The Life Project: The Extraordinary Story of 70,000 Ordinary Lives

by Helen Pearson

On March 3, 1946, a survey began that is, today, the longest-running study of human development in the world, growing to encompass six generations of children, 150,000 people, and some of the best-studied people on the planed. The simple act of observing human life has changed the way we are born, schooled, parent and die, irrevocably altering our understanding of inequality and health. This is the tale of these studies, the scientists who created them, sustained them, and perhaps most importantly, the remarkable discoveries that have come from them. The envy of scientists around the world, The Life Project is one of Britain’s best-kept secrets.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, History, Parenting, Psychology, Society, Sociology

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 25, 2016

Reviews

[Jen Well-Steered · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Economist's review of this book made it sound amazing: I was expecting stories about the 5 cohort studies that have been going on in the UK, the first one starting in 1946. I was anticipating answers to some of the pressing questions raised in the review: why is poverty still so detrimental? why - and perhaps more importantly how - do some people triumph over terrible childhoods, while others completely fail to launch?

And some of the answers to such questions can be found in the book, but the main focus is the life stories of the people who worked on the projects and how each one is in constant danger of being shut down due to a lack of funding, despite the hundreds of papers and policy changes that have resulted from them. For example, the link between smoking during pregnancy and underweight infants was established thanks to the 1958 cohort, as was the link between low birth weight and diminished life outcomes.

So I cannot say I loved this book. What I would have loved was more information about the actual results the studies have yielded, not trivia about the various scientists who have been in charge.

[Cleopatra Pullen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book about long-term studies of people born into pre-defined parameters and followed through their lives, and touches on how those studies have helped and informed the medical professions as well testing social science theories. That all sounds a little dry, but fortunately this book is anything and although I’m not entirely sure who the target audience is, I found it fascinating.

The book starts by looking at maternity care, for the children born in April 1946 the (at that time one off study) concentrated on where the children were born, whether they survived the first month of life, how long their mothers were confined for and how much they cost. This was in before the creation of the NHS and these children were born at the start of the baby boon but the study had initially been planned by members of the eugenics society to discover why fewer babies were born to the middle classes which caused anxiety about the future of the country. Having dispatched midwives and health visitors to fill in questionnaires about the lives of the 5,000 plus children born in the week the scientists were then able to start writing their reports.

The book talks about the design of follow-up studies for this group of children and what they were trying to discover which leads to the make-up of the questions but also brings in later studies, one in 1956, another in 1970. Another study should have begun in 1982 but Margaret Thatcher wasn’t a big fan of social science and by this time the studies were costing a considerable amount of money so this never took place but a study in Bristol begun in 1991 where DNA was collected from blood and placentas and is still stored to this day. The last study began in 2000 and with those children having reached their teens the next is into the final stages of planning.

I actually knew about the 1991 study through a throw-away comment from my mother who knew one of the participants when he was still a young boy, but I didn’t realise how big it was or how far these studies have actually gone towards defining policy. With studies on Grammar versus Comprehensive Schools, obesity, smoking and where it is best to give birth there is very little that hasn’t been plundered to make a case or in some instances to disprove a case.

Helen Pearson is obviously a big supporter of these studies and as the UK is the only country to have so many lives monitored and for so far back, for the ‘better good’, I’m with her although the costs are immense of course as the way we live has changed at such a fast rate continual studies are needed to reflect this. Although a supporter the author is good at balancing the good done with the misrepresentation of some of the facts and pointing out where the facts themselves could be found wanting – one example of this is a study from the first two birth cohorts which states that children with interested parents do far better than those without at school, and life in general. However as it was teachers who were judging the ‘interest’ levels of parents in a time when these very parents rarely set foot in a school it may well be that the teachers stated that the parents were interested in the education of their offspring more often if the child was doing well at school.
There are so many interesting facts and a few small insights into the lives of a couple of the earlier candidates that I think there is something to interest many people. I even enjoyed some of the walk through the politics of funding the next phase and next study although the tales of how exhausted those in charge were became a little wearisome at times.

I’m very grateful to Amazon Vine for giving me a copy of this book which gave me a lot to think about on so many different levels. Despite being a book with an academic subject the author has made it incredibly accessible to those with no knowledge of the subject at all. The Life Project will be published on 3 March 2016.

[Katy Larkman · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is undoubtedly my failing that I didn't realise on buying The Life Project that it really is the story of the birth cohort studies - the instigators, the funding struggles etc - & much less the analysis of the studies' findings. It is the latter which interests me more, & where the findings were stated, the book was hugely interesting.

However, I have some issues with The Life Project. First, no references were given in the main body of the text & this I found v frustrating. The Bibliography & Sources section did fill this gap to a certain extent, but as this was after the main text, attention had travelled its usual arc. I found statements such as 'The advantages of being September-born are so well known that sometimes, when a child is born in the dying hours of 31 August midwives will do parents a favour and record the baby's birth as being in the early hours of 1 September' frustrating for the lack of a reference as I wanted v much to see Pearson's evidence.

Second, the author was a tad repetitive, & worse, went into unnecessary detail about a great many things: people & their backgrounds, funding politics, & locations. I noted that she had a real beef with the University of Essex & talked at some length about what she perceives to be the exceptionally ugly aesthetic character of its buildings. The narrative needed no more detail than that the University holds many of the records referred to. When the topic was revisited & I was told for a second time how dreadfully bleak the site is, I felt that her editor should have done a better job.

Third, there were a few asides which presupposed that the reader, & all right-thinking people, would agree with her. A little personality & a little humour injected into a text are not inappropriate, but, as outlined above re Brutalist architecture, some issues are contested. So, when she referred to health & safety regulations as being 'famously overzealous in the UK', I was irritated by her assumption that this is a given: someone I know knows a lot more about H&S than I do & believes our regulations are broadly appropriate & have saved lives.

Nevertheless, the book was written in an easily accessible style and I enjoyed the insights - frustratingly few tho they were - gleaned from the studies, in particular the specifics of how our early experiences impact on our futures.

[Richard Smyth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gripping read - finished in 2 nights - sad Social Mobility Remains a Myth in GB

Fascinating read - as entertaining as anything I have read & extremely informative about British Society over the last 70 years. Perhaps because born in 1958 , attending a grammar school, coming from the socially deprived North East of England I could relate to the content and some of the conclusions - the lack of social mobility for my contemporaries and the burning desire of my Father to get me to go into higher education. If you have kids I would add this to your priority reading list. If you don't have kids I would still add it to your reading list

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this leans more to the scientific than the social sciences for my taste, the overall fascination of following life cohorts is gripping. So much has been learned, and remains to be learned. Well worth the read (even the bits about data curation!)

[Lydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is quite statistical but very interesting...worth a read!

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, which surprised me because it's not my usual cup of tea. I found myself quoting from it and thinking about it at odd times. Very glad I found it.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book about longitudinal cohort studies in the UK. In 1946 some British scientists came up with the then-revolutionary idea to study and follow a cohort of children born in a particular part of that year. That study yielded so much useful information about perinatal mortality and health, that additional cohort studies followed, at about 10-year intervals. Much of what is currently accepted wisdom came from these studies : the knowledge that smoking leads to low-birth-weigh babies, the role of pollution in respiratory disorders, and the oft-repeated observation that being born in poverty is a risk factor for a host of mental, physical and social challenges. Some studies were focused on medical science and the collection of physical specimens (from placenta to stools, from baby teeth to DNA samples), were others were more in the realm of social science.

The author is clearly interested in her subject and describes the scientists, physicians and economists who ran, supported and analyzed these studies with sympathy and indulgence. This is not just a story of science, but also of the struggle for science : funding was always at risk, and more than one cohort study was either scrapped or canceled early on. Depending on the political winds, the findings of the studies might be used to support various government positions or to inform new policies.

The author has a UK-centric focus that I found endearing but that others might find irritating. Cohort studies in the US, for instance, are scantily represented. The Framingham study is mentioned, but not the Nurses' Study or the Nun Study, and there appears to be a little schadenfreude in the description of the collapse of a 15-year effort to start an American childrens' study.

I would have liked to see a little more description of the technical aspects of the study, especially the different techniques used to store data. From paper records to punch cards to computers to better computers to ....Fortunately, there is a good list of papers and books about the data from these cohort studies that enable the interested reader to find out more.

All in all, an excellent effort to bring these important studies out into the limelight. They have been very influential in shaping modern medicine and social policies and deserve to be better known.

[Naomi Hyde · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a very interesting book!

To start with the negatives - although the subject was really interesting, I found it so difficult to get stuck into it (hence why it took me almost a month to read!). The style and tone of voice wasn't engaging at all, and at some points I felt like I was reading an actual research paper! Also, I disliked the structure. I understand that Helen had to write this book semi-flexibly to ensure that each cohort was tracked chronologically, but I found it annoying when, for example, Helen started talking about the 1991 cohort, but then would jump back to the 1980s to catch us up with what the first three cohorts were up to. I found it quite difficult to keep up at these points and to remember who was involved in what cohort and what their role was. There were so many people involved in these studies that it was hard to keep track of who's who. The book could have done with a table/chart at the end of each chapter to summarise where each cohort was up to and who was running it.

Nevertheless, the book was generally really fascinating. I learned a lot about social sciences, research methods, and the history of things like maternity rights and education. Despite what some other reviews have said, I really enjoyed hearing about the process of these cohorts and how they were set up, what funding was needed, how they worked etc.. That was as interesting to me as the results from the studies! Particular results that I found fascinating were the links between IQ, parenting, and social class and how much our early life can affect later life and our health. The class divide around education was also very interesting, particularly as I went to a grammar school as a working class child, so reading some of the results from the studies also felt mildly relatable. It also made me think a lot about how we use this information - I felt myself feeling quite worried at anxious during some parts thinking about if I have children in the future, how I'll stay on top of making sure my child has the best start in life. Sometimes I feel these studies may have found out "too much" information that are actually more distressing than useful.

Overall, I thought this book was fascinating and I equally loved hearing about the studies' results as well as their methodology.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting book about the politics and people involved in the creation of a series of life cohort programmes, and the changes in medicine and social sciences that studies of their subjects provoked. The compromise and chance of what ended up being a world leading programme is astonishing, the people involved seem admirable and the outcomes of the studies are fascinating.

I've read criticism of this book, saying that it's too much about the people and politics and not enough about the learnings from the studies. That seems wrong to me; the people and politics shaped what data was collected and therefore what correlations could be explored but, more to the point, as the book makes clear, hundreds and hundreds of studies have arisen from the data, and the results can be unclear, open to interpretation and vulnerable to manipulation by politicians and the media. It would be extremely difficult to unpick all of that - the interested reader must turn to the scientific papers if they want to understand more. Even so, plenty of the book is about what people learned and how medical advice changed as a result.

Finally, the book is brutal and empirical about the ways in which being born into poverty massively disadvantages people, regardless of other characteristics. It should make any reader furious - this book (or the scientific studies) should be required reading for all politicians.

[Tanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

This interesting book tells the history of 5 separate cohort studies carried on in the UK which have provided a treasure-trove of data for both medical and social science researchers. The first cohort, children born on a particular week in 1946, have been followed throughout their lives, periodically filling out questionnaires, being interviewed, and undergoing medical examinations. Roughly every 12 years a new cohort study was initiated, until by 2002, 70,000 Brits were subjects of these ongoing studies.

I loved reading about the different kinds of things that have been learned through analysis of the massive amount of comparative data. Some insights are medical: correlating birth weight with later obesity, smoking with lung cancer, childhood illnesses with pollution exposure. Others have been fully in the realm of social science: comparative social mobility, connection between psychological trauma and career attainment, affects of early childhood attention and academic success. I actually wish the book had spent more time delving into what had been learned through the many studies of the cohort data. Too many pages were devoted to the people and politics behind the studies. I was less interested in who headed up which cohort, and all the wrangling to secure ongoing financing for each cohort study.

Overall, 3.5 stars for a book unlike anything else I've read.

[dahyung · Rating 3 out of 5]

My company recently started running some cohort analyses (or have been trying to run). In theory, we would pick a day (or a week) of new "users" who come to our app - this would be a cohort. As days go by some users would more "engaged" (hence increased the retention then we can monetize them) some users would be "churned" out (lost users, not a good sign if the number of churned users is higher than retained users - no growth). The task here is why some users would be more engaged by certain patterns and why some users would be churned out with certain patterns.

An app is usually designed for a specific purpose (although Twitter seems to struggle with it, still, but that's the kind of the beauty of Twitter has, isn't it?) and there are designated paths but it is still hard to analyze exactly why - so no wonder it would be really hard to analyze on new human beings (babies) by a cohort analysis. Wouldn't be interested in knowing how scientists did (they weren't Data Scientists by the way) and what did they get out of it?

There is a good story about some dedicated scientists, especially the very first scientist who started this cohort study. As far I as I remember he had a specific purpose to find out the medical/social condition and infant mortality. Shockingly to the British society at that time, the cohort analysis supposedly displays the class gap creates the health gap. However, after that initial study themes became a bit broader and broader. At some point, it would create a mere ideological report than pure 'scientific' report. By the way, is the Cohort study is really scientific? Still do not get it.

In the "pre-determined" app world, where "users" are supposedly do something with clear "purposes" I am still not sure that the cohort analysis can bring up real insights or "scientific" truth.

What about life?

[Anup Sinha · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title is deceptive as the book is more historical rather than scientific or sociological. It is a thorough historical log of the cohort studies it describes in Great Britain, but the actual findings of the “Life Project” are only sprinkles and not part of the main narrative.

The findings are also revealed anecdotally and not via quantitatives. So you are forced just to take the author’s word for it. Few of the findings were surprising or new information to me. It is probably because of these studies I knew of them prior, but I guess I was hoping for new knowledge.

Pearson is a very good writer and researcher, I just didn’t get what I hoped to get based on the title and some of the reviews I read. I ended up skimming much of the book that went into details about the genesis and funding of the studies. I appreciate the struggle those scientists endured to get us this data, I just wanted to read more about the data itself.

[Natasa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book which tells the story of five birth cohort studies - studies that have followed individuals since birth until way into their 60s. These studies have given us great insight into the factors that affect an individual’s development, success and long term health. They are indeed a precious jewel in the British Crown and they should be treasured for their contribution to the health and social policies implemented by different British governments. The book is full of details and one gets easily lost in names and findings, but what it also reveals is the continuous struggle to secure research funding and how the political agenda steers research. This is a lesson for any young researcher and I think that academics should speak more openly about it.

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wasn’t exactly a “light read” - some may find it fairly dry and academic. I guess I found it at a time in my life when that was ok with me, though, because the topics being discussed interested me enough. It covers a wide range - maternity care, early childhood development, social mobility and income inequality, education, genetic predispositions, environmental impact on health - to name a few.

[Anindya Biswas · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extraordinary research into an extraordinary research. In the end, the author writes about the scientists wishing for the studies to be loved like a British institution like BBC or NHS. This book could be the catalyst that drives that.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating

[Mrs E G Mori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting, well written book. Fascinating to know what it takes to gather this kind of research about people and how they change physically and philosophically.

[Ed Crutchley · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is difficult to know whether to give more praise to Helen Pearson’s page-turning narrative that so livens up the subject or the massive cohort studies themselves, and all the effort that has gone into keeping them alive, not to mention what they have provided for government fact-based decision making. I had expected, almost hoped for, tables of statistics and countless graphs . . . and was pleasantly disappointed (there’s only one graph, albeit a remarkable one). Around the world some 87 cohort studies from birth are presently in process thanks to Britain’s lead started in 1946. By following thousands of subjects at a time, often well over 10,000, they are tracking and connecting countless causes and effects in health and wellbeing. A sort of scientific Parkinson’s Law regarding what data to collect has meant that they have become increasingly expensive and prone to cuts. The advent of cheap and easy computing, together with DNA testing and genetics and so many other advances in science and technology and resulting questions posed, have tended to over-complicate what has always been a dream for epidemiologists and social scientists. The studies have also become challenged in other ways; by the publication of endless studies of one sort or another that have dispelled previous beliefs, about good and bad foods, for example, and thereby created a credibility issue; phenomena such as Facebook unintentionally linking cohort subjects; the fear of leaks of confidential information; the need for cohort subjects to trek to suitably equipped centres rather than being visited by health visitors as was once the case. No doubt the fact that as everyone gets older it may become the studies themselves that highlight issues that would not have otherwise been detected and end up influencing their subjects’ destiny, thereby contradicting the need for impartiality. Since one conclusion that had consistently appeared over the 70 years of studies is the disparity in life expectancy and success in life according to social class and circumstances at birth, there is an inevitable political undertone to it all. It all seems rather socialist. But it is a fact that these studies have repeatedly found that poverty has had a major influence on perinatal mortality, achievement and mental and physical health in later life. So what about current increasing disparities in wealth?
Whatever the political slant, the studies have also highlighted such phenomena as the surge
in obesity from the 1980s. It is extraordinary to think that, in this modern age and the evidence now collected, debates should continue to rage about subjects such as single parenting, grammar versus comprehensive schools (not significantly different), class size at school (ditto), the merits of labour induction, pain relief and C-section at birth, or whether births should take place at home, at the doctor’s (now defunct) or in hospital (where in fact perinatal mortality had been higher), the negative effects of electromagnetic radiation on children, of chemical exposure and pollution, and so-on.
There have been so many significant facts established, for example proof of the link between smoking and lung cancer and perinatal mortality; between air pollution experienced in early life and health problems and cardiovascular disease later on; the correlation between low birth weight with blood pressure in peoples’ thirties; the link between baby health and hand grip in peoples’ 50s; the phenomenon of foetal programming, even the experiences of ancestors leaving and effect (via a mother’s eggs, present from birth) having an influence on later life; the link between children’s calorie intake and cancer at a later age; the breastfeeding link with IQ and the disadvantages faced by expectant mothers who were hospitalised at weekends thereby receiving less breastfeeding encouragement and training; the positive effect of regular bedtimes; the absolute importance of parental interest and engagement on later age; the importance of the home atmosphere and early reading on educational success; the more effective methods of learning to read; the early influences on delinquency; that diseases and problems such as diabetes, atherosclerosis, and psychiatric problems had gestation periods of decades and could be spotted coming; the negative effect of drinking while pregnant; the negative effects of corporal punishment; the higher rates of mortality occurring among those with lower grade jobs. And so-on: all life-changing stuff.

[Aisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where to begin with this book? I've not read a book like this before, well I guess there aren't many that can explain how human health has changed over the course of 70 years. The research gone into this book is wonderful, and I enjoy how the story is made somewhat more human with additional insertions of stories about one child as opposed to the whole cohort, which I think is important to emphasise.

The science within the book is well explained, and easily managed, and would be even by non-scientists which I think makes a fantastic author as this is vital to achieve. However, it does mean that the science (I think) is somewhat simplified which may take away from the achievements of the scientists involved, however I do not the believe the purpose of this book was to be a textbook. Helen Pearson has also successfully explained the political and economic issues behind running the cohort - and indeed science research projects themselves - something which I found both worrying and essential for the public to understand -as I would like have a career in science research - with potential support to be gained for research. Furthermore, as the cohorts covers such a large expanse of time we get a sense of how much lifestyle has changed recently and it's odd to see 70 years all compressed into 300something pages. I would be really interested to compare the diaries provided by each of the cohorts in their teenage years.

The Life Project, unlike other science books I have read, has fluidity about it and is a story within itself. It's satisfying to see how each cohort evolves and how loyal the members are. And how the cohorts have the ability to change medicine to a greater degree - particularly with maternal care and the negative impacts of smoking, however it can also be a little disturbing to find out how little has changed.

It does make you think about the future, and what the next cohort studies will questions and achieve.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone with personal or professional interests in British culture, history of education, history of medicine, and research design, odds were good that I'd enjoy this book. I did, especially the "case studies" of the participants in the various cohorts (and the anecdotes about how they sometimes benefited from the government programs their cohort showed the need for!) and how careful Pearson was to make discussions of politics and methodology accessible.

That said, I was both surprised and not surprised about how much of the book was devoted to discussions of politics and methodology. This is related to the other main thing that surprised me about the book--the description makes it sound like the six cohort studies were waves of a single study, when in fact they were six different studies on six different cohorts, with different emphases (social science vs. medicine), questions asked, measurements taken, artifacts collected, researchers in charge, etc. There have been some recent efforts to consolidate the studies (i.e., keep all their data in the same place) and make connections across data sets, but such efforts have been mostly retrospective. Thus each study has its own story of fighting for funding and staff, creating ambitious yet feasible research plans, etc.

So, this is less a book about the findings from these cohorts (though those certainly get some airtime) than about the process of conducting massive national cohort studies: what rigorous cohort studies have looked like at different times, what can reasonably be concluded from such methods, how knowledge does or doesn't inform policy. If those sorts of topics interest you, this book is definitely worth your time.

[Chantal Lyons · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting book to review. On the one hand, its content didn't feel as rich as any of the other nonfiction books I've read this year (nature/science/medical). Despite being about studies looking into individual's lives in-depth, there was little in the way of case studies apart from a few mentions of individual participants, and it's case studies that really draw me in. And given that the cohort studies covered in the book examined such a wide range of aspects of human life (social and physical), the book often felt like a whistle-stop tour with little time to explore things like maternity.

Judged only by the above criticisms, I'd probably give the book only three stars. But I think it's worth four because of the fascinating window it provides into the confluence of science, politics and policy, and the eternal trickiness of statistics. We begin just post-war and just before the birth of the welfare state, and move through the Thatcherite years and then New Labour, before touching on the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government. All through this time the cohort studies fought for funding and to justify their existence, and when they were lavished attention by politicians and policy-makers, the findings from the studies were interpreted in all manner of contradictory ways - whether willfully or because it could be such a challenge to distinguish between correlation and causation.

I'd go so far as to say that anyone about to take a university degree in any social science (particularly Politics) or statistics or health should read this book - it's a highly engaging illustration of the way things so often work in UK government.

[Vasiliskrin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good, informative book about the British birth cohorts. The book narrates the social research in Britain from the 1940's until now and provides fascinating insight into British society during more than half century. A must read.

[Hussam Al Husseini · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading the book. Science books might seem a little bit boring; however, Helen Pearson has the extraordinary ability to tell the story of researches in an interesting way.

When I used to hear about any large-scale research study, it seemed for the first look that it is very complex and un-understandable. This book tells how several large-scale cohort studies started, the challenges they faced, the leaders who fought to keep the studies alive, the adjustments they had to do and the outcomes. I remembered the quote "The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." I recommend The Life Project to anyone interested in research methodology.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

About a month ago Amazon sent me an email promising me a $10 credit if bought a memoir right away. That sounded like a good deal. I bought We Cuss a Little: The Life and Times of a School Psychologist for 99 cents then used my $10 credit to buy this book. It had sounded interesting in a review but my library did not have a copy and I didn't want it badly enough to spend $9.99. However getting two books from $.99 seemed more than fair.

Ms. Pearson does a good job of describing the nuts and bolts of a number of different cohort studies, most of them English. The tenacity of the study leaders is an inspiration for other researchers. However, I was hoping for a book with more representative narrative on the people who were studied. The book hints at their lives and tells some anecdotes about a few participants, but very little of the book is devoted to them.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read the first 60 pages, but have done more recent reading on poverty (The Poverty Industry). Too much prose and not enough charts and analysis for me. May look for other sources regarding these cohorts.

[Bsldavio · Rating 5 out of 5]

nonfiction

[Darko Doko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative. Gives a view of development of post war Britain and is social sciences

[Hilary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating story of how British social and medical scientists lead the world in designing and implementing longitudinal studies of birth cohorts. The first born in 1946 are still providing data and lots of discoveries have come from these and similar studies. Highly recommended if you love research or social history. Told in an engaging lively way, this is both interesting and entertaining.

[Mike Banach]

It is book about a series of Cohort studies which follows a large group a babies which are born in the same year/week. The narrative about how each study was formed and funded was fascinating to me as a scientist familiar with getting projects funded. Also some interesting implications from the study about speaking to kids promoting their development. Not as informative as interesting.