Matters of Life and Death
eBook - PDF

Matters of Life and Death

Perspectives on Public Health, Molecular Biology, Cancer, and the Prospects for the Human Race

  1. English
  2. PDF
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Matters of Life and Death

Perspectives on Public Health, Molecular Biology, Cancer, and the Prospects for the Human Race

About this book

Cancer has become the scourge of the twentieth century. It was always part of the human condition, but until recently it was not a common cause of death because most people died from the infectious diseases. Now that so many of us will live long enough to develop cancer, we need to learn as much about it as we can. This requires some understanding of molecular biology. John Cairns has made significant contributions to cancer research, molecular biology, and virology. He believes that it is possible to explain what is known about cancer and about molecular biology in terms that are easily understood by people with little or no scientific training. In this fascinating book, he explores the revolution in public health, the origins and principles of molecular biology, and our emerging understanding of the causes of cancer. Finally, he discusses how these developments are likely to affect future generations.


As Cairns points out, the last two hundred years have altered our life expectations beyond all recognition. Even in the less developed nations of the world, people are starting to believe that everyone ought to be able to live into old age and be protected from the major causes of premature death. This change in our expectations is one of the major benefits of technology and the biological sciences. But the resulting explosion in the human population ultimately threatens everything we have gained by scientific progress.

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Yes, you can access Matters of Life and Death by John Cairns in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Medicine & Medical Law. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Half-title Page
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Contents
  6. Foreword
  7. Preface
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. Chapter One: A History of Mortality
  10. Chapter Two: A History of Molecular Biology: The Storage of Biological Information
  11. Chapter Three: A History of Molecular Biology: The Management of Biological Information
  12. Chapter Four: Cancer and the Molecular Biology of Multicellular Systems
  13. Chapter Five: The Epidemiology of Cancer
  14. Chapter Six: Population
  15. Notes
  16. Index