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The Demon Under The Microscope
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
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very detailed, but very statistical
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Publisher's summary
Sulfa saved millions of lives, among them, Winston Churchill's and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr.'s, but its real effects have been even more far reaching. Sulfa changed the way new drugs were developed, approved, and sold. It transformed the way doctors treated patients. And it ushered in the era of modern medicine. The very concept that chemicals created in a lab could cure disease revolutionized medicine, taking it from the treatment of symptoms and discomfort to the eradication of the root cause of illness.
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Critic reviews
"Highly entertaining." (Publishers Weekly)
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The Secret History of the War on Cancer
- By: Devra Davis Ph.D.
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 19 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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The War on Cancer was run by leaders of industries that made cancer-causing products and sometimes also profited from drugs and technologies for finding and treating the disease. Filled with compelling personalities and never-before-revealed information, The Secret History of the War on Cancer shows how we began fighting the wrong war, with the wrong weapons, against the wrong enemies, a legacy that persists to this day.
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Silly Book
- By Adam Smith on 12-24-14
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The Fantastic Laboratory of Dr. Weigl
- How Two Brave Scientists Battled Typhus and Sabotaged the Nazis
- By: Arthur Allen
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Few diseases are more gruesome than typhus. Transmitted by body lice, it afflicts the dispossessed - refugees, soldiers, and ghettoized peoples - causing hallucinations, terrible headaches, boiling fever, and often death. The disease plagued the German army on the Eastern Front and left the Reich desperate for a vaccine. For this they turned to the brilliant and eccentric Polish zoologist Rudolf Weigl.
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An Unforgettable book
- By Jean on 09-01-14
By: Arthur Allen
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Bellevue
- Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America's Most Storied Hospital
- By: David Oshinsky
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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David Oshinsky, whose last book, Polio: An American Story, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, chronicles the history of America's oldest hospital and in so doing also charts the rise of New York to the nation's preeminent city, the path of American medicine from butchery and quackery to a professional and scientific endeavor, and the growth of a civic institution.
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Fascinating
- By Jean on 12-14-16
By: David Oshinsky
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Splendid Solution
- Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio
- By: Jeffrey Kluger
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Salk became a cultural hero and icon for a whole generation. Now, at the fiftieth anniversary of the first national vaccination program, and as humanity is tantalizingly close to eradicating polio worldwide, comes this unforgettable chronicle. Salk's work was an unparalleled achievement, and it makes for a magnificent listen.
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Excellent book
- By Tim on 08-10-06
By: Jeffrey Kluger
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Beating Back the Devil
- By: Maryn McKenna
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
The universal instinct is to run from an outbreak of disease. These doctors run toward it. They always keep a bag packed. They seldom have more than 24 hours before they are dispatched. They are told only their country of destination and the epidemic they will tackle when they get there.
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Interesting Stuff - Only criticism is pacing
- By Tim on 07-23-05
By: Maryn McKenna
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The Pandemic Century
- One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria, and Hubris
- By: Mark Honigsbaum
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Ever since the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic, scientists have dreamed of preventing catastrophic outbreaks of infectious disease. Yet despite a century of medical progress, viral and bacterial disasters continue to take us by surprise, inciting panic and dominating news cycles. From the Spanish flu to the 1924 outbreak of pneumonic plague in Los Angeles to the 1930 "parrot fever" pandemic, through the more recent SARS, Ebola, and Zika epidemics, the last one hundred years have been marked by a succession of unanticipated pandemic alarms.
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Pretty good
- By Baz 12345 on 04-03-20
By: Mark Honigsbaum
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The Moth in the Iron Lung
- A Biography of Polio
- By: Forrest Maready
- Narrated by: Forrest Maready
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
A fascinating account of the world’s most famous disease - polio - told as you have never heard it before. Epidemics of paralysis began to rage in the early 1900s, seemingly out of nowhere. Doctors, parents, and health officials were at a loss to explain why this formerly unheard-of disease began paralyzing so many children. Why did this disease start to become such a horrible problem during the late 1800s? Why did it affect children more often than adults? Why was it originally called teething paralysis by mothers and their doctors?
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Root Cause
- By Circlekay1 Gulfport MS on 10-24-19
By: Forrest Maready
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Asleep
- The Forgotten Epidemic That Became Medicine’s Greatest Mystery
- By: Molly Caldwell Crosby
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1918, a world war raged, and a lethal strain of influenza circled the globe. In the midst of all this death, a bizarre disease appeared in Europe. Eventually known as encephalitis lethargica, or sleeping sickness, it spread worldwide, leaving millions dead or locked in institutions. Then, in 1927, it disappeared as suddenly as it had arrived. Asleep, set in 1920s and '30s New York, follows a group of neurologists through hospitals and asylums as they try to solve this epidemic and treat its victims - who learned the worst fate was not dying of it, but surviving it.
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Scary, and still unsolved, medical mystery
- By joyce on 12-14-14
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The Butchering Art
- Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine
- By: Lindsey Fitzharris
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In The Butchering Art, the historian Lindsey Fitzharris reveals the shocking world of 19th-century surgery on the eve of profound transformation. She conjures up early operating theaters - no place for the squeamish - and surgeons, working before anesthesia, who were lauded for their speed and brute strength. They were baffled by the persistent infections that kept mortality rates stubbornly high. A young, melancholy Quaker surgeon named Joseph Lister would solve the deadly riddle and change the course of history.
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Not one boring moment!
- By WRWF on 12-22-17
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The Emperor of All Maladies
- A Biography of Cancer
- By: Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 22 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Emperor of All Maladies reveals the many faces of an iconic, shape-shifting disease that is the defining plague of our generation. The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance but also of hubris, arrogance, paternalism, and misperception, all leveraged against a disease that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out "war against cancer".
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Incredible
- By S.R.E. on 03-02-16
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King of Hearts
- The True Story of the Maverick Who Pioneered Open Heart Surgery
- By: G. Wayne Miller
- Narrated by: Patrick Cullen
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
G. Wayne Miller has dramatically and meticulously reconstructed an amazing true story: how a group of renegade Minnesota surgeons, led by Dr. Walt Lillehei, made medical history by becoming the first doctors to operate deep inside the human heart.
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Loved every minute
- By Brian on 02-05-08
By: G. Wayne Miller
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What won't we try in our quest for perfect health, beauty, and the fountain of youth? Well, just imagine a time when doctors prescribed morphine for crying infants. When liquefied gold was touted as immortality in a glass. And when strychnine - yes, that strychnine, the one used in rat poison - was dosed like Viagra. Looking back with fascination, horror, and not a little dash of dark, knowing humor, Quackery recounts the lively, at times unbelievable, history of medical misfires and malpractices.
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Computer-generated Narrator. Dated Humour.
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My favorite author
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The Triumph of Seeds
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Overall
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Performance
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We live in a world of seeds. From our morning toast to the cotton in our clothes, they are quite literally the stuff and staff of life, supporting diets, economies, and civilizations around the globe. Just as the search for nutmeg and the humble peppercorn drove the Age of Discovery, so did coffee beans help fuel the Enlightenment and cottonseed help spark the Industrial Revolution. And from the fall of Rome to the Arab Spring, the fate of nations continues to hinge on the seeds of a Middle Eastern grass known as wheat.
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Delightfully simplistic!
- By Adrian on 03-30-16
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The Billion Dollar Molecule
- One Company's Quest for the Perfect Drug
- By: Barry Werth
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Join journalist Barry Werth as he pulls back the curtain on Vertex, a start-up pharmaceutical company, and witness firsthand the intense drama being played out in the pioneering and hugely profitable field of drug research. Founded by Joshua Boger, a dynamic Harvard- and Merck-trained scientific whiz kid, Vertex is dedicated to designing - atom by atom - both a new life-saving immunosuppressant drug and a drug to combat the virus that causes AIDS.
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Book is interesting but narrator is not
- By Anonymous User on 05-05-23
By: Barry Werth
What listeners say about The Demon Under The Microscope
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Amazon Customer
- 05-21-08
Great Book!!!!!
OK. This purports to be the story of the development of sulfa drugs. Boring, you say? That's what I thought. I purchased it on the strengths of the other reviews. And, glad I did. This is the most intriguing and interesting story I've read this year. Extremely well told and narrated.
It is actually the history of the treatment (or lack thereof) of bacterial infections over the years. I'll bet you didn't know Calvin Coolidge had a son who died because a blister on his foot got infected? Or that Doctors used phenols to treat a minor medical procedure on Queen Victoria? Or that the Nazis prevented the most brilliant scientists of their time from getting a Nobel prize?
At times I got a bit confused when the author backed up to explain some historical or preceding event. I rather think that had more to do with the fact that this is an audio book and you need to pay careful attention.
Overall, though, I really must give this story my highest ratings and would recommend it to the layman and scientist alike.
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87 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Sara
- 09-02-08
A fantastic book
If you like history, science and the step by step retelling of discovery this book is for you. The author deftly weaves together events across time and from sites around the world to give a cohesive vision of illness caused by infection, war, disease and transformation brought about by science. At times heart wrenching and disturbing but an amazing read nonetheless. Excellent!
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54 people found this helpful
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Overall
- John Mertus
- 01-01-07
A pleasure in listening
It is a great pleasure to read a science author who knows both how to write and understands the subject. Thomas Hager is one such author. His manages to take both well know discoveries and little know episodes and weave them together into a story that is informative and entertaining. His descriptive writing is excellent, a rare talent in a writer who understands science.
The first part of the book does some jumping back and forth in time mostly to great effect as he reacquaints us with the discovery of the germ theory and early serum medicine. (Although I found that every once in a while he gives away the punch line before he tells the story.)
The second half of the book gives a fascinating and unique glimpse into Germany from before WWI to after WWII when the discovery of the magic bullet sulfa revolutionized the foundations of modern medicine.
If you, like me, enjoy both history and science, this is an exciting story that is well worth reading or listening.
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54 people found this helpful
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Overall
- "aminfc"
- 11-24-06
An excellent book, read well
This is one of the better general-interest science history books I've read or listened to. Hager takes a story that crosses international borders, contains stories from politics, military history, and organic chemistry and presents them in a way that is accessible to the lay person but satifying to an expert. He skillfully weaves the threads of this story together to make listening to this audiobook compelling and difficult to turn off.
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44 people found this helpful
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Overall
- John VandenBrook
- 08-05-07
Well done ...
I really enjoyed this book and the author's approach to an historical account of how the battle against disease began, and how it continues. I do have a science background, but not in medicine and am even less knowledgeable about history. I found myself recalling the names of tools or procedures used in biology, such as the Petri dish named after a German student, as the author gave an intricate account of the evolution of modern science.
What I really enjoyed about this book is the how the author describes the exhaustive efforts of scientist and researchers in the earlier part of last century; those who pushed the creative genius of mankind to its limit to find cures for the deadliest diseases known to man. I could not imagine having the strength, courage, faith, not to mention intelligence to discover something that barely existed as an idea at that time. The author was amazing at capturing how the pain and suffering of physicians who lost so many to disease, and how their love for their fellow man were the primary motivations which made the miraculous discoveries possible. With money, prestige, and self-gratification other motivators, the less admirable qualities of men were also told. This was a very well written book read by a terrific narrator that you are sure to enjoy!
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30 people found this helpful
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- Leigh A
- 05-08-07
Infectious read
I can hardily recommend to anyone interested in a fascinating historical read. I very strongly recommend to clinicians and researchers. It is principally the story of Nobel Laureate Gerhard Domagk and the effects of his research on those around him, medicine, counties, industry, war, and peace. I find it interesting that the product summary does not mention him. A well researched and presented story including the occasional semi relevant tangent. I might caution the faint of heart that there are some graphic descriptions early in the book.
Hoye's narration was a pleasure to listen to, in spite of the occasional mispronunciations. He has an inflection in his speech that reminds me of Al Pachino which some might find problematic, but I found it to be quite smooth.
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21 people found this helpful
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- Dale L
- 11-17-07
A Fascinating Tale, Well Told
This is an amazing story. In hard copy I'd call it a page turner. I often found myself annoyed that I had arrived at work and would have to wait for my commute home to continue the story.
The diligence and perseverance of the scientists searching for a cure for bacterial infections is humbling. The fact that the German dye companies didn't realize for several years that sulfa was the dog rather than the tail in their complicated dye-based formulations is a classic example of myopia. And the story of how the FDA came into existence due to the excesses of the patent drug makers is something few people know.
However, this story is not only interesting; it is very relevant to today's world. With more and more bacteria developing immunity to our miracle drugs, it is sobering to remember that we may be heading back to a time when people routinely died from an infected wound or a tooth abscess. The stories of the pre-sulfa world should give us pause.
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- Jan
- 11-27-13
Medical history's biggest step forward...
I have a strep throat today and the Dr. gave me a Z-pack. My Aunt had a strep throat in the 30's and died. This book follows the development of the first antibiotics... the Sulfa drugs, by Gerhard Domagk and peers between WWI and WWII. Although, of greatest interest to history buffs and medical sorts, it really is an interesting read. It reminds me of "The Immortal Cells of Henrietta Lack" or "The Ghost Map" where the plot sounds dull... but you just can't put it down. The book is broad: you will be inside the trenches during WWI, in the laboratory killing mice, being bombed in WWII and in the states killing people with tonics and watching greedy decisions made in an attempt to put competing drug manufacturing companies out of business. The book travels all over... but always comes back to poor Gerhard who finally gets his Nobel Award. The reader is wonderful.
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- peter
- 03-06-09
Fascinating for the Science Buff
Thomas Hager has done extensive, detailed research and written his story in a concise style which makes him easy to follow. His characters are alive; the life of the scientist well described. I know of no other book which covers this subject matter; the development of the most commonly used medicines and some insight as to what life was like before this became available. Its relevance is brought to life by stories of two US Presidents' sons who became sick: one lived; one died. Absorbing detail in both cases.
Is it for everyone? Probably not. History buffs, science minded enthusiasts, medical students: I used it for some marvelous facts concerning the discovery of bacteria which parallels what is happening today in nanoscience. I can put that in PowerPoint in a second.
I have one comment for Audible, if they can do anything about it. The reader has a wonderful voice tone, speaks clearly and at the perfect speed for me. However, he has the annoying habit of dropping his tone at the end of just about every sentence or phrase, giving emphasis to the word in a way that lends sad reflection. Have you any idea how irritating this can be? I rather think it might be the same reader as ruined 'Slaughterhouse 5' for me, although the effect was a lot less intrusive in this book than there.
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14 people found this helpful
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- Denise R
- 09-22-07
The Demon under the Microscope
This is one of the most absorbing stories that I have come across in quite a while. The impact the subject of the story has on each of our lives today is hard to comprehend. You will definitely have more insight into the way drug companies work and how research and development has elvoved over time. The power of drugs to heal and hurt and why the two must be balanced comes to life vividly. Highly recommend.
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