Deadly Feasts
Tracking the Secrets of a Terrifying New Plague

I recently finished a course on Coursera on Medical Neuroscience. It was an extremely difficult course for me because I really don't have a science background. On the other hand, it was fascinating. I took it because for a long time I've had an interest in books concerning the brain and its workings......more

Well, I'll still eat meat, but only because I think that everything is hopeless. This was a compelling, if somewhat terrifying, read that shows just how helpless we can be against diseases of unknown origin. Deadly Feasts does a great job of exploring the background of the Mad Cow epidemic in Britia......more

I didn't buy the whole epidemic thing. It was a little too dramatic and improbable, but none the less exciting--I still eat beef.......more

Prions are nightmarish little critters. They're not viruses, they're not bacteria- and they're sadly quite indestructible. They're like a Superhero gone wrong, with no Kryptonite that could destroy them. The fact that they do a number on the human brain is terrifying- the proven method of infection......more

While somewhat dated (written in 1997), I found this book to be an accurate and detailed history of our knowledge of prion diseases. Since publication, we still do not know the exact cause, means of diagnosis or any treatment for the diseases that we did't know then, which wasn't much. Not to downpl......more