Product Description

Fear of mad cow disease, a lethal illness transmitted from infected beef to humans, has spread from Europe to the United States and around the world. Originally published to much acclaim in France, this scientific thriller, available in English for the first time and updated with a new chapter on developments in 2001, tells of the hunt for the cause of an enigmatic class of fatal brain infections, of which mad cow disease is the latest incarnation. In gripping, nontechnical prose, Maxime Schwartz details the deadly manifestations of these diseases throughout history, describes the major players and events that led to discoveries about their true nature, and outlines our current state of knowledge. The book concludes by addressing the question we all want answered: should we be afraid?
The story begins in the eighteenth century with the identification of a mysterious illness called scrapie that was killing British sheep. It was not until the 1960s that scientists understood that several animal and human diseases, including scrapie, were identical, and together identified them as transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE). The various guises assumed throughout history by TSE include an illness called kuru in a cannibalistic tribe in Papua New Guinea, an infectious disease that killed a group of children who had been treated for growth hormone deficiencies, and mad cow disease. Revealing the fascinating process of scientific discovery that led to our knowledge of TSE, Schwartz relates pivotal events in the history of biology, including the Pasteurian revolution, the birth of genetics, the emergence of molecular biology, and the latest developments in biotechnology. He also explains the Nobel Prize-winning prion hypothesis, which has rewritten the rules of biological heredity and is a key link between the distinctive diseases of TSE.
Up-to-date, informative, and thoroughly captivating, How the Cows Turned Mad tells the story of a disease that continues to elude on many levels. Yet science has come far in understanding its origins, incubation, and transmission. This authoritative book is a stunning case history that illuminates the remarkable progression of science.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #897242 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-13
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Two and a half centuries ago, sheep in England started trying to scrape their wool off; in France, to shake uncontrollably. The Brits dubbed their phenomenon scrapie; the French called theirs tremblant. Between then and now, similar conditions in cows and humans were discovered and assigned the group name transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs): diseases that fill the brain with holes as in a sponge and spread from one organism to another. Their cause eluded researchers until quite recently. SOP since Pasteur sought an invasive bacterium or virus with increasingly powerful tools, which TSE agents eluded. Eventually, evidence pointed to a genetic cause involving transformation of a normal into a deviant gene by another deviant gene introduced orally into the affected organism. You had to eat something from a sick organism to become sick, and once that became popular knowledge after the concurrence of human and bovine TSE cases in England in the 1990s, there was a panic. That reaction seems unjustified; according to Schwartz, TSEs will continue to be a very minor cause of human death. Meanwhile, there may be much to learn from TSE research about such symptomatically similar illnesses as Alzheimer's disease. Writing with immense concentration and clarity, French molecular biologist Schwartz makes the long hunt for the unexpected culprit gene utterly engrossing. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"The drama of Schwartz's book...is in the slow coming together of several historical strands of scientific research, given the momentum of a detective story by his personification of the book's malign protagonist: a rogue protein given to feints and counterattacks." - Irish Times; "[Schwartz] succeeds in formulating a history of research on TSEs that captivates the reader - science and storytelling at their best." - British Medical Journal (BMJ); "Maxime Schwartz develops the history of TSE as a mystery novel.... Schwartz poses questions, suggests possible answers, and then describes the scientific advances that produced the answers. The book...should appeal to a wide range of readers." - Nature; "Schwartz's fully engrossing, two-century-plus detective story provides a thoroughgoing history of the discovery of 'mad cow' and related diseases that also illuminates the ways in which science works. I could not put this book down." - Jon Beckwith, author of Making Genes, Making Waves; "Rarely have I read a book as scary, interesting, informative and enjoyable." - John E. Talbott, University of California, Santa Barbara"

Book Info
Insitut Pasteur, Paris, France. Text is translation of Comment Les Vaches Sont Devenues Folles, c2001. Tells of the hunt for the cause of an enigmatic class of fatal brain infections, of which mad cow disease is the latest carnation. Traces evidence of brain infections throughout history and how scientists have come to understand their origins, incubation, and transmission.

Customer Reviews

Boring & Dry
Maxime Schwartz was a molecular biologist and is now a professor at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Schwartz traces the history of medical research into spongiform encephalopathies, and how the scientific understanding of how they are spread has changed over time. If you know anything about Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) or Mad Cow disease, I don't think you'll learn anything new in this book. How the Cows Turned Mad is not a sensational book, nor even a good book. Quite simply it is too wordy and dull.