No

by Carl Djerassi

Overview

A compelling novel based on the high-stakes biotech industry and the science behind Viagra from the internationally known “Father of the Pill.”
 
The fourth installment of Carl Djerassi’s pioneering “science-in-fiction” tetralogy tells the story of a husband and wife team who devise new solutions to problems associated with sex and reproduction. Renu Krishnan is an Indian-born, American-educated scientist who discovers how NO (nitric oxide) can help men with erectile dysfunction—the scientific rationale behind Viagra. At the same time, her husband, Israeli scientist Jephtah Cohn, develops a new approach to ovulation prediction, which is also based on factual research. When Wall street gets wind of their discoveries, the couple catapults in the fast paced world of lawyers and IPOs, where scientists are now a hot commodity. Deftly exploring the demanding worlds of academia and high finance, Djerassi brings back many characters from his three earlier novels for a satisfying conclusion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140296549
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/01/2000
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.14(w) x 8.26(h) x 0.55(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Carl Djerassi is an internationally renowned scientist whose books include the novel Marx, Deceased; his autobiography The Pill, Pygmy Chimps, and Degas' Horse; essay, poetry, and short-story collections and two plays. A professor of chemistry at Stanford University, he is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and is one of the few American scientists to have been awarded both the National Medal of Science and the National Medal of Technology.

Editorial Reviews

Carl "The Father of the Pill" Djerassi returns with another "science-in-fiction" account (after Menachem's Seed) of discovery in the making, his newest subject being the intersection of capitalism and reproductive technology. Brilliant grad student Renu Krishnan is sent by her professor at Brandeis, Felix Frankenthaler, to research the effect of nitric oxide (the NO of the title) on penile tumescence. In Israel, she falls for her co-worker, Jeptha Cohn; their experiments on his erection invention become downright personal. She also falls, in a different way, for Martin Gestler--a businessman who persuades Renu to give up academic science to produce and market their NO "platform." The dizzying array of acronyms and superwonks (including return players like Menachem Dvir and Melanie Laidlaw) can bore and terrify readers by turns as they throw around words like "polyzeniumpolyolates" in casual conversation, but Djerassi clearly knows his way around labs and the money that makes them go--even if the success of Viagra lends unintentional prescience to the novel's scientific-fiscal intrigues.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This fourth novel in Stanford chemistry professor Djerassi's science-in-fiction tetralogy (e.g. Menachem's Seed, LJ 7/97) centers around the timely issue of a new treatment for male impotence utilizing nitric oxide (one possible reading of the "NO" of the title). Readers will appreciate watching the personal and professional growth of Renu Krishnan, an Indian postdoctoral student at Brandeis whose involvement in the development of the NO method allows her to break through many of the gender barriers still facing female scientists. This tale of scientific ethics combined with straightforward descriptions of the behind-the-scenes machinations common in both academia and industry is characteristic Djerassi, and his exploration of topical scientific issues and updates on recurring characters should appeal to fans of his previous work.--Rachel Singer, Franklin Park P.L., IL

Library Journal

...NO often appears to have been hastily slapped together, with depressingly obvious seams in a choppy narrative. -- The New York Times Book Review

David Murray

Stanford professor Djerassi (Menachem's Seed), eminent chemist and "Father of the Pill," here concludes his "science-in-fiction" tetralogy with another speculation about the frontiers of sexuality, this time concerning the effects of nitric oxide (NO) on male impotence. Carefully distinguishing his work from generic science fiction, Djerassi claims that his science is accurate, while implying that the "science" of science fiction isn't. He seeks to portray the "tribal behavior" of scientists, typically displayed as they work out methods to test a new theory—in this case, the effect of NO on penile erection. Then there are also the potential hazards of any new treatment to consider: its carcinogenic potential, for instance, duly tested in experiments with laboratory rats. The sometimes pompous Djerassi well knows this world, and his arch sexual humor is fun. Less persuasive, though, is the scientist-as-storyteller. First, Djerassi scuttles the suspense of whether NO will work at all simply by announcing to the reader that it does—both in an introduction and in his first chapter. Second, his protagonist and principal NO researcher, 26-year-old Renu Krishnan, is more of an ideal than a character. Back home in India, her brother and widowed mother continually urge Renu to marry and take up a normal Indian woman's life, but Renu, insisting that she chart her own course, falls for an Israeli scientist, Jephtah Cohn, who has invented a device for injecting NO (and even tries it himself). The two become lovers but entertain doubts about male and female roles, Judaism vs. Hinduism, etc. As though meant to illustrate a theory of people, yet failing ever really to seem likepeople, the characters remain constructs who lack humanizing rough edges. Entertaining enough, but all the hoopla over Viagra has somewhat undermined Djerassi's premiseþand his moxie. But for insight into the grants apparatus, the bureaucracy of science, and the way scientists think and work, Djerassi's your man.

Kirkus Reviews