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The Youngest Science: Notes of a Medicine-Watcher
From the 1920s when he watched his father, a general practitioner who made housecalls and wrote his prescriptions in Latin, to his days in medical school and beyond, Lewis Thomas saw medicine evolve from an art into a sophisticated science. The Youngest Science is Dr. Thomas's account of his life in the medical profession and an inquiry into what medicine is all about--the youngest science, but one rich in possibility and promise.
He chronicles his training in Boston and New York, his war career in the South Pacific, his most impassioned research projects, his work as an administrator in hospitals and medical schools, and even his experiences as a patient. Along the way, Thomas explores the complex relationships between research and practice, between words and meanings, between human error and human accomplishment, More than a magnificent autobiography, The Youngest Science is also a celebration and a warning--about the nature of medicine and about the future life of our planet.
272 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1983
64 people are currently reading
1650 people want to read
About the author
Lewis Thomas
72 books221 followersLewis Thomas (November 25, 1913–December 3, 1993) was a physician, poet, etymologist, essayist, administrator, educator, policy advisor, and researcher.
Thomas was born in Flushing, New York and attended Princeton University and Harvard Medical School. He became Dean of Yale Medical School and New York University School of Medicine, and President of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute. His formative years as an independent medical researcher were at Tulane University School of Medicine.
He was invited to write regular essays in the New England Journal of Medicine, and won a National Book Award for the 1974 collection of those essays, The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher. He also won a Christopher Award for this book. Two other collections of essays (from NEJM and other sources) are The Medusa and the Snail and Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony. His autobiography, The Youngest Science: Notes of a Medicine Watcher is a record of a century of medicine and the changes which occurred in it. He also published a book on etymology entitled Et Cetera, Et Cetera, poems, and numerous scientific papers.
Many of his essays discuss relationships among ideas or concepts using etymology as a starting point. Others concern the cultural implications of scientific discoveries and the growing awareness of ecology. In his essay on Mahler's Ninth Symphony, Thomas addresses the anxieties produced by the development of nuclear weapons.[1] Thomas is often quoted, given his notably eclectic interests and superlative prose style.
The Lewis Thomas Prize is awarded annually by The Rockefeller University to a scientist for artistic achievement.
Thomas was born in Flushing, New York and attended Princeton University and Harvard Medical School. He became Dean of Yale Medical School and New York University School of Medicine, and President of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute. His formative years as an independent medical researcher were at Tulane University School of Medicine.
He was invited to write regular essays in the New England Journal of Medicine, and won a National Book Award for the 1974 collection of those essays, The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher. He also won a Christopher Award for this book. Two other collections of essays (from NEJM and other sources) are The Medusa and the Snail and Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony. His autobiography, The Youngest Science: Notes of a Medicine Watcher is a record of a century of medicine and the changes which occurred in it. He also published a book on etymology entitled Et Cetera, Et Cetera, poems, and numerous scientific papers.
Many of his essays discuss relationships among ideas or concepts using etymology as a starting point. Others concern the cultural implications of scientific discoveries and the growing awareness of ecology. In his essay on Mahler's Ninth Symphony, Thomas addresses the anxieties produced by the development of nuclear weapons.[1] Thomas is often quoted, given his notably eclectic interests and superlative prose style.
The Lewis Thomas Prize is awarded annually by The Rockefeller University to a scientist for artistic achievement.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
November 1, 2018
I like Thomas. He has some opinions, even strong ones, but he's nice about it & obviously ready to change his mind if new data comes in. His reminiscences are informative, occasionally funny, & always interesting. His experience in medicine & this book start with his father, a family physician in Flushing, NY (Queens) in the 1920s. He becomes a doctor in the early 1930s & all they could usually do was comfort patients until sulfa drugs came along later in that decade. His descriptions are great, but terribly sad. They're also an incredible reminder of how far we have come so fast.
This is not quite the same as The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher or The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher since he starts out with chapters that stick to a single topic - his early life as a physician - but it does become a series of essays as it progresses like his others. That's fine. It's all interesting even when he gets too technical for me. That only happens in parts of the essays & they're quickly done, so I never get bogged down.
He covers a lot of ground including some of his time in the military in WWII & as the head of various facilities. There are also essays on other topics such as why women should rule the world for a century, how he came to publish his essays & books, & other topics. Plenty here for everyone.
I was left with a lot of questions. They're all due to my ignorance in his field. He wrote this in 1983 & I wonder how some of his observations & abandoned experiments turned out. If you know, please tell me in the comments!
- Why does penicillin kill guinea pigs half the year & not the other half? At least, I think that's the conclusion he came to.
- How is the fight against rheumatoid arthritis coming? Did his research into it lead anywhere?
- How likely is his idea that there is one, basic underlying cause for all cancers?
Highly recommended! I also recommend his other 2 books. They all have a lot of food for thought. I can see by other reviews that even doctors still like reading this. Yeah, it's that good.
This is not quite the same as The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher or The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher since he starts out with chapters that stick to a single topic - his early life as a physician - but it does become a series of essays as it progresses like his others. That's fine. It's all interesting even when he gets too technical for me. That only happens in parts of the essays & they're quickly done, so I never get bogged down.
He covers a lot of ground including some of his time in the military in WWII & as the head of various facilities. There are also essays on other topics such as why women should rule the world for a century, how he came to publish his essays & books, & other topics. Plenty here for everyone.
I was left with a lot of questions. They're all due to my ignorance in his field. He wrote this in 1983 & I wonder how some of his observations & abandoned experiments turned out. If you know, please tell me in the comments!
- Why does penicillin kill guinea pigs half the year & not the other half? At least, I think that's the conclusion he came to.
- How is the fight against rheumatoid arthritis coming? Did his research into it lead anywhere?
- How likely is his idea that there is one, basic underlying cause for all cancers?
Highly recommended! I also recommend his other 2 books. They all have a lot of food for thought. I can see by other reviews that even doctors still like reading this. Yeah, it's that good.
November 21, 2016
I didn't have access to the book, so I listened to this. A 5 Star rating is not enough to express the value of this book. It took me personally a good while to read, because I took this small book as a learning experience. Dr. Thomas covers his family biography of their interest in medicine, as well as his achievements and experiences on rounds during his residency and immersed time with research. What an amazing amount of information I gathered and learned.
Every time I got to listen to this audiobook, I was fascinated by it not wanting it to end. This is one of the books that I will read and re-read again and again, because with repetition and practice comes expert learning.
The evolution of medicine that was presented was so profound to make me want to reach for his other books and essays, and other nonfiction books as well.
Every time I got to listen to this audiobook, I was fascinated by it not wanting it to end. This is one of the books that I will read and re-read again and again, because with repetition and practice comes expert learning.
The evolution of medicine that was presented was so profound to make me want to reach for his other books and essays, and other nonfiction books as well.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 8, 2017
I re-read this after my first year of medical school. I first read it in high school but didn't understand just how unique and valuable this book really is.
June 28, 2017
A fascinating account of how medicine has changed since the early 20th century and what it has become. Dr. Thomas lived, worked, and researched through some of the most interesting medical times, and he writes clearly and vividly about them. I am a better doctor-to-be, researcher, and indeed person for having read this book. A must-read.
February 28, 2025
Lewis Thomas (1913-1993) was an American physician and researcher. He published The Youngest Science, a series of autobiographical essays, in 1983 when he was around 70, looking back on his career and how drastically medicine had changed in his lifetime. For context, Thomas' father was also a physician in era where doctors made house calls, essentially ran a clinic out of their home at all hours of the day and night, and often barely scraped by financially, getting paid by barter as well as cash, if at all, and by the time the younger Thomas was contemplating retirement in the 1980s, medicine had transformed from an art to a science (or at least an artistic science), and Thomas genuinely believed the cure for all cancers was right around the corner.
As a physician practicing in the 2020s, I have a deep appreciation for books like these. Thomas led a fascinating life, serving essentially as a military scientist in World War II, hopping between medical specialties as a practicing physician (this was well before the modern residency and subspecialization system where young doctors must decide their area of focus early and switching essentially requires retraining) and having ample time to practice experimental science (a rarity for physicians today, even for folks like me who specifically completed both MDs and PhDs -- and interestingly, Thomas claims to be one of the first to establish a training program that combined MD and PhD pathway that received NIH funding and that other medical schools subsequently copied).
That being said, this book is a bit uneven and rambling for my tastes. Thomas indulges in a lot of tangents, with stories being told largely cerebrally without much regard to the actual sequence of events and other people involved, which made many vignettes hard to follow. The last chapter about his wife and his opinion of women is frankly quite bizarre - I could not tell if he was being facetious, overly reverential, or a bit of both.
Further reading: medical career retrospectives
The Death of Cancer: After Fifty Years on the Front Lines of Medicine, a Pioneering Oncologist Reveals Why the War on Cancer Is Winnable--and How We Can Get There by Vincent DeVita, MD | my review
Medicine Science and Dreams: The Making of Physician-Scientists edited by David Schwartz
Blue Collar, Blue Scrubs: The Making of a Surgeon by Michael Collins, MD
Hot Lights, Cold Steel: Life, Death and Sleepless Nights in a Surgeon's First Years by Michael Collins, MD
My statistics:
Book 67 for 2025
Book 1993 cumulatively
As a physician practicing in the 2020s, I have a deep appreciation for books like these. Thomas led a fascinating life, serving essentially as a military scientist in World War II, hopping between medical specialties as a practicing physician (this was well before the modern residency and subspecialization system where young doctors must decide their area of focus early and switching essentially requires retraining) and having ample time to practice experimental science (a rarity for physicians today, even for folks like me who specifically completed both MDs and PhDs -- and interestingly, Thomas claims to be one of the first to establish a training program that combined MD and PhD pathway that received NIH funding and that other medical schools subsequently copied).
That being said, this book is a bit uneven and rambling for my tastes. Thomas indulges in a lot of tangents, with stories being told largely cerebrally without much regard to the actual sequence of events and other people involved, which made many vignettes hard to follow. The last chapter about his wife and his opinion of women is frankly quite bizarre - I could not tell if he was being facetious, overly reverential, or a bit of both.
Further reading: medical career retrospectives
The Death of Cancer: After Fifty Years on the Front Lines of Medicine, a Pioneering Oncologist Reveals Why the War on Cancer Is Winnable--and How We Can Get There by Vincent DeVita, MD | my review
Medicine Science and Dreams: The Making of Physician-Scientists edited by David Schwartz
Blue Collar, Blue Scrubs: The Making of a Surgeon by Michael Collins, MD
Hot Lights, Cold Steel: Life, Death and Sleepless Nights in a Surgeon's First Years by Michael Collins, MD
My statistics:
Book 67 for 2025
Book 1993 cumulatively
September 19, 2024
Still mildly confused about the random chapter where he says men should be banned from voting for a century and women should run the world…remind me how this relates to the science of medicine?
August 16, 2024
This is a well written history of medicine in the 20th century. In almost an autobiography fashion, he tells stories of his life and medicine. If you are a pre-med, med student, doctor, or someone who wants a good book, read it!
September 8, 2015
The evolution of medicine from art to science
Although he refers to himself as a watcher, Lewis Thomas was very much a participant in the major event where medicine went from being personal and in some ways useless to a science where cures were routine. He starts the book with a description of the role of a physician before the Second World War. His father was a physician who had an office in their home, although most of his work was making house calls and hospital rounds. In those days, before sulfa, penicillin and other drugs, there were few diseases that could be treated. Therefore, medicine was largely conducted by conversation and touch, and most prescribed medications were placebos. Thomas talks openly about how ineffectual doctors were in actually curing people, and while he notes that he has no desire to regress to those times, he does say that some aspects of medicine have been lost.
Not long after he began practicing medicine, science and technology began delivering cures to many of the ailments of humans. Thomas adapted very well to the new realities, eventually rising to the presidency of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He is quite right in calling medicine the youngest science, as it has indeed only became a science in the middle of the twentieth century.
There is no question that Thomas was a talented scientist and physician, but he is also an outstanding writer. These essays, always tainted with a sense of wonder, ignorance and optimism, are an inside look at some of the aspects of how medicine was and is practiced. They are a joy to read, his insights into how medicine has changed shed a great deal of light on why there is a crisis in health care.
This review also appears on Amazon
Although he refers to himself as a watcher, Lewis Thomas was very much a participant in the major event where medicine went from being personal and in some ways useless to a science where cures were routine. He starts the book with a description of the role of a physician before the Second World War. His father was a physician who had an office in their home, although most of his work was making house calls and hospital rounds. In those days, before sulfa, penicillin and other drugs, there were few diseases that could be treated. Therefore, medicine was largely conducted by conversation and touch, and most prescribed medications were placebos. Thomas talks openly about how ineffectual doctors were in actually curing people, and while he notes that he has no desire to regress to those times, he does say that some aspects of medicine have been lost.
Not long after he began practicing medicine, science and technology began delivering cures to many of the ailments of humans. Thomas adapted very well to the new realities, eventually rising to the presidency of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He is quite right in calling medicine the youngest science, as it has indeed only became a science in the middle of the twentieth century.
There is no question that Thomas was a talented scientist and physician, but he is also an outstanding writer. These essays, always tainted with a sense of wonder, ignorance and optimism, are an inside look at some of the aspects of how medicine was and is practiced. They are a joy to read, his insights into how medicine has changed shed a great deal of light on why there is a crisis in health care.
This review also appears on Amazon
August 13, 2019
Kitap 1900'lerin başında tıp fakültesine başlayan ve babası da doktor olan bir doktorun ABD'deki tıp dünyasına, okullara ve gelişmelere dair yorumlarından oluşuyor. Okuması kolay; dili ağır tıbbî terimler içermiyor. Sadece 1983 yılında yayınlandığını unutmadan okumak iyi oluyor çünkü o zamana göre değerlendirmeleri içeriyor, bir kısmı şu an geçerliliğini yitirmiş olan tıbbî konular ve öngörüler olabilir.
August 29, 2019
Lewis Thomas spent his life revolving around various aspects of medicine – apprenticeship, patients, research, administration, being a patient, and writing. In this memoir, he shares tales and insights from all of these experiences in an easy-to-digest and relatable format.
I especially enjoyed his notes from his time as Dean of Yale’s medical school. Perhaps it’s because I work for an associate dean of medicine now. I appreciate his admonishments not to intervene too much in faculty affairs. If a culture is healthy, trying to change small aspects can only foul the waters.
This book often makes the list of recent physician-writers worth reading. It is well-written and even dives into scientific detail about cellular biology. Thomas even submits some thoughts on political theory: Women should not only run the earth, but in compensation for centuries of disenfranchisement, only women should be allowed to vote (not men)!
Overall, this is a light and witty read with loads of wisdom.
I especially enjoyed his notes from his time as Dean of Yale’s medical school. Perhaps it’s because I work for an associate dean of medicine now. I appreciate his admonishments not to intervene too much in faculty affairs. If a culture is healthy, trying to change small aspects can only foul the waters.
This book often makes the list of recent physician-writers worth reading. It is well-written and even dives into scientific detail about cellular biology. Thomas even submits some thoughts on political theory: Women should not only run the earth, but in compensation for centuries of disenfranchisement, only women should be allowed to vote (not men)!
Overall, this is a light and witty read with loads of wisdom.
November 5, 2014
Un médico, por lo visto bastante renombrado, narra en esta obra su manera de ver la medicina, y cómo ha cambiado su práctica a lo largo de su carrera profesional (el estilo se parece al de Interacciones de Sheldon Glashow). Los capítulos son independientes y están ordenados más o menos cronológicamente. El estilo no es de los que me atraen. Es, valga la cacofonía, una prosa sosa. No me ha apasionado. Además no es nada actual, con lo que la mayoría de los "problemas abiertos" que plantea están bastante más resueltos: artritis reumatoide, micoplasmas... No es demasiado inspirador.
January 5, 2020
As a nurse, I found the biographical/historical parts of this book fascinating and the author's insights related to medicine interesting. He gets a bit too nerdy-detailed about his own work at times, but hey, he wrote the book. I liked how the story had an overarching storyline but each chapter spoke about something specific. I'd be interested in reading more of his work.
December 6, 2011
All three Thomas books are apologies for meaning to be found in creation. Sadly, the author falls short of tying that back to God. Nevertheless, he comes so close, and his explanation is beautiful.
January 11, 2020
An enjoyable journey through medicine in the 20th century framed by Dr Thomas's own impressive experiences. It gives interesting insight into events that have shaped today's healthcare.
August 2, 2020
I have been reading Lewis Thomas since the '70s, but I had not read this one. His earlier books of essays and thoughts (The Lives of a Cell and The Medusa and the Snail), many published in the New England Journal of Medicine, are among the most prized books in my collection. The Youngest Science is very interesting as a history of medicine and medical training, but I also enjoy his personal reflections very much. It is amazing how much Medicine has progressed during my lifetime. So many of today's standard procedures were not even a dream during the time Thomas was working. It was the '70s before CTs and MRIs and PET scans were invented and used! Scientific medical procedures were blooming about that time, and it has continued to advance rapidly since.
A good reason to read Thomas is that he is so READABLE. It makes learning fun even though packed with information about a variety of things. The Lives of a Cell and the Medusa and the Snail are better to start with, I believe, as they are not as focused on training and research and personal experience. (It was in one of those that I first learned that it is your own overactive immune system that causes most of the horrible, debilitating symptoms in many serious infections--now called the cytokine storm. This event is causing so much suffering in COVID now!)
Thomas was ahead of his time in many ways, but he describes the knowledge and art of medicine in his years beautifully.
A good reason to read Thomas is that he is so READABLE. It makes learning fun even though packed with information about a variety of things. The Lives of a Cell and the Medusa and the Snail are better to start with, I believe, as they are not as focused on training and research and personal experience. (It was in one of those that I first learned that it is your own overactive immune system that causes most of the horrible, debilitating symptoms in many serious infections--now called the cytokine storm. This event is causing so much suffering in COVID now!)
Thomas was ahead of his time in many ways, but he describes the knowledge and art of medicine in his years beautifully.
August 14, 2022
Dr. Thomas is a master storyteller and an even better historian. This book really put into perspective the monumental leaps they have happened in medicine over the past century, and helped me have a better appreciation for the therapies and technologies at our disposal that we often take for granted. That's not to mention our advanced understanding of the pathophysiology of disease, a lot of which was a direct product of Dr. Thomas's hard work, and others at his time. I was pleased by his righteous and compassionate views on hierarchy in medicine and the role of allied healthcare workers beside doctors.
Definitely recommended reading for people in healthcare.
Definitely recommended reading for people in healthcare.
April 5, 2021
This's essentially Dr. Thomas's autobiography, telling of his training just as medicine was growing into a modern science that could actually treat illnesses, as opposed to (he contrasts) his father's doctoring which was little but comfort and placeboes. He writes it as a series of largely-disconnected essays about some aspect of his life or work. I read this as a fast read (and he does write in a very accessible style), but I suspect someone more educated on medicine, let alone the history of medicine, could benefit from reading it much more closely.
March 4, 2023
There’s a lot to unpack here. It’s definitely worth a read, but the individual essays seem more meandering and disjointed than those in The Lives of a Cell, so I’d recommend that one first.
This provides a lot of interesting history and perspective. It’s cool to see how current understanding of science compares to his perspective. Sometimes he’s ahead of the curve, sometimes we’ve moved past things.
One last note because I just can’t not comment on it - somehow the essay titled “Scabies, Scrapie” is full of both patriarchal gender bias and unhinged misandry. So that was weird.
This provides a lot of interesting history and perspective. It’s cool to see how current understanding of science compares to his perspective. Sometimes he’s ahead of the curve, sometimes we’ve moved past things.
One last note because I just can’t not comment on it - somehow the essay titled “Scabies, Scrapie” is full of both patriarchal gender bias and unhinged misandry. So that was weird.
February 13, 2023
မင်းခိုက် စိုးစံ လိုမျိုး အရမ်းတိကျ တဲ့ သိပ္ပံပညာရပ်မှာတောင် uncertainty principle ဆိုတာ ရှိတယ်ဆိုပြီး လည်း ခပ်ပိန်းပိန်း မပြောချင်ဘူး။ ဖူကိုးလို ပြောမယ်ဆိုရင် epistemic shift, သောမတ်စ်ခွန်း လို ဆိုရင် paradigm shift(the structure of scientific revolutions ဖတ်ရန်လိုသေး) witchcraft လိုမျိုး မန်းမှုတ်ပြီး ရောဂါကုတဲ့ ကိုးကွယ် ယုံကြည်မှု အဆင့်ကနေ empirical observation scientific data တွေ trial တွေ ဆီ တက်လှမ်းလာတဲ့ ဆေးပညာရဲ့ သမိုင်းကြောင်းကတော့ နုနယ် လှသေးတယ် (ပင်နီဆလင် ပေါ်တာ နှစ်တစ်ရာ မပြည့်သေး)
October 17, 2023
Years ago, this book was highly recommended to me. However, if I can say with 100 percent certainty, that had I actually read it at any time previous to now, that I would have not "taken it" nearly as well. I think that a better name for this book would be notes of a medical fly-fisher, for all of the very, very drawn-out-, stylistically silhouette-, casting and reaching. Think "James Herriot", but for budding researchers. 5 stars though bc 2020 made EVERYONE a budding researcher.
January 29, 2022
I liked reading about medical care in the early 1900’s and how palliative care has evolved. Fascinating. He made predictions in this book (wrote in the 80’s) and it was interesting to consider with my perspective today. It’s an interesting read and I was only lost a few times when he got into technical terms regarding topics I had very little interest in.
December 12, 2017
Apparently I read this a couple years ago. Ima read it again, or try to. Siddhartha Mukherjee was really impressed by the book when he was a med student, and I just learned about his books other than Emperor of All Maladies.
April 24, 2025
Very enjoyable reflections on a distinguished medical career and the changes seen in medicine during his time. Although written forty years ago, the philosophies are still relevant today, even if the technologies seem archaic.
June 30, 2018
Interesting perspective on the history of Medicine as Dr Thomas recalled the exciting advances in medicine.
August 14, 2018
A gentlemen scholar's reflections on the coming of age of medicine, molecular biology, immunology, and the academic paradigm in modern america.
February 5, 2023
Thomas was an exceptionally smart man, who had a gift of putting his thoughts in entertaining writing. Wide ranging ideas. Fun. Educative. Thought provoking.
December 22, 2023
برام جالبه که تامس چقدر فرصت انجام کارهای مختلف و کسب تجربیات متفاوتی رو داشته. این مدل نگاه به کار و زندگی رو دوست دارم.
August 19, 2024
id reccomend this book to anyone in the medical field
May 14, 2025
The first half was actually really enjoyable but man it just got weird at the end
March 17, 2021
I highly recommend Lewis Thomas' "The Youngest Science" because he documents Medicine's progression in the 100 years up to 1993. I find it fascinating how he accounts for Medicine in its nascent emergence and evolution into a true science.
I appreciate his postulating about disease processes arising from the experience he acquired throughout his life. Afforded the prospect of awareness in the time that has passed since he penned this book, I am amazed at what Dr. Thomas was able to hypothesize, and while many of his predictions may have met blind ends, having access to his insights helps me to ponder predictions of my own as I contemplate the future.
Read it. It will help you to appreciate how a brilliant scientist thinks. And it will almost certainly help you to make contributions and reflections on knowledge in the world where you choose to make your mark.
I appreciate his postulating about disease processes arising from the experience he acquired throughout his life. Afforded the prospect of awareness in the time that has passed since he penned this book, I am amazed at what Dr. Thomas was able to hypothesize, and while many of his predictions may have met blind ends, having access to his insights helps me to ponder predictions of my own as I contemplate the future.
Read it. It will help you to appreciate how a brilliant scientist thinks. And it will almost certainly help you to make contributions and reflections on knowledge in the world where you choose to make your mark.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews