Defects, Parkinson Disease, 44.73 geographical medicine, Neurobiology, Color-blindness, Bevölkerung, Postencephalitis, Palmfarngewächse, Endemie, Geomedizin, Farbenblindheit, Public health, pacific area, Oceania, description and travel, Symptomatic Parkinson's disease, Secondary Parkinson Disease, Maladie de Parkinson, Démence, Sclérose latérale amyotrophique, Chamorro (Peuple de Micronésie), Maladies, Pingelap (Peuple de Micronésie), Cycadales, Anthropologie médicale, Descriptions et voyages, Parkinson maladie, Troubles de la vision des couleurs, Vision des couleurs, Daltonisme, Maladie endémique, Couleur, Perception visuelle, Troubles, ParkinsonismShowing 8 featured editions. View all 26 editions?
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Die Insel der Farbenblinden. Die Insel der Palmfarne.
October 1, 1998, Rowohlt Tb.
Paperback
in German
3499605600 9783499605604
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Die Insel der Farbenblinden. Die Insel der Palmfarne.
March 1, 1997, Rowohlt, Reinbek
Hardcover
in German
3498063200 9783498063207
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4
The island of the colorblind: and, Cycad island
1997, A.A. Knopf, Distributed by Random House
in English
- 1st ed.
0679451145 9780679451143
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5
The island of the colorblind: and, Cycad island
1997, A.A. Knopf, Distributed by Random House
in English
- 1st ed.
0679451145 9780679451143
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6 |
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Book Details
Edition Notes
Bibliography: p.330-350. - Includes index.
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- Created November 7, 2008
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January 18, 2024 | Edited by MARC Bot | uppercase bwbsku local_id |
December 9, 2022 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
November 8, 2022 | Edited by readabookplus22w | Edited without comment. |
January 22, 2021 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
November 7, 2008 | Created by ImportBot | Imported from Talis record |