From Jonathan Weiner, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Beak of the Finch, comes His Brother's Keeper -- the story of a young entrepreneur who gambles on the risky science of gene therapy to try to save his brother's life.
Stephen Heywood was twenty-nine years old when he learned that he was dying of ALS -- Lou Gehrig's disease. Almost overnight his older brother, Jamie, turned himself into a genetic engineer in a quixotic race to cure the incurable. His Brother's Keeper is a powerful account of their story, as they travel together to the edge of medicine.
The book brings home for all of us the hopes and fears of the new biology. In this dramatic and suspenseful narrative, Jonathan Weiner gives us a remarkable portrait of science and medicine today. We learn about gene therapy, stem cells, brain vaccines, and other novel treatments for such nerve-death diseases as ALS, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's -- diseases that afflict millions, and touch the lives of many more.
It turns out that the author has a personal stake in the story as well. When he met the Heywood brothers, his own mother was dying of a rare nerve-death disease. The Heywoods' gene therapist offered to try to save her, too.
"The Heywoods' story taught me many things about the nature of healing in the new millennium," Weiner writes. "They also taught me about what has not changed since the time of the ancients and may never change as long as there are human beings -- about what Lucretius calls ‘the ever-living wound of love.'
"The Heywoods mean the whole story to me now: an allegory from the edge of medicine. A story to make us ask ourselves questions that we have to ask but do not want to ask. How much of life can we engineer? How much is permitted us?
"What would you do to save your brother's life?"

His Brother's Keeper: A Story from the Edge of Medicine

Weiner, Jonathan

Literature & Fiction

Ecco

Stephen Heywood was twenty-nine years old when he learned that he was dying of ALS - Lou Gehrig's disease. Almost overnight his older brother, Jamie, turned himself into a genetic engineer in a quixotic race to cure the incurable. His Brother's Keeper is a powerful account of their story, as they travel together to the edge of medicine. The book brings home for all of us the hopes and fears of the new biology. In this dramatic and suspenseful narrative, Jonathan Weiner gives us a remarkable portrait of science and medicine today. We learn about gene therapy, stem cells, brain vaccines, and other novel treatments for such nerve-death diseases as ALS, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's - diseases that afflict millions, and touch the lives of many more. "The Heywoods' story taught me many things about the nature of healing in the new millennium," Weiner writes. "They also taught me about what has not changed since the time of the ancients and may never change as long as there are human beings - about what Lucretius calls 'the ever-living wound of love.'"This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

His Brother's Keeper: One Family's Journey to the Edge of Medicine

Reference

“[A] searching and surprisingly witty look at the scientific odds against tomorrow.” —Timothy Ferris 
Jonathan Weiner—winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and one of the most distinguished popular science writers in America—examines “the strange science of immortality” in Long for This World. A fast-paced, sure-to-astonish scientific adventure from “one of our finest science journalists” (Jonah Lehrer), Weiner’s Long for This World addresses the ageless question, “Is there a secret to eternal youth?” And has it, at long last, been found?

Long for This World: The Strange Science of Immortality

Comics & Graphic Novels

Graphic Novels

Self-Help

Personal Transformation

x 332p paperback, illustrated, title page shows short message to previous owner from a friend, all other pages bright and unmarked, cover edges a bit worn, a firm copy, in good condition

The Beak of the Finch: Story of Evolution in Our Time New edition by Jonathan Weiner (1995) Paperback

Science & Math

Biological Sciences

Vintage

"A book that reads as easily as a good novel, while adroitly conveying information" (John Gribbin Sunday Times) "Jonathan Weiner's powerful and elegant book is a meditation on Darwinism, from its beginnings to our current planetary crisis... At its core is a study of the changes that are still happening to the 13 finch species that inhabit the Galapagos Islands. They are famous ( and fabled) birds, whose eccentric adaptations to the raw, unformed habitats of these young volcanoes gave Darwin one of the crucial clues in the development of his theory of "the Origin of the Species by means of Natural Selection"" (Richard Mabey Independent on Sunday) "No other book has displayed so dramatically the tiny but momentous changes that are taking place all around us in the living world. Darwin would be cheering" (Derwent May Evening Standard) "The subtle interweaving of historical fact, hard scientific detail and humorous anecdote makes this the kind of popular science writing to which many authors aspire but which so few achieve" (Economist)

The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time.

Alfred.A. Knopf

Examines the structure and evolution of the earth, discusses its climate, weather, and natural resources, tells what studies of the sun and the planets reveal about the earth, and describes the probable effects of a nuclear war

Planet Earth: The Companion Volume to the PBS Television Series

Bantam]

The author examines the threat of the greenhouse effect on the planet, the hole in the ozone layer, and the decimation of forests, and details the steps necessary to reverse these disasters

The Next One Hundred Years: Shaping the Fate of Our Living Earth

Planet Earth

Next One Hundred Years, The

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Weiner, Jonathan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Weiner, Jonathan

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Weiner, Jonathan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

His Brother's Keeper: A Story from the Edge of Medicine

His Brother's Keeper: One Family's Journey to the Edge of Medicine

Long for This World: The Strange Science of Immortality

Long for This World: The Strange Science of Immortality

The Beak of the Finch: Story of Evolution in Our Time New edition by Jonathan Weiner (1995) Paperback

The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time.

Planet Earth: The Companion Volume to the PBS Television Series

The Next One Hundred Years: Shaping the Fate of Our Living Earth

Planet Earth

Next One Hundred Years, The