Lanterna Rally

Author: Christopher L Vaughan

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 2008-06-02

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 1908978988

Imagining the Elephant is a biography of Allan MacLeod Cormack, a physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1979 for his pioneering contributions to the development of the computer-assisted tomography (CAT) scanner, an honor he shared with Godfrey Hounsfield. A modest genius who was also a dedicated family man, the book is a celebration of Cormack's life and work. It begins with his ancestral roots in the far north of Scotland, and then chronicles his birth and early years in South Africa, his education at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and Cambridge University, and his subsequent academic appointments at UCT and Tufts University in Boston, USA. It details his discovery of the problem at Cape Town in 1956, traces his scientific footsteps all the way to Stockholm in December 1979, and then extends the odyssey to his pursuits beyond the Nobel Prize. Contents:From John O'Groats to Jo'burgOn the Slopes of Table MountainPhysics and Friends at CambridgeReturn to the Fairest CapeA New Beginning in BostonFinding Radon and His TransformOn the Road to StockholmCitizen of the WorldAt Home in MassachusettsAppendices:Allan Cormack's PublicationsNobel LecturePresentation of Nobel PrizeMan and Science in the 21st CenturyA Teenager's Odyssey Readership: Anyone with a university or even a science-based high school education; scientifically informed readers without specialist knowledge in the topic of the book, but who wish to understand how one particular scientist pursued his career. Keywords:Computer Tomography;CAT Scanner;Nobel Prize;Biography;Medical Imaging;High Energy Physics;RadiologyKey Features:CAT-scanner technology has had a huge impact on the practice of medicine in the past quarter century, and its genesis — as well as the lives of those who brought it to fruition — has important lessons for the development of other technologies in the futureAlthough books and articles have been written about the development of the CAT scanner, no one has yet written a book about either Cormack or HounsfieldIn line with the book's focus on education, royalties from the book will be donated to needy students at UCTReviews:“The introduction of the CAT scanner led to a major revolution in clinical medicine, and subsequent developments of the underlying principle of tomography and associated brain imaging techniques has led to further crucial medical developments as well as important discoveries concerning the way the brain functions. This meticulous biography sets out in detail the life of Alan Cormack, who first conceived of the use of tomography in medical contexts, and demonstrated it in a pilot experiment at the University of Cape Town in September 1957. The author takes great pains to set out this important story in its full personal, historical, and scientific context, including the award of the Nobel Prize to Cormack in 1979. The book provides a welcome exposition of the nature of scientific discovery in a particular important case.”George F R Ellis University of Cape Town, South Africa “This book will especially fascinate readers who are interested in how a rotating series of images can create cross-sectional images of the body … Those interested in the history of science are indebted to Vaughan for producing this wonderful biography of Allan Cormack and for creating an expert and vivid description of one of the two streams of discovery that led to the invention of computed tomography.”The New England Journal of Medicine