Medical Science Books
The first day of summer has arrived, and so has STAT’s annual book list of great reads in health, science, and medicine. Read on for recommendations from CRISPR pioneer Jennifer Doudna and CDC Director Robert Redfield. Plus, STAT readers from Boston to Ireland to Australia share their picks, in addition to our staff.
NOTABLE FIGURES
This is an awesome collection of 38 interviews, published originally in the Science Times section of the New York Times, that captures the wonder and excitement of scientific discovery. As an outstanding journalist and a relative outsider to science, Dreifus elicits from her subjects the passion, frustration, inspiration and, ultimately, the joy of doing medical science. Her writing reminds me of the work of John McPhee: deep and expansive with a sense of fun.
Physicians, parents, and public health professionals seeking credible, timely information about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines will find those answers in Dr. Offit’s “Vaccinated.” He writes a compelling narrative, sharing the underlying science and historical context behind the vaccine regimen recommended today. This fact-based retrospective dispels myths and underscores the importance of immunization for children and adults alike. Readers will have a better understanding of the science-based reasoning to embrace vaccination for themselves, their families, and their communities.
OUR READERS
With cannabis medicine now getting the attention it deserves, Michael Pollan has done a tremendous job at digging into the history of psychedelic use, both recreationally and in therapy, together with his own observations as a new psychedelic experimenter at the age of 60. All in all, a comprehensive history of the topic, together with interviews from key psychedelic researchers, and a call for serious researchers to think twice about hasty judgments surrounding this interesting compound. “Bitten” is a riveting narrative that digs into the origins of the Lyme disease epidemic.
It connects many dots with compelling evidence and page-turning storytelling that point to the likelihood that a bio-weaponized tick program gone awry could have contributed to the more virulent forms of tick-borne illnesses that have been wreaking havoc on unwitting people for the past five decades. Doctors are not well-trained on tick-borne illness, diagnostics are inadequate, and there are no career tracks in the field other than a few courageous pioneers. Biotech is largely on the sidelines.
Yet millions of people are being disabled. Perhaps this book will help stir some action. After all, we all are just one bite away from a nightmare illness.
