A gripping biological detective story that traces the history of mad cow disease and related infectious brain diseases of livestock and people. The book also illustrates dramatically how scientific progress unfolds as researchers in various countries pursue new ideas and leads in order to identify the cause of and relationship between these enigmatic diseases.
Prologue
1: The Sheep Are Strangely Dizzy
2: Molecules and Microbes
3: Mad Dogs and Earthworms
4: Scrapie under the Microscope
5: Creutzfeldt, Jakob, and Others
6: Scrapie Is Inoculable
7: And Goats, and Mice
8: Scrapie Is Contagious
9: Kuru and the Fore People of Papua New Guinea
10: The Wall Comes Down
11: From Pearl Necklace to Double Helix
12: The Phantom Virus
13: A Tragedy in the Making
14: One Case per Million
15: Prions
16: April 1985
17: The "Kiss of Death"
18: The Return of the Spontaneists
19: To Grow--and to Die
20: Lessons Learned
21: Have the Cows Gone Mad?
22: From Cows to Humans
23: From Cows to Sheep? From Humans to Humans?
24: The Secret in the Closet
25: Unmasking "The Disease"
26: Have We Conquered "The Disease"?
27: 2001
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Chronology
Acknowledgments
Index
"Schwartz's fully engrossing, two-century-plus detective story provides a thoroughgoing history of the discovery of 'mad cow' and related diseases that also illuminates the ways in which science works. I could not put this book down."--Jon Beckwith, author of 'Making Genes, Making Waves: A Social Activist in Science'
"Rarely have I read a book as scary, interesting, informative and enjoyable."--John E. Talbott, University of California, Santa Barbara 'Praise for the French edition:'
"Maxime Schwartz's book . . . constitutes an ode to science, to its rigor, to its perseverance, but also, as we shall see, to its modesty. 'How the Cows Turned Mad 'is a gothic historical novel: its author, molecular biologist and former director of the Pasteur Institute, leads us along a thread that unravels over almost three centuries, from Louis XV to Tony Blair."--'Le Figaro'
"But above all, and this is indeed remarkable in a work which treats such a scientific subject, 'How the Cows Turned Mad' is not a scientific treatise for scientists, but rather a book. And as such, it reads easily and pleasurably."--'Le Generaliste'
"How the Cows Turned Mad: that's the title of this book, almost a detective novel, just published by the molecular biologist Maxime Schwartz. An indispensable tool that allows us to sort through the truths and untruths and finally assess the situation."--'Panorama du medecin'
Prologue
1: The Sheep Are Strangely Dizzy
2: Molecules and Microbes
3: Mad Dogs and Earthworms
4: Scrapie under the Microscope
5: Creutzfeldt, Jakob, and Others
6: Scrapie Is Inoculable
7: And Goats, and Mice
8: Scrapie Is Contagious
9: Kuru and the Fore People of Papua New Guinea
10: The Wall Comes Down
11: From Pearl Necklace to Double Helix
12: The Phantom Virus
13: A Tragedy in the Making
14: One Case per Million
15: Prions
16: April 1985
17: The "Kiss of Death"
18: The Return of the Spontaneists
19: To Grow--and to Die
20: Lessons Learned
21: Have the Cows Gone Mad?
22: From Cows to Humans
23: From Cows to Sheep? From Humans to Humans?
24: The Secret in the Closet
25: Unmasking "The Disease"
26: Have We Conquered "The Disease"?
27: 2001
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Chronology
Acknowledgments
Index
"Schwartz's fully engrossing, two-century-plus detective story provides a thoroughgoing history of the discovery of 'mad cow' and related diseases that also illuminates the ways in which science works. I could not put this book down."--Jon Beckwith, author of 'Making Genes, Making Waves: A Social Activist in Science'
"Rarely have I read a book as scary, interesting, informative and enjoyable."--John E. Talbott, University of California, Santa Barbara 'Praise for the French edition:'
"Maxime Schwartz's book . . . constitutes an ode to science, to its rigor, to its perseverance, but also, as we shall see, to its modesty. 'How the Cows Turned Mad 'is a gothic historical novel: its author, molecular biologist and former director of the Pasteur Institute, leads us along a thread that unravels over almost three centuries, from Louis XV to Tony Blair."--'Le Figaro'
"But above all, and this is indeed remarkable in a work which treats such a scientific subject, 'How the Cows Turned Mad' is not a scientific treatise for scientists, but rather a book. And as such, it reads easily and pleasurably."--'Le Generaliste'
"How the Cows Turned Mad: that's the title of this book, almost a detective novel, just published by the molecular biologist Maxime Schwartz. An indispensable tool that allows us to sort through the truths and untruths and finally assess the situation."--'Panorama du medecin'