Books
Translations book cover
“Translations – from today’s science to tomorrow’s medicine in Berlin Buch”, by
Russ Hodge, Maj Britt Hansen and Nicloa Graf, ISBN 978-3-938833-32-2.
EMBL Alumni: EMBL non-scientific alumni Russ Hodge [OIPA] and Maj Britt Hansen [Photolab] are still experimenting with new ways to communicate science to the public. Together with Nicola Graf, who has worked for several years on the EMBL Annual Report and Science in School, they published Translations last year.
The book explores the meaning of modern “molecular medicine”, using the science campus of Berlin-Buch as a model. The campus is home to the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, the Leibnitz Institute for Molecular Pharmacology, and clinics of the Charité University Hospital Berlin. “The best way to understand a whole is to observe a small part in great detail and show how it is related to everything else. The campus in Berlin-Buch is a microcosm of what is going on in experimental and clinical research laboratories all over the world,” writes Russ. “One difference is the close proximity of basic and clinical researchers, which gives a unique flavor to some of the stories. And at the same time the experiences reveal the difficulties of bringing together two scientific cultures that operate very differently.”
The book begins with a long taxi ride during which Russ captures the scientific history of Berlin; in the 19th century the city played a central role in the birth of modern biology and medicine. With a focus on the works of 25 scientists in Berlin-Buch, the book offers a window onto a unique moment in the history of science where all fields are rapidly coming together in new ways, and a glimpse of what it is likely to produce in the future.
“Anyone who sees the book will recognise it as a logical extension of the type of work we began at EMBL,” Russ says. “We’re still experimenting with new ways to communicate science to the public. In addition to its science, Berlin-Buch has a unique history, a beautiful natural setting and architecture, and a great appreciation for art. One reason for the big format of the book is to wrap all of these aspects of the campus into stories that show what’s happening in modern biomedical research.”
The book is currently available in English and will soon be available in German.
order through amazon
Berlin News: “Buch über Campus Berlin-Buch erschienen. Bei der Festveranstaltung stellte das MDC zugleich das Buch “translations – from today`s science to tomorrow`s medicine in Berlin-Buch” von Russ Hodge vor, der darin den Campus und seine verschiedenen Einrichtungen beleuchtet. Das Buch soll im Herbst auch in deutscher Sprache erscheinen.”
———————————
Dreams and Hopes, portraits of people from Matagalpa, Nicaragua
A book for all People
A review of the book “Dreams and Hopes – Portraits of people from Matagalpa, Nicaragua”
Let us say it up front: It is a beautiful and moving book, which this reviewer put down after a cover to cover looking and reading and was left with a deep joy of revisiting the area and people of Matagalpa. This is how it looks in this part of Nicaragua: touching green and beautiful in the rainy season and a suffering dryness and dust in the dry season. These are the people: Warm, guest-free and proud in the midst of their daily fight to survive as small and medium-scale farmers, in an economic and political system which basically does not recognize these people.
Through black and white photographs by Maj Britt Hansen and texts by Sven Gårn Hansen, Nikoline Agger and Maj Britt Hansen this book has succeeded in an elegant way to draw deeply enlightening portraits of what in DANIDA-lingo is called the target group for the Committee for Central America’s Project in Matagalpa – “PROMAT – 1999-200″. Portraits of strong and beautiful (!) men and women, plus their wonderful children, are mixed with everyday images, and in a subtle way hints at daily challenges and struggles. The texts describe – free not only from DANIDA’s bureaucratic language but also from the usual propaganda – what this project is about: To give Matagalpa’s farmers organisational and educational tools, so that hopefully they can turn some of their burning dreams and hopes of a better life into reality.
This book should be a Christmas present (and obligatory reading) for the minister of development, Per Stig Møller and the board-members of DANIDA, who in the midst of their dealing with large and twisted sector-programs in multi-million amounts have had difficulty recognising (and accepting) real people programs at a much more modest level. Currently, there is a problem with the acceptance of the second phase of PROMAT. Let us hope that the fight for the project’s continuation through DANIDA succeeds to the joy of first and foremost the people whom have been shown so with so much warmth and such solidarity in this book.
The books texts are in English and Spanish and include, in addition to the portraits, an introduction, timeline and a short description of the project. The authors finish their description as follows “The stories in this book show why we feel it is worth the effort to continue the project”. I can only share this feeling after reading and viewing the book.
You can find more information on how to obtain this book later in this paper. May it be sold out quickly, so that maybe we can have a second edition in Danish and Spanish.
Finn Jørgensen, 12.2003
Kunst Katalog von Arvid Boecker
»Milch + Honig«
Arvid Boecker mit einem Text von Hans Gercke Heidelberg 2005, 96 Seiten, (Deutsch-Englisch) to order/ zu bestellen
»Tokyoumbra«
mit einem Text von Max Christian Graeff Hannover 2003, 36 Seiten, (Deutsch) to order/ zu bestellen
Sven Gårn Hansen said
Hi Maj Britt!
I’ve used some of your Dreams and Hopes photos on a new Terrabona story on my blog. Hope you like it!
http://svensblog.wordpress.com/2010/05/31/den-gode-jord/
mbh said
thank you and I have linked to this site as well…