Thunderstruck - Erik Larson

 

I've read several of the author's books and thoroughly enjoy his writing: The Demon of Unrest, The Splendid and the Vile, In the Garden of the Beast, and Dead Wake, He uses original documents, transcripts, and documented facts to tell the story of a time and place.  He usually weaves a piece of history with a crime story that keeps you engaged throughout the book.

This novel tells of the invention and implementation of wireless telecommunication invented and commercialized by Marconi, a very young Italian who persisted in bringing it to the public.  His story is told in parallel to a notorious murder in London in the early 1900s.  

Larson gets bogged down sometimes in the minutes of his sources.  I admire the way he knits together actual dialogue and reports from the past into a coherent whole in the context of the times.  It took more than a third of the book to understand how the murder and Marconi's invention converged, probably because I wasn't familiar with English history of the time. 

It was a satisfying read and I enjoyed learning.  I wish there had been more explanation of how wireless transmission actually works and why. 

Published: 2006  Read: 2026  Genre: History

In My Time of Dying - Sebastian Junger

 Tucson has each spring the "Festival of the Book" -- the 3rd largest book fair in the U.S.  It's held on the University of Arizona campus over a weekend.  Each day there are authors speaking every hour in multiple venues on campus on every topic imaginable.  The mall is lined with booksellers, eateries, activities and exhibits all focusing on education and reading.  My kind of heaven!

This year I listened to Sebastian Junger speak about his near-death experience he shares in this book.  I know, my first thought is it's some mumbo-jumbo about the afterlife.  On the contrary, it's both an objective analysis of near death experiences from multiple scientific disciplines and a subjective first-person account.  I bought the book and thoroughly enjoyed his perspective and thoughtful insights. He did not "see the light" but instead shines a light on our attitudes toward death.

Quote:

"We assume that life is the most real thing we will ever experience. but it might turn out to be the least real, the least meaningful.  The idea that you will appreciate life more after almost dying is a cheap bit of wisdom easily asserted by people who have never been near death.  ...we are really talking about an appreciation of death rather than life."

Published: 2025  Read: March 2025  Genre: Memoir

Of Time and Turtles - Sy Montgomery

 Sub-title: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell

This was a lovely two-themed story.  The primary tale is about rescuing and caring for turtles - turtles of all kinds and all sizes, rescued from roadways and eroding beaches and neglectful owners.  Parallel to this is a reflective account of adopting a slower, more deliberate pace—what the author refers to as living "on turtle time"—during the challenging years of the pandemic.  It's a gentle, contemplative read that made me recall those two years of the pandemic that I'd blocked from my mind like many of us seem to have done. 

From Wikipedia: In the United States, there have been 103,436,829[3] confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 1,215,005[3] confirmed deaths, the most of any country, and the 17th highest per capita worldwide

The book blends science, memoir, and philosophy and includes artwork and photographs that bring the turtles to life. This compassionate portrait of injured turtles and their dedicated rescuers invites readers to slow down and immerse themselves in "turtle time," providing a fresh perspective on time and healing.

Quotes:

"...the paradox of the 2020 pandemic, a year so momentous also seems, in a way, as if nothing happened at all.  Facing the uncertainties of a mysterious killer virus, political chaos, environmental catastrophe and racial unrest creates a state of chronic stress so severe, it interferes with the brain's ability to form memories- a brain fog."

"To be able to help a cherished elder incites a different kind of satisfaction. ... to aid an old one, in it's fulfillment, is a benediction."

"Humans.. are notoriously bad at correctly perceiving the passage of time. Most people can accurately  keep track of time for only 5 seconds. Signals from the feet take longer to reach the brain than signals from the lips.  We are all, therefore, living slightly in the past."

Published: 2023  Read: February 2025  Genre: Science 

Who's Black and Why? - Henry Louis Gates Jr and Andrew S Curran

 Sub-title: A Hidden Chapter from the Eighteenth-Century Invention of Race

This book is a review and a reprint of letters written in the late 1700s for a contest that asked the question in the title.  It illustrates the evolution of the opinions that existed at the time.  The author's review explains how the writers explanations predicated the concepts of race that exists today.  I read the intro and reviews and a few of the translated letters.  There is a good chronology of the representation of Africans and race from ancient times up through 1890s.

Quote:

"By the end of the eighteenth century, the era we have come to know as the Enlightenment, another 4,5000,000 Africans were forced to leave their home continent for a life of brutal enslavement in plantations on the other side of the Atlantic.  See https://www.slavevoyages.org/assessment/estimates. "

Published: 2022  Read: September 2022  Genre: History

Moonshot - Albert Bourla

 Sub-title: Inside Pfizer's Nin-Month Race to Make the Impossible Possible

I'm an optimist, and this book supported my search for positive information about the pandemic. Dr Bourla is the chairman and CEO of Pfizer pharmaceutical company.  The book is his first person account of the development of the coronavirus at the fastest pace ever for a vaccine.  I was impressed with how the world coordinated their efforts in science, manufacturing, distribution and investment to develop the vaccine.  

Some may critically say the companies that developed the vaccine made lots of money and I call foul.  As commercial entities, yes, they will make huge profits; however, as the book illustrates, they also took huge risks in choosing the development path and ignoring financial concerns in favor of pursuing the best path for development.

The company adopted the phrase "Science Will Win" and we should all be grateful that it did.

Published: 2021  Read: March 2022  Genre: Science, History

Living with Our Genes - Dean Hamer and Peter Copeland

I picked up this book at the genealogical society in Green Valley, Arizona. They were clearing out their collection of older books and duplicates and I picked up a bunch!  Reading older published works highlights the progress that's been made over the past 20 plus years since this book was released.  The scientist, Dean Hamer, is a cancer researcher from Harvard and still operates a program doing genetic research.  He was controversial, claiming he had identified genes that may be associated with sexual orientation and intelligence.  The books's claims are considered glib and over-generalizations, but at the time were quite sensational, much like the claims of early 19th century snake oil salesman.  Not worth reading except for a gaining a perspective on how science evolves and can be exploited on the way.

Published: 1998  Read: March 2022  Genre: Science

The Codebreaker - Walter Isaacson

Sub-title: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race

This was a wonderful read for so many reasons. Isaacson introduces the story by explaining the three great revolutions experienced in modern times: the industrial, the information and now, the life sciences revolution.  He compares the growth of people being able to do digital coding by manipulating bits, the on/off switches of the information technology world, to the future growth of people who will do genetic coding by editing and manipulating our DNA.  The innovators in both are those who can not only read the code but write it.

 I'd heard the term "CRISPR" and knew it had to do with DNA but didn't understand what it was.  The author took us through the life of Jennifer Doudna, the Nobel Prize winning microbiologist whose curiosity led her from an early age to pursue RNA, the messenger part of our genetic makeup.  She won the Nobel Prize along with Emmanuelle Charpentier, for their research on how to alter our genes and how to "cut" DNA using  RNA to point to the edit point.  CRISPR -  Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats - that were discovered in the 1980s, provides this pointer to where the editing of  DNA is desired. Doudna and Charpentier showed how to use CRISPR as an editing tool. 

I was swept along in the story that wove the history of the discovery of DNA, the effort to map the human genome and the ability to edit genes with CRISPR into a coherent, understandable whole.  At the same time the author revealed the cooperation and competition among scientists and their human side as collaborators and competitors.

I was uplifted to read of their cooperation in finding ways to test for Covid-19 when it emerged in 2020 and of their dedication and single mindedness in pursuing solutions. Several chapters are devoted to explaining and exploring the ethical use of the CRISPR technology and how it might be regulated, providing thought-provoking discussion.

 I can't recommend this book enough.

Quotes:

"[from Emmanuelle Charpentier] I began to see myself as a scientist and not just as a student...I wanted to create knowledge, not just learn it."

"1998 conference at UCLA...focused on the ethics of making genetic edits that would be inherited.  These 'germline edits 'were fundamentally different, medically and morally, from somatic-cell edits that affect only certain cells in an individual patient.  The germline was a red line that scientists had been reluctant to cross."

"On most great moral issues, there are two competing perspectives.  One emphasizes individual rights, personal liberty, and deference to person choice [Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia].  The other are those that view justice and morality through the lens of what is best for the society and perhaps even the species [John Rawls's A Theory of Justice].

Notes:

"Count Me In" - public database with DNA shared by cancer patients.

1997 film Gattaca (the title is made up of the letter of the four DNA bases) told of the potential of genetic screening and selection.

Preprint servers such as Rxiv and bioRxiv, free and open publishing of scientific research papers.

Published: 2021   Read: May 2021   Genre: Science, Biography

Blockchain Revolution - Don Tapscott

 Sub-title: : How the technology behind bitcoin is changing money, business, and the world

This was a challenging, frustrating and quixotic book about a new technology that is said to revolutionize the world.  If I took nothing else from it, I learned the vocabulary of this emerging game changer.  The authors tout the many marvels that can be achieved with this secure, distributed transaction driver, as I understood it.  They provide multiple chapters on its potential application in financial services, business organization, education, healthcare and government, glossing over the details while stimulating creative thought. They claim it is the Internet of the 21st century and beyond.  I'll be exploring other interpretations to grasp a better understanding of its functions.  

Published: 2016   Read: March 2021  Genre: Technology, Science

Tropical Nature - Adrian Forsyth and Ken Miyata

 Subtitle- Life and Death in the rain forests of Central and South America 

I've been working on a DNA case that is related to the author of this book so I read it to see if I could get any clues. What an odd twist to research!

On page 31 I found a reference to a Marston Bates author of The Forest and the Sea.  

On page 73 there was a reference to Calaway Dodson, an orchid biologist who was the director of the Marie Selby botanical garden, a place I've visited a couple of times.

On page 132 there was reference to Henry Bates a British naturalist of the 1800s.

Finally, chapter 12 discussed the Mount Auburn Cemetery as a birder's mecca,  a factoid I found unusual. 

The book itself was a engaging introduction to the forest but did'nt convince me to put it on my traveling list.

Published: 1984   Read: February 2021:    Genre: Science 

Genome - Matt Ridley

Subtitle: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters

I've been working through my collection of DNA related books while staying home. This book was published several years ago so it is a bit out of date but still a great introduction to each chromosome.  Written after the mapping of the complete human genome, the author explains gene discoveries related to each chromosome and the science story behind each one.  A great read and a revealing, inspiring look at what genetics hold for the future.

Quotes/Notes:

Intro - "...twenty-two pair are in approximate order by size, from largest(1) to smallest (22)...in size the X comes between 7 and 8 ...whereas Y is the smallest."

"Imagine that the genome is a book.

            23 chapters, called chromosomes

            Each chapter contains several thousand stories called genes

            Each story is made up of paragraphs called exons, interrupted by advertisements called introns

            Each paragraph is made up of words, called codons

            Each word is written in letters called bases. "

 Chr 2 - "Apart from the fusion of Chr 2 visible differences between chimp and humans chrs are few and tiny. ...we are to a 98% approximation chimpanzees."

Chr 4 - Huntington's disease - first completely dominant human genetic disease to come to light.  a Long Island group in twelve generations of this pedigree more than a thousand cases of the disease...all descended from two brothers who emigrated from Suffolk in 1630.

Chr 7 - Instinct - the most startling evidence for a language instinct comes from a series of natural experiments in which children imposed grammatical rules upon language that lacked them.  ...pidgin language that became a creole in Hawaii in next generation.

Chr X and Y - Conflict - sex-chr drive - statistics - since females have two X chrs, 3/4's of all sex chrs are Xs.  Therefore, the X chr is 3 times as likely to evolve the ability to take pot shots at the Y.

Chr 8 - Aug 1986 murder in Leicestershire used DNA for the first time in history to exonerate a suspect (Pitchfork case)

Chr 14 - at the end of the chr there occurs a repated stretch of meaningless text the word TTAGGG repeated again and again about two thousand times.  ...known as a telomere.  Its presence enables the DNA copying devices to get started without cutting short any sens-containing text.  

Published: 2013  Read: May 2020  Genre: Science

The Signature of All Things - Elizabeth Gilbert

This was for the most part a delightful read.  Alma is the only daughter of a self-made man of the late 1700's and early1800s.  He serves on a ship to atone for a crime and travels the world, picking up skills that allows him to make his fortune and build a plantation in Pennsylvania that provides medicinal plants, among other ventures.  Alma grows up in this privileged world, exploring their estate and becomes and expert in plants and horticulture, specifically the miniature world of mosses.

Her parents take in a beautiful orphan girl and declare they treat each other as sisters, a relationship that colors the rest of both of their lives.  The family story evolves against the scientific discoveries of the period, in particular Darwin's evolution of the species.  The title of the book refers to the belief that every thing that exists bears the signature of a creator.

Alma finds love, loses it, and strikes out on her own in the world, writing a parallel theory of life to Darwin's, based on her studies of mosses and her life experiences.  The story gets off on a tangent about two thirds of the way but winds up satisfactorily reflecting on the lives of women of the period, family relationships and the natural world.

Quotes:

"Those who are ill-prepared to endure the battle for survival should perhaps never have attempted living in the first place.  The only unforgivable crime is to cut short the experiment of one's own life before its natural end.  To do so is a weakness and a pity--for the experiment of life will cut itself off soon enough, in all our cases, and one may just as well have the courage and the curiosity to stay in the battle until one's eventual and inevitable demise.  Anything less than a fight for endurance is cowardly.  Anything less than a fight for endurance is a refusal of the great covenant of life."

"[reflecting on her theory of life] "For here was the hole in Alma's theory; she could not, for the life of her, understand the evolutionary advantages of altruism and self-sacrifice.  If the natural world was indeed the sphere of amoral and constant struggle for survival that it appeared to be, and if out-competing one's rivals was the key to  dominance, adaptation, and endurance--then what was one supposed to make [of these traits]? 

[discussing her dilemma with a spiritualist] "There is no evolutionary need, you see, for us to have such acute sensitivities of intellect and emotion.  There is no practical need for the minds that we have.  We don't need a mind that can invent religions or argue over our origins.  We don't need ethics, morality, dignity, or sacrifice.  We don't need affection or love, certainly not to the degree that we feel it.  If anything, our sensibilities can be a liability, for they can cause us to suffer distress.  So I do not believe that the process of natural selection gave us these minds--even though I do believe that it did give us these bodies, and most of our abilities.  We have them because there is a supreme intelligence in the universe, which wishes for communion with us...it wants union with us, more than anything."

"I know that just because people can hear each other across the divide does not mean they can necessarily understand each other."

"..I have never felt the need to invent a world beyond this world, for this world has always seemed large and beautiful enough for me." 

Published: 2014  Read: 2019   Genre: Fiction

The Radium Girls - Kate Moore

Sub-title:  The dark story of America's shining women

I read this for my Ladies of the Club book group..over 25 years we've been meeting!

The true story of the young teenagers and women who painted luminous dials with paint brushes they "pointed" by "lipping" - wetting them with their mouths.  The were poisoned by the radium powder used and suffered horrendous illness and disfigurations and death while their employer denied any ill effects.  Their case led to worker's rights legislation.  A powerful read.

Published: 2017  Read: November 2018  Genre: History

The Violinist's Thumb - Sam Kean

Sub-title: and other lost tales of Love, War, and Genius, as written by our Genetic Code

This was a delight!  I'm crazy about genetics and DNA and this science writer has a wonderful way of making complicated subjects into entertaining stories.  I'd read his debut book, The Disappearing Spoon about the periodic table of the elements in 2015.  In this book, he uses anecdotes to illustrate principles and discoveries of DNA and genetics.  The title comes from the uniquely ability of Paganini, the violin virtuoso whose thumb flexibility is attributed to a genetic mutation.  The author takes us through history and the evidence provided by DNA in a variety of settings.  Even the notes at the end of the book are great reads! 

Some quotes I marked:

"Zipfs law says that the most common word in a language appears roughly twice as often as the second most common word, roughly three times as often as the third most common word...etc.  In English the  accounts for 7 percent of words, of  for about half that, and a third of that."

"Because of the parallels between DNA and language, scientists can even analyze literary texts and genomic 'texts' with the same tools. These tools seem especially promising for analyzing disputed texts...the scientists delved into the contentious world of Shakespeare scholarship, and their software concluded that the Bard did write The Two Noble Kinsmen...but didn't write Pericles, another doubtful work." 

"mtDNA opened up whole new realms of science as well, like genetic archeology.  ...because scientists know how quickly any rare changes do accumulate in a mitochondrial line - one mutation every 3,500 year - they can use mtDNA as a clock: they compare two people's mtDNA, and the more mutations they find, the more years that have passed since the two people share a maternal ancestor.  In fact, this clock tells us that all seven billion people alive today can trace their maternal lineage to one woman who lived in Africa 170,000 years ago, dubbed 'Mitochrondrial Eve.'  Eve wasn't the only woman alive then, mind you.  She's simply the oldest matrilineal ancestor of everyone living today." 

In his notes, the author also recommended Nine Who Survived Hiroshima and Nagasaki by Robert Trumbull and Mendel's Legacy by Elof Axel Carlson.  This one is a keeper!


Published: 2012  Read: May 2018  Genre: Science

The Glass Universe - Dava Sobel

Sub-title: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory took the Measure of the Stars

I got this book just over a year ago at the Tucson book fair, a recommendation from my brother-in-law, Tom.  I really enjoyed the author's other books that I read, Longitude and Galileo's Daughter. 

This novel tells the history of the women who worked at the Harvard Observatory analyzing and cataloging glass plate images of the stars. The plates were created by images captured by the observatory's telescopes in Massachusetts, Peru and South Africa.  Over 500,000 plates were created over several decades, a collection that is now being digitized including the paper sleeves they are stored in and the accompanying notes and card files.

The original observatory's efforts were made possible by ongoing donations from Anna Draper, the wife of Henry Draper, in honor of her husband.  She was very involved throughout the rest of her life in the programs.  Many women worked as "computers" to analyze and record the information on the stars.  It made me realize that astronomy involves a lot of math and physics.  I was struck with the education and skills of these women in the late 1800's and into the early 20th century and compared them in my mind to my women ancestors of the time, most of whom did not even go to high school.

There's mention of a Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin that I'll have to research as "Yerkes" is the middle name of my 2nd great-grandfather.

The women were not treated as second-class, although their pay was far less than their male counterparts.  The author features several who received doctorates in Astronomy and were instrumental in developing techniques for quantifying and cataloging the stars and who discovered many. 

A good read and history lesson.

Published:  2016  Read: July 2018  Genre: non-fiction, science

Inheritance – Sharon Moalem

Sub-title: How our genes change our lives and our lives change our genes

I got this book as a Christmas present, I think, it feeds my obsession with genealogy and DNA.  The author is an MD specializing in rare genetic and metabolic diseases.  He makes a case for studying these conditions, not only to help the patient, but as a means of discovering information that can be applied more broadly.  Of particular interest to me, is the explanation of genetic expression and epigenetics.

Genetic expression is the concept that while we may inherit a gene related to a specific disease or condition, the degree to which that disease or condition are manifest is determined by extent our genes articulate the effect.  In short, some people carrying a gene may get the related disease and others not and even others to varying intensity.

Epigenetics is the newer science examining the effect of our lifestyle and events on our genes.  Traumatic experiences of a mother as well as her diet can affect her unborn child.  There are studies that found children of parents who has experienced starvation before having children can still pass on genetic impacts.  The author defines it as “the study of changes in gene expression that result from life conditions”. 

One anecdote I enjoyed was about Dr. John Kellogg, considered a health guru in his lifetime, he lent his name to the brand.  He was an advocate for whole body vibration, or shaking the sickness out of his patients using vibration therapy.  While discredited in the past, now vibration therapy is being advocated for patients with osteoporosis because it could possibly activate the gene expression that breaks down and builds up bone.

The book provides several case studies of rare diseases that are genetically related and gets repetitive in the telling of the stories.  An interesting read with food for thought.

Published:  2014 Read:  June 2018   Genre: Science, Medicine

Rocket Boys - Homer H Hickam, Jr.

This was a joy to read!  It's a memoir of the author growing up in a coal town in West Virginia in the late 50's, shortly after the Russians launched Sputnik.  He and his friends are inspired to build rockets and with the help of their teacher and school, acquire the knowledge to do so.  They experiment with launching their rockets to hone their skills, while their coal town home is moving toward oblivion. 

I loved learning some rocketry and finally can name a use for trigonometry and calculus, not that I ever took those classes!  The relationship of the boys to each other and of Homer to his parents is genuine and moving.  I learned too of the hard lives of coal miners, giving me a new appreciation for my relatives who worked in the mines in Pennsylvania in the late 1800s. 

Some lucky person will pick this up in the next campground we visit!

Published:  1998  Read: May 2018  Genre: Memoir

The Wave - Susan Casey

An adventure reporter follows the men who seek out the largest waves in the world to surf them.  On the way she explains the science of large waves and the havoc they have reeked on ships and human beings over time.  Got me to watch the videos of the surfers and made me a little leery of ocean travel!

Published: 2010      Read: August 2017   Genre: Non-fiction, adventure

Humans Need Not Apply - Jerry Kaplan

Sub-title: A Guide to Wealth and Work in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

READ THIS BOOK.  This is the most thought provoking read I've encountered in a very long time.
The author explains the basics of artificial intelligence applications and how they will be utilized and lead to profound impacts on our lives. It won award as one of the top 10 science books of 2015.

It's easy to read, like the author and you are having a conversation and puts a positive view on the future of the technology.

Published:  2015  Read: February 2017  Genre: Science

The Master Algorithm - Pedro Domingos

I recently began reading on the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) because I’d read where Bill Gates (Microsoft) identified it as one of the three most important career areas of the future.

I was struck by the potential application of AI to the research of genetic genealogy, not for the scientists, but for the genealogist.  The math and science of AI is way, way over my head yet the book's review sparked my curiosity to dive in.

Quotes and notes:
This definition set me on the right track to reading the book.

"...machine learning is about prediction: predicting what we want, the result of our action, how to achieve our goals, how the world will change."  

And this quote gave me a frame of reference.

"The psychologist Don Norman coined the term conceptual model to refer to the rough knowledge of a technology we need to have in order to use it effectively.  This book provide you with a conceptual model of machine learning."

The author addresses 5 Schools of Thought in machine learning (ML) each with a different emphasis and scientific basis:
1) Symbolists - view learning as the inverse of deduction; philosophy, psychology and logic
2) Connectionists - reverse engineer the brain; neuroscience and physics
3) Evolutionaries - simulate evolution on the computer; genetics and evolutionary biology
4) Bayesians - learning as a form of probabilistic inference; statistics
5) Analogizers - learn by extrapolating from similarity judgments; psychology and mathematical optimization.

"Machine learning is the scientific method on steroids - it can test hypotheses in a fraction of a second."  

Reading this made me wonder if ML could incorporate the rules of evidence and decide if a fact or relationship is proven in the genealogical meaning of proof.

"Today, the main limitation of computers compared to brains is energy consumption: your brain uses only about as much power a a small light bulb, while Watson's (IBM's ML) supply could light up a whole office building."

It was comforting to realize our brains are still a much more powerful computer!

The author's explanation of S curves - gradually then suddenly, output increases as a function of input- made me wonder if there is an S curve for DNA inheritance?

"Psychologists have found that personality boils down to five dimensions - extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience -which they can infer from your tweets and blog posts."

That quote made me think twice about what I blog about!

In all, this was a fascinating read and a peak into the future of computing.

Published:  2015  Read: March 2017  Genre: Science

Infectious Madness - Harriet A Washington

Sub-title: The Surprising science of how we "catch" mental illness

The cover caught my eye on this one when I was in the library.  The author discusses studies and case histories that indicate that some mental illness may be caused by infections and our bodies immune system's reaction to them.  She refers to some conditions which were in the past attributed to mental illness that are recognized today as being caused by bacteria, viruses or other pathogens.  Without treatment, a disease would lead to dementia and bizarre behaviors associated with mental illness.

Once anecdote is that in 1872 cat ownership became popular in America.  That same year brought a sharp rise in U.S. schizophrenia rates.  Cats carry a zoonotic infection (a disease humans acquire from animals) that causes schizophrenia.

Paresis was once a familiar species of madness, given to one in five patients in mental asylums in New York by the 1920s.  Individuals experienced coarsening of the personality followed by mania, vivid delusions, and dementia and it was viewed as a punishment for depravity.  It was found to be caused by the disease, syphilis, which today is treated with antibiotics.

She points out the tendency for the medical community to maintain the status quo and dismiss different hypotheses for the cause of an illness, and suggests it is a reason more research is not done on the role of infectious agents in mental illnesses.

She relates cases of autism, bipolar depression, schizophrenia, OCD, and other mental conditions being linked to infections such as strep throat, influenza and measles.

The author has a B.A. in English and completed a fellowship in Public Health at Harvard and in medical ethics at Stanford.  She won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2008 for her book Medical Apartheid, about the treatment of African-Americans in the health care system.

While the science was not rigorous I thought the subject had merit and I agree with her that in the future we may find closer ties between infections and their impact on our mental health.

Published:  2015  Read: January 2016  Genre: Non-fiction, medical science