Book of Love

Sample

Robert Cook-Deegan

The Human Genome Project, the most ambitious biological research program ever undertaken, was born in controversy. Heralded by its more enthusiastic proponents as a quest for the "Holy Grail of biology" - and the key, ultimately, to the treatment of a variety of hereditary diseases - it has as its initial goal the mapping of all the genes in the entire three-billion-letter genetic code embodied in the DNA of a typical human cell. A major factor in the counterarguments of its opponents: its projected cost, estimated to run into the billions of dollars, spread over 10-20 years. In this firsthand account of the protracted struggle to launch the genome project, a close observer of that process - and sometime participant in it - unravels the tangled scientific and political threads of the story, relying on primary documents gathered even as events unfolded, supplemented by interviews with all the main actors - including the controversial first head of the National Institutes of Health genome effort, Nobel laureate James D. Watson. The result is an absorbing case study in the politics of modern science - focused in this case on a project with far-reaching medical and social implications.

Sample

Joan Lingard

Sadie, a Protestant, and Kevin, a Catholic, are both attracted to and pitted against each other until a new eruption of violence in Belfast forces them to face the consequences of their behavior.

Sample

Alberto Angela

"Through lively and detailed vignettes all based on historical documents and archaeological finds, [this work] travels back in time and shows us a world that was perhaps not very different from our own, and in so doing reinforces its relevance for a new generation of readers."--Front jacket flap.

Sample

Charles Edward Cauthen

First published in 1950 and long sought by collectors and historians, South Carolina Goes to War, 1860-1865 stands as the only institutional and political history of the Palmetto State's secession from the Union, entry into the Confederacy, and management of the war effort. Charles Edward Cauthen's germinal study offers a thorough examination of the state's political leadership and policymaking during the secession crisis and the subsequent four years of war. Notable for its attention to the precursors of war too often neglected in other studies, the volume devotes half of its chapters to events predating the firing on Fort Sumter and pays significant attention to the Executive Councils of 1861 and 1862. This edition features a new introduction by J. Tracy Power summarizing the political climate that characterized South Carolina's departure from the Union and entrance into war, and examining the significance of Cauthen's book within the context of its initial creation and reception.