Think back on your life. What stands out? What do you remember first, and then what comes to you more slowly as you reconstruct your memories? Or, what made you choose one or another event among the thousands that comprise your life? This was one of the challenges I faced when writing my memoirs. I [...]
I remember when at the dawn of my career in science a lady I met for the first time at a social occasion deduced correctly by my name that my father was the world-famous cellist, Gregor Piatigorsky. Then, she took me by surprise by asking in a deadpan, serious voice, “Are you a failure like [...]
After closing my laboratory in 2009 after fifty years of research on gene expression and evolution of the eye, I turned my attention to writing and finishing my novel, Jellyfish Have Eyes (IPBooks, 2014). I had taken workshops in fiction at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, written short stories and started the novel more than [...]
Join Joram at the newly renovated Kensington, MD, library on June 16, 7-8 p.m., as he reads from his first novel, Jellyfish Have Eyes. About Jellyfish Have Eyes: It’s the year 2047. Deep in the mangrove swamps of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Sztein, an acclaimed government scientist, makes a breakthrough discovery: Jellyfish possess an astounding visual memory, even [...]
Ricardo, the protagonist in my novel Jellyfish Have Eyes speculated that jellyfish are smarter than we think, that they have a brain of sorts, and that they interact in jellyfish lingo that we don’t understand - gibberish talk. Jellyfish may be a bit extreme, but I think Ricardo makes his point: don’t be too sure that [...]
Here I blend evolution with Inuit art and shamans, unlikely cousins. Inuit sculptures hooked me the first time I saw them. Inuit artists live in the Arctic of central and east Canada. Although Inuit art is a known form of ethnic art, few appreciate its beauty, originality and significance. I happened upon it 25 years [...]
