The Unsinkable Rita Levi-Montalcini

[View this email in your browser]( [Nautilus logo]( Thursday, December 02, 2021 Chapter Five: Wiring Dear Nautilus Reader, Biologist Bob Goldstein had always been intrigued by Rita Levi-Montalcini, an Italian biologist, and Nobel laureate. Goldstein sensed there was more to the brilliant scientist’s story than textbooks let on, particularly during WWII. And indeed there was, as Goldstein explains this week in Nautilus, in an article that grabs you like fiction and takes you on a scientific adventure. In 1938, Levi-Montalcini was forced to flee her academic position in Italy when Mussolini banned Jews from positions in universities. As the war exploded across Europe, Levi-Montalcini took shelter in her family home in Turin and set up a lab in her bedroom. Goldstein, for the first time, has translated Levi-Montalcini’s papers from her bedroom experiments into English; he also traveled to Turin to follow in Levi-Montalcini’s wartime footsteps. What Goldstein discovered is that Levi-Montalcini, alone in her bedroom, discovered nothing less than how the nervous system is wired, from embryo to full body. It’s a revelation sure to rewrite biology textbooks from here on out. Also: We feature an eye-opening article from our friends at Sapiens, an anthropology magazine, about where education goes wrong in industrialized societies, and what schools and parents today can learn from the child-populous world of hunter-gatherers. And finally, we get caught up in the mythic power of waves in literature, and dive into the science that explains their incredible formation and energy. [READ ISSUE]( [NowRx]( [A Lab of Her Own]( [Sheltered in her bedroom during WWII, Rita Levi-Montalcini discovered how the nervous system is wired.]( [Bob Goldstein]( [On a cold, dry Tuesday in December, 1940, Rita Levi-Montalcini rode a train from the station near her home in Turin, Italy, for 80 miles to Milan to buy a microscope.]( PAID ADVERTISEMENT [Invest in the Tech Disrupting the $480B Retail Pharmacy Industry]( [NowRx]( [NowRx]( is paving the way for a more convenient, affordable, and hassle-free future with their proprietary pharmacy software and robotics that provide free, same-day medication delivery. By automating prescription dispensing in under 30 seconds, NowRx dramatically reduces commonly seen errors and operates at a fraction of the cost of traditional pharmacies.Get in on this rapidly growing startup and [learn how you can invest today](. [LEARN MORE]( [What Industrial Societies Get Wrong About Childhood]( [Age-based classes are not the only way to learn—and may not be the most effective.]( [Karen L. Kramer]( [Each year across the world, kids of roughly the same age are packed into classrooms and confined to desks with the intent of learning from an adult teacher.]( PAID ADVERTISEMENT [1440 Is Your New Source for Unbiased, Curated News]( [1440]( These days, too much opinion and clickbait are disguised as fact. [1440]( curates trusted, unbiased news from more than 100 sources to bring the latest in culture, politics, and sports directly to your inbox. It’s 100% objective and 100% free. Sign up to get objective news stories delivered to your inbox every day. [SIGN UP TODAY]( [The Power of the Waves]( [Understanding how oceans move is key to understanding life on Earth.]( [Richard Hamblyn]( [Sea waves are among the world’s most misunderstood phenomena.]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Twitter]( [Web Site]( Copyright © 2021 NautilusNext, All rights reserved. You were subscribed to the newsletter from [nautil.us](. Our mailing address is: NautilusNext 360 W 36th Street, 7S, New York, NY 10018 Don't want to hear from us anymore? [Click here to unsubscribe.](