In 1969, U.S. Surgeon General William H. Stewart said that it was "time to close the book on infectious disease." But the enemy, and the power of natural selection, had been underestimated. The sober reality is that pathogens can adapt to every chemical researchers develop. And with the surge in global travel, these diseases can be spread as quickly as they are identified.But the same science that is fighting these diseases also has a hand in creating and adapting other pathogens. The use of deadly germs in warfare is nothing new but has recently come to the fore with the recent outbreak of anthrax. UNDERSTANDING GERM WARFARE explores how germs affect the human body, how they are spread, and what science is doing to combat the germs that seem to be more dangerous by the day.With a foreword by Dr. Jack Brown, microbiologist and author of Don't Touch hat Doorknob: How Germs Can Zap You and How You Can Zap Them Back, this collection includes articles by noted scientists including William A. Haseltine, Chairman of Human Genome Sciences, Inc.; Randolph M. Nesse and George C. Williams , co-authors of Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine; and Stuart B Levy, the Director of the Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance at Tufts University School of Medicine.
