I maintain, despite the moment's evidence against the claim, that we are born and grow up with a fondness for each other, and we have genes for that. We can be talked out of it, for the genetic message is like a distant music, and some of us are hard-of-hearing. Societies are noisy affairs, drowning out the sound of ourselves and our connection.

(He also won a Christopher Award for that book. He also publiLewis Thomasd a book on entomology entitled Et Cetera Et Cetera poems and numerous scientific papers. In its first paperback edition The Medusa and the Snail won another National Book Award in Science.

Lewis Thomas (November 25 1913 – December 3 1993) was a physician poet etymologist essayist administrator educator policy advisor and researcher. (He also won a Christopher Award for that book. The Lewis Thomas Prize is awarded annually by The Rockefeller University to a scientist for artistic achievement.