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Stephen S. Hall

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For nearly three decades, Stephen S. Hall has written about the intersection of science and society in books, magazine articles, and essays. He is the author, most recently, of Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience (2010), which grew out of a 2007 cover article in The New York Times Magazine.

His previous books include Size Matters: How Height Affects the Health, Happiness, and Success of Boys—and the Men They Become (2006), Merchants of Immortality: Chasing the Dream of Human Life Extension (2003), A Commotion in the Blood: Life, Death, and the Immune System (1997), Mapping the Next Millennium: How Computer-Driven Cartography Is Revolutionizing the Face of Science (1992), and Invisible Frontiers: The Race to Synthesize a Human Gene (1987) For nearly three decades, Stephen S. Hall has written about the intersection of science and society in books, magazine articles, and essays. He is the author, most recently, of Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience (2010), which grew out of a 2007 cover article in The New York Times Magazine.

His previous books include Size Matters: How Height Affects the Health, Happiness, and Success of Boys—and the Men They Become (2006), Merchants of Immortality: Chasing the Dream of Human Life Extension (2003), A Commotion in the Blood: Life, Death, and the Immune System (1997), Mapping the Next Millennium: How Computer-Driven Cartography Is Revolutionizing the Face of Science (1992), and Invisible Frontiers: The Race to Synthesize a Human Gene (1987). Most titles were acknowledged as a “Notable Book of the Year” by the New York Times Book Review.

Hall has received numerous awards, including the “Science in Society Award” in 2004 for book writing from the National Association of Science Writers for Merchants of Immortality, which was also a finalist for a Los Angeles Times Book Award, and the William B. Coley Award in 1998 from the Cancer Research Institute for A Commotion in the Blood. His work has also been widely anthologized, including in Best American Science Writing (2000, 2001, 2008, 2009), A Literary Companion to Science (1990), and The Beholder’s Eye (2005).

Between 1997 and 2000, Hall served as an editor of the New York Times Magazine as well as a Contributing Writer, and has published numerous cover stories for the Magazine. In addition to the New York Times, his journalism has appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, National Geographic, New York, Science, The New Yorker, Technology Review, Scientific American, Discover, Smithsonian, and many other national publications. His essays and criticism have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Orion, and the Hastings Center Report.

In addition to writing, Hall teaches science journalism and explanatory journalism at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, and also conducts writing workshops for scientists-in-training at New York University’s Carter Institute of Journalism. His many public appearances include a keynote address at the Keystone Symposium, grand rounds at university medical centers, lectures at the Hastings Center, and readings that have been featured on “Book TV.”

Hall graduated as an honors student in English literature from Beloit College in 1973, and lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife and two children. ...more

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Stephen S. Hall’s books

Average rating: 3.98 · 1,157 ratings · 203 reviews · 10 distinct works • Similar authors

	Slither: How Nature’s Most Maligned Creatures Illuminate Our World 4.15 avg rating — 566 ratings — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience 3.74 avg rating — 356 ratings — published 2010 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Best American Science Writing 2000 by James Gleick (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Jesse Cohen (Series Editor), Oliver Sacks (Reading) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 124 ratings — published 2000 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Commotion in the Blood: Life, Death, and the Immune System 4.26 avg rating — 90 ratings — published 1997 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Invisible Frontiers: The Race to Synthesize a Human Gene by Stephen S. Hall, James D. Watson 3.91 avg rating — 54 ratings — published 1987 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Merchants of Immortality: Chasing the Dream of Human Life Extension 3.68 avg rating — 40 ratings — published 2003 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Size Matters: How Height Affects the Health, Happiness, and Success of Boys - and the Men They Become 3.30 avg rating — 27 ratings — published 2006 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mapping the Next Millennium: The Discovery of New Geographies 3.68 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 1992 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Size Matters: How Height Affects The Health, Happiness, And Success Of Boys - And The Men They Become 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mapping The Next Millennium 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Stephen S. Hall (?)

“Attraction to fear is a kind of hunger.”
― Stephen S. Hall, Slither: How Nature’s Most Maligned Creatures Illuminate Our World

tags: fear

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“Snakes find a way to survive. Snakes have always found a way to survive. They’ve been doing it for 100 million years or so. If they have to live in an arid, hot desert, they figure it out. If they have to live in tropical jungles, they figure it out. If they have to live in salt water, they figure it out. If they have to adjust to the colder temperatures of North America, or the ultimately warmer temperatures of climate change, they will figure it out. Without limbs, without metabolically warmed blood, without ears, without eating sometimes for as long as a year, they figure it out, and, in those rare moments when we actually manage to see their cryptic forms, they grace us with a glimpse of resilience and the unearthly, eternal beauty of survival.”
― Stephen S. Hall, Slither: How Nature's Most Maligned Creatures Illuminate Our World

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“At a time when roughly 40 percent of Americans do not accept the notion of evolution, the pythons that survived the Big Freeze in Florida appear to believe in it 100 percent. The take-home genomics message from the snakes is that evolution is real, it’s apparently happening at blindingly fast speed,”
― Stephen S. Hall, Slither: How Nature's Most Maligned Creatures Illuminate Our World

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Stephen S. Hall’s Followers (31)

Stephen S. Hall

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