Why Us?: How Science Rediscovered the Mystery of Ourselves

A general practitioner in England, Le Fanu finds time to write a weekly column for The Sunday Telegraph and The Daily Telegraph and articles in other periodicals contributing to ongoing debates primarily about the interface between medicine and other aspects of society. Here he explores unanswered--indeed until recently unasked--questions about genetic inheritance and about the workings of the human brain, and what scientific research is now discovering about them. Among his topics are science almost triumphant, the ascent of man, certainty and doubt as the reason for everything, the impenetrable helix, the unfathomable brain, and restoring man to his pedestal. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)