A wonderful "modern" book for the layman explaining the source of viruses and how viruses stress each other to produce new viruses and how they may be transmitted to us to cause new diseases.

This book was extremely helpful in allowing me to see and feel how other adoptees have experienced the same sense of loss I have coped with since childhood. As an adoptee, adopted as an infant, and finding my birth parents after 30+ years, it was amazing to have a book which so clearly outlines the stages of my life, and allowed me to understand the feelings I have had for so long. The book is a quick read, but has depth in the way it will touch any adoptees soul. This book has motivated me to write my own story, as an adoptee, searching for self, while raising two children as a single dad. This book has allowed me to identify feelings which I felt only I experienced, and will allow me to write a book from the heart. Thank you.

I liked this book because it was a balanced view of adoption. I found it validating. It showed that within my peer group - adoptees - I was very normal. This helped. It also showed that although some people react with great desperation to adoption others seem to take it more in stride and that is normal too. Regardless of how you feel, this book is a must read. Enlightening, validating and no whining. Thank you to the authors.

This book is right on target. It showed me the reasons for why I've felt the way I have for so many years. I'm 55 and was adopted in infancy. My adopted Mother never told me anything and I always felt left out and some how all alone in this world. Now I understand why I feel the way I have all these years. It's natural and normal. This is an excellent book for adoptees to understand why their feelings are mixed, confused, and not totally feeling a part of this world. I'd recommend this book to all adoptees.

Overall I recommend this book, especially if you are just beginning to learn about virusus. A lot of specific details have changed since this book was published. For example, the chapter on AIDS, while being accurate in 1994, is now so out of date as to be somewhat offensive. However, the main point of the book, that humans are behaving in ways that greatly increase the risk of viral epidemics, is not at all dated. In fact, it is more relevant now than ever. Despite some details being out of date, the concepts presented in this book are accurate, and VERY, VERY important. However, if you are looking for specifics on emerging viruses, I would recommend reading a more current book. If you have a scientific background and want more details, I also recommend "The Coming Plague" by Laurie Garrett. Like this book, it has some inaccuracies, but I found it more interesting.

The subject matter of this book sparkles though some mediocre writing. The book is not well organized and the author is fond of cliches such as "Professor Morse has a small office typical of college professors, crammed with books and old coffee mugs." Who cares! If the author had just focused on virulogy, it would have been better, but it is still an interesting read (though a bit dated now).

I really enjoyed this book! It tells gripping tales of real-life nightmares with energy, insight, and even charm. I also found it very well-informed and extremely clear. I knew almost nothing about this field before I picked up the book, and understood it easily. Henig is an outstanding science writer.

As a gardener, I love the story of a monk who loves gardening founding the science of genetics -- and it's a good story. As a mother and sometimes teacher, I love the fact that Mendel was a lousy test-taker and didn't do well in school as a result -- and still became the founder of genetics.(He became a monk to get an education, as I recall--or was it to do his plant breeding work? I don't remember that detail.) At a time when overachievement is a sickness, this tale of a man who loves his numbers becoming obsessed about patterns in pea reproduction stumbling on the secret to a whole modern industry is tonic. And the whole second half of the book, which is the story about how his discoveries were lost and found and became the center of a story of science politics, are simply fascinating. I am a little puzzled at the reader who complained there was no original research. You don't even have to read the book to know the author went to Brno. On C-Span Books the author explained about how when she was at the monastery in Brno she learned about the "secret" door in the monastery's formal library and went through to the room in back where the monks actually studied and did their work -- and how it was from that window that they probably shouted out to Mendel in his garden, thereby explaining one piece of the puzzle about why people thought he fudged his numbers and why he probably didn't. Far more interesting to me, in some ways, was realizing that this was a time when religion supported science and science was something the average gardener could get involved in and would then talk about in a local talk -- in the days before people were glued to their tv sets -- when science and religion weren't seen as adversaries, as they appear to be in Kansas. A good read.

It is easy to ignore Mendel. Genetics as a science is exploding with new data and ideas almost daily. And, it is not just the science that understandably captures our interest. The scientists themselves have drawn attention from biographers and historians who have churned out volumes on those working in the field today. The life and personalities of Watson and Crick, more recently Craig Venter of Celera, and others attract media notice, quite independent of their work and scientific contributions. Against contemporary practioners,the life and times of a patience, deliberative and plodding monk just can't seem to compete for air time. But, before you conclude that Mendel is the C-SPAN of genetics, read The Monk in the Garden. In this well-written and graceful volume by Robin Marantz Henig, the complexity of Mendel's life emerges fully. Fraught with insecurity; beleagured almost throughout his life by a depression that could leave him immobilized; ignored by jealous rivals: Henig's Mendel can capture the attention of contemporary readers every bit as much as the scientists currently standing on his shoulders. After all, as Henig writes, "Had he not made that start, however tentative, who can say how genetics would have begun instead -- or even when." The Monk in the Garden is worth knowing.

Henig provides a gripping account of the life and work of Gregor Mendel with just enough speculation to make this scientific biography read like a novel. After describing Mendel's work and his dissapointment in the lack of impact his results had during his own lifetime, she gives an account of the battles around Mendel's "rediscovery" that ranks among the best tales of cut-throat scientific intrigue. The author's appreciation for science and admiration for single-minded scientific genius and attention to detail shows throughout her account. She has a sound appreciation of both the promise and the ethical dilemmas provided by modern genetic discoveries (which she really only expounds upon in the final chapter). My only complaint would be that she provides no insight into the spiritual life of the "monk in the garden", something many readers might expect given the title of the book. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in the science, the history of science or the biography of outstanding individuals.