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The Invisible Invaders: Viruses and the Scientists Who Pursue Them
Completely updated to include the latest findings on HIV, a highly praised survey of today's state-of-the-art viral research follows the cutthroat competition of high-level science that often pits researchers against each other. Reprint.
- GenresScienceNonfictionHistory
432 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1995
62 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 15, 2020
Peter Radetsky was one of my first mentors in science writing... so I'm embarrassed to say how long I let his book on the history of virology sit on my shelf. It took an epidemic, coronavirus, to give me the motivation.
What I found was that this is a really understandable and readable book! And it's a great lesson in both the fallibility and ingenuity of scientists. Over and over again, viruses kept thumbing their noses (if they had noses) at biologists' assumptions. Here are some examples.
Assumption 1: Surely all germs have to be cells? Fooled you! A virus is nothing but a chunk of DNA, sometimes wrapped up in a fatty membrane. I was surprised to learn that you can even grow a virus crystal: outside of a cell, it's as inert as table salt.
Assumption 2: Did you think DNA is just some useless goop in a cell's nucleus? That's what biologists thought until 1950 or so. Then they discovered (largely through their research on viruses) that DNA is like a computer program, and a virus is the smallest snippet of code.
Assumption 3: Do you think that DNA makes RNA, and never the other way around? That's what biologists thought until the 1970s; it was called the "central dogma." Then came the 1980s, reverse transcriptase, retroviruses, and AIDS, and the dogma was blown to smithereens.
I could imagine a book that told the same story as a series of great battles. First we beat smallpox. Yay! Then we whipped rabies. Woo hoo! Then Salk and Sabin gave us vaccines against polio. Three cheers for Salk and Sabin! But Radetsky's book gives us so much more, because he places us in the scientists' shoes and makes us puzzle about the same things that puzzled them. In the end we really come to admire these strange creatures we call viruses. Each of our enemies taught us something new and important. It's not just about winning, it's about learning their secrets.
This is especially important to keep in mind today, when we once again have a new and baffling viral adversary, coronavirus. Reading "The Invisible Invaders" is a great antidote against panic. We have faced many viruses before, and many of them were much, much scarier than coronavirus.
In particular, Radetsky's book was written under the shadow of the AIDS epidemic, at a time when testing positive for HIV was like a death sentence. The first draft was published in 1991, when the first anti-AIDS drug, AZT, was starting to show real potential. The second draft, with a new epilogue, was written in 1994, when AZT no longer looked like a wonder drug. It had a lot of side effects and still didn't get rid of the virus.
It's important for us to remember today what an extraordinarily bleak time this was. And yet... we got through it. Literally within two or three years after the second edition of Radetsky's book, the "triple drug cocktails" of AZT and two other drugs came into use, and suddenly HIV became manageable. We still don't exactly have a cure, but we can keep the virus under control for an indefinite time. (It's too bad that there couldn't have been a third edition of "The Invisible Invaders" that told this story.)
Today, we seem equally defenseless against coronavirus. We have no vaccine, no drugs, and no understanding of why it seems so mild for most people but so deadly for a few. That's why it's so important to remember that we've been through this before. The only thing to be afraid of is our own ignorance. Somewhere out there, I guarantee you, are the Jenners, the Pasteurs, the Sabins and Salks, the Gallos and Montagniers, who will figure out how coronavirus works and how we can disable it. All we need is a little bit of patience and time.
What I found was that this is a really understandable and readable book! And it's a great lesson in both the fallibility and ingenuity of scientists. Over and over again, viruses kept thumbing their noses (if they had noses) at biologists' assumptions. Here are some examples.
Assumption 1: Surely all germs have to be cells? Fooled you! A virus is nothing but a chunk of DNA, sometimes wrapped up in a fatty membrane. I was surprised to learn that you can even grow a virus crystal: outside of a cell, it's as inert as table salt.
Assumption 2: Did you think DNA is just some useless goop in a cell's nucleus? That's what biologists thought until 1950 or so. Then they discovered (largely through their research on viruses) that DNA is like a computer program, and a virus is the smallest snippet of code.
Assumption 3: Do you think that DNA makes RNA, and never the other way around? That's what biologists thought until the 1970s; it was called the "central dogma." Then came the 1980s, reverse transcriptase, retroviruses, and AIDS, and the dogma was blown to smithereens.
I could imagine a book that told the same story as a series of great battles. First we beat smallpox. Yay! Then we whipped rabies. Woo hoo! Then Salk and Sabin gave us vaccines against polio. Three cheers for Salk and Sabin! But Radetsky's book gives us so much more, because he places us in the scientists' shoes and makes us puzzle about the same things that puzzled them. In the end we really come to admire these strange creatures we call viruses. Each of our enemies taught us something new and important. It's not just about winning, it's about learning their secrets.
This is especially important to keep in mind today, when we once again have a new and baffling viral adversary, coronavirus. Reading "The Invisible Invaders" is a great antidote against panic. We have faced many viruses before, and many of them were much, much scarier than coronavirus.
In particular, Radetsky's book was written under the shadow of the AIDS epidemic, at a time when testing positive for HIV was like a death sentence. The first draft was published in 1991, when the first anti-AIDS drug, AZT, was starting to show real potential. The second draft, with a new epilogue, was written in 1994, when AZT no longer looked like a wonder drug. It had a lot of side effects and still didn't get rid of the virus.
It's important for us to remember today what an extraordinarily bleak time this was. And yet... we got through it. Literally within two or three years after the second edition of Radetsky's book, the "triple drug cocktails" of AZT and two other drugs came into use, and suddenly HIV became manageable. We still don't exactly have a cure, but we can keep the virus under control for an indefinite time. (It's too bad that there couldn't have been a third edition of "The Invisible Invaders" that told this story.)
Today, we seem equally defenseless against coronavirus. We have no vaccine, no drugs, and no understanding of why it seems so mild for most people but so deadly for a few. That's why it's so important to remember that we've been through this before. The only thing to be afraid of is our own ignorance. Somewhere out there, I guarantee you, are the Jenners, the Pasteurs, the Sabins and Salks, the Gallos and Montagniers, who will figure out how coronavirus works and how we can disable it. All we need is a little bit of patience and time.
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August 24, 2023The influenza outbreak at the end of World War I (1918-1919) hit 25 million U.S. people - 1/4 of the population, out of which one half million died. No war has killed that many people in the United States. Around the world 2 billion contracted the flu, at least 20 million died in a period a little over ten months. "There has never been as much loss of life in a comparable period of time in the history of the world, nor has been since." p. 231
April 1, 2024
Never met someone who talks about viruses so funnily and passionately.
February 3, 2017
A solid grounding in the subject of viruses, the illnesses they produce and how they do it, how they were discovered, and the steps taken to try to cure or prevent their diseases. Written in plain English, this is an easy to understand explanation of how viruses operate, including clear diagrams that really help to explain the lifecycles of various kinds of viruses and how they infect the cells of the human body. The only flaw is that the book was last updated in 1994. It would be really good to see the final sections rewritten to take into account all the advances in gene therapy and other techniques since the mid 90's. Thoroughly recommended with that caveat in mind - 4-star rating to reflect that.
June 1, 2014
I'm reaching back into my memory on this. This was really the start of my obsession, more or less, with infectious diseases.
When "The Hot Zone" came out, I was eager to read it, but wanted to start by brushing up on my general knowledge of how diseases work. So I found this at the bookstore and read it. It's an excellent introduction to viruses -- what they are, how they work, how people discovered them, and how vaccines for them were discovered. It's quite readable, not at all textbook-y.
I have since read (and accumulated) many books about diseases, but this is still what I recommend to people who want to know more about viruses.
When "The Hot Zone" came out, I was eager to read it, but wanted to start by brushing up on my general knowledge of how diseases work. So I found this at the bookstore and read it. It's an excellent introduction to viruses -- what they are, how they work, how people discovered them, and how vaccines for them were discovered. It's quite readable, not at all textbook-y.
I have since read (and accumulated) many books about diseases, but this is still what I recommend to people who want to know more about viruses.
June 29, 2011
A great historical account of viruses including major viral outbreaks, the search for the infectious agent responsible for these diseases, and the scientists and doctors that were instrumental in this work. Included are viruses that have significantly impacted humans, such as smallpox, rabies, polio, influenza, hepatitis and AIDS.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews