Thomas began writing a monthly essay notes of a biology watcher in the new england journal of medicine in 1971 while he was at yale in 1973 he became the president of the sloan kettering institute in new york lewis thomas published multiple books throughout his career the first being the lives of a cell notes of a biology watcher. In the lives of a cell lewis thomas dances around the question of what life is and what it means to be alive this book is a collection of essays that discuss biology language society and other issues of naturalism and scientific observation that weave together into a rather unique way of looking at the lives of individuals with respect to the others. The lives of a cell notes of a biology watcher lewis thomas we are told that the trouble with modern man is that he has been trying to detach himself from nature he sits in the topmost tiers of polymer glass and steel dangling his pulsing legs surveying at a distance the writhing life of the planet. He wrote regularly in the new england journal of medicine and his essays were published in several collections including the lives of a cell notes of a biology watcher which won two national book awards and a christopher award and the medusa and the snail which won the national book award in science. This book contains 29 short essays by physician scientist lewis thomas originally published in the early 1970s in the new england journal of medicine the essays center on science and range in focus from the molecular eg dna to the subcellular to the organism to social interactions and all the way up to the search for extra terrestrial life