The Invisible Enemy: A Natural History of Viruses

by Dorothy H. Crawford

Book Overview

Here is a compelling scientific account of viruses, their history, and the dangers they pose--now and in the future. Viruses are disarmingly small and simple. Nevertheless, the smallpox virus killed over 300 million people in the twentieth century before it was eradicated in 1980. The AIDS virus, HIV, is now the world's biggest killer infection and the single most common cause of death in Africa. In recent years, the outbreaks of several lethal viruses...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0198564813
• ISBN13: 9780198564812
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 275 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Excellent! A book to be read by everybody

What a great book to finish this year. This is the history of viruses, those nanoparticles wrapped up in protein, a history of smallpox, polio, herpes, hepatitis, flu, Human T Leukaemia Virus, HIV and others little viruses that have made difficult our existence. But this book is more than that, a book to understand how this virus operate, their relation with cancer, how we have combated them via immunization, vaccines and antivirals, and the amazing advances in dealing with them, including the use of viruses to deal with cancer. There is much more to understand about viruses, the purpose of them, an effort that perhaps allows to understand life itself. This is a book to be read by everybody, a book that should have a spanish version and be given to high school/University students. Prevention is the first step.

Understanding viruses

"The Invisble Enemy" is a very good overview of the world of viruses. Virologist Dorothy H. Crawford has written a book that is scientific, but it is also interesting, enjoyable, and very readable. In fact, I became so immersed while reading the book that I felt that I was reading a historical novel and not a book on the science of viruses. But that is what is so enjoyable about this book - Ms. Crawford weaves together interesting tales, scientific data and her thoughts on viruses in a way that helped me to understand these primitive proteins and their impact on the history and evolution of the human race. Throughout the book there is information about the history of a variety of killer viruses such as yellow fever and polio and the vaccines that were developed to eradicate them. There is also information about the origins of HIV - how HIV infects a cell and the ways that HIV drugs interfere with the replication process. Also information is included on hepatitis A, hepatitis B and a little information on hepatitis C. There is also an overview of the emerging killer viruses such as ebola, hanta virus, and the bird flu. After reading this book I came away with a better understanding of viruses and their remarkable ability to survive.

Nice book

This is a nice book about viruses. The book is slightly technical, but reading it while able to access wikipedia should do it, if you want to understand each detail. Recently I came across a theory came which says that viruses played a crucial role in the evolution of humans. After reading this book the above theory made sense to me.

amazing

I assumed this would be another text book style read consisting of sterile,bare bones info. I was very pleasantly surprised. This book is increadible. It reads like a novel and yet the info is present in every sentence. The author is clearly beyond knowledgable about the topic. I would recommend this book to anyone . Truely amazing!

Truly Infectious!

"The Invisible Enemy" offers a thorough and useful approach to virology without using excessive amounts of medical and scientific jargon. It is especially useful to those of us who have experienced a lapse in time since studying formal virology or medical microbiology. This book is an entertaining overview of several of the more recent discoveries in the field of virological infectious disease. It should be of interest to any student of the physical sciences, or researchers/practicioners of the medicinal craft.