Pavlov's Dogs and Schrödinger's Cat: Scenes from the living laboratory

From the sheep dog and cockerel that were sent aloft in Montgolfiers balloon to test the air over Paris to the famous clone Dolly the Sheep and the Darwinian finches of the Galapagos Pavlovs Dogs and Schrdingers Cat offers a fascinating and enlightening look at the use of plants and animals--including humans--in scientific experiments. Rom Harr here provides a fresh and fascinating perspective on research setting aside moral reflection to simply examine the history of how and why living creatures have been used for the purposes of discovery. Ranging over five centuries the book uncovers many extraordinary stories including tales of the people involved to many curious incidents and episodes and the occasional scientific fraud. From Gregor Mendels use of pea plants to explore heredity to Barry Marshalls use of himself as the experimental animal in his helicobacter experiments (he survived) and even the use of an imaginary cat in Schrdingers famous thought experiment the reader discovers here a perspective on scientific work he or she has never encountered before--the concept of the "living laboratory."