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A Child Against All Odds
A Child Against All Odds
Oct 1, 2024 10:37 PM

Author:Lord Robert Winston

A Child Against All Odds

Compared to the famously fecund rabbit, for whom a single act of coitus has a 90% chance of creating a litter of up to 12 rabbits, humans are very infertile animals. Here in the UK, the average chance of conception is about 18% per month. And in 98% of cases, successful conception leads only to the birth of a single infant. It is unsurprising then that huge efforts have been made to increase our fertility.

In vitro fertilisation, first attempted one hundred years ago, has now become big business. Market forces, combined with the desperation of many couples to fulfil their biological imperative, have pushed doctors and scientists closer to the boundaries of what is desirable or ethical. And as we are increasingly able to access and control the embryo, the opportunities of altering human genetics to eradicate disease, but also to change human characteristics, becomes a real, and to some, frightening possibility.

A Child Against All Odds is a ground-breaking book for Robert Winston as it falls squarely in his area of expertise. It combines his work at Hammersmith Hospital as one of the country's leading fertility specialists, with a hard-hitting, sometimes humorous, often controversial look at the scientific, social and ethical background of man's struggle to discover and control the secrets of reproduction. Drawing on personal and professional experience, it is the definitive account of modern reproductive technology from a practitioner who has spent his professional life at the forefront of this most fascinating and emotive area of science.

Reviews

Erudite and accessible, powerful and humane.

—— Independent on Sunday

The awesome history of reproductive medicine from myth to the latest breakthroughs ... magisterial in its unfolding of the science for a lay audience

—— Sunday Telegraph

Everyone must read 12 Rules For Life... The most enlightening book I have read in ages. Google him if you like, if it makes you feel better. It will, by the way. But get the book, that is the most important thing. And then read it. And then pass it on to a friend

—— Chris Evans

In a different intellectual league... Peterson can take the most difficult ideas and make them entertaining. This may be why his YouTube videos have had 35m views. He is fast becoming the closest that academia has to a rock star

—— Observer

Charismatic and exceptionally articulate.... Peterson is a new kind of public intellectual, using YouTube to spread ideas infinitely wider than predecessors such as Bertrand Russell or Isaiah Berlin

—— Amol Rajan , New Statesman

Anyone who is in a position of leadership would find it very insightful ... Jordan Peterson is a profound writer

—— Gina Miller

It is that rare thing: self-help that might actually be helpful

—— New Statesman

Fascinating ... Peterson is brilliant on many subjects

—— Bryan Appleyard , Sunday Times

One of the most eclectic and stimulating public intellectuals at large today, fearless and impassioned

—— Matthew d'Ancona , Guardian

Profound, charismatic and serious... One of the most important thinkers to emerge on the world stage for many years

—— Tim Lott , Spectator

The most sought-after psychologist in the world

—— Psychology Today

A wonderful psychologist

—— Malcolm Gladwell

Like the best intellectual polymaths, Peterson invites his readers to embark on their own intellectual, spiritual and ideological journeys... You have nothing to lose but your own misery

—— Toronto Star

The most important and influential Canadian thinker since Marshall McLuhan. His bold synthesis of psychology, anthropology, science, politics and comparative religion is forming a genuinely humanistic university of the future

—— Camille Paglia

Someone with not only humanity and humour, but serious depth and substance ... Peterson has a truly cosmopolitan and omnivorous intellect... There is a burning sincerity to the man

—— Spectator

A rock-star academic, a cool, cowboy-boot-wearing public thinker who directs tough love at overprotected youth ... Peterson twirls ideas around like a magician

—— Melanie Reid , The Times

Jordan Peterson is a Canadian psychologist whose seemingly overnight ascent to cultural rockstar comes after years of deep scholarship in many disciplines

—— Psychology Today

12 Rules for Life hits home - from identifying the deeply engrained hierarchical ladder that motivates our decision making to asking indispensable and sometimes politically unpopular questions about your life and suggesting ways to better it

—— Howard Bloom, author of 'The Lucifer Principle'

Peterson has become a kind of secular prophet who, in an era of lobotomised conformism, thinks out of the box ... His message is overwhelmingly vital

—— Melanie Philips , The Times

O’Reilly has an uncanny knack for charting what’s ahead. In WTF?, he shows us know he does it. At a time of sweeping change, it is a bracing and an exhilarating read.

—— Anne-Marie Slaughter, President and CEO, New America

Excellent . . . Tim knows this stuff as well as anyone, and there’s never been a more important moment to understand the issues raised in this book.

—— Quartz

For more than two decades, Tim O’Reilly has been the conscience of the tech industry . . . His new book WTF? seizes on this singular moment in history, in which just about everything makes us say “WTF?”

—— Wired

One of the biggest names in technology.

—— BBC World Service , Click

O’Reilly’s vision is more Utopian than dystopian, even downright optimistic in a roundabout, creative-destruction sort of way. The positive outlook is refreshing and engaging.

—— Kirkus Reviews

No one is better at understanding the future than Tim O’Reilly. He has an intuitive feel and a deep knowledge of technology. This book makes sense of the astonishing transformations that are happening around us and is an indispensable guidebook to tomorrow.

—— Walter Isaacson

Yong has captured the essence of this exciting field, expressing the enthusiasm and wonder that the scientific community feels when working with the microbiome. It is rare that a writer has the capacity to speak to the public and the scientific world with equanimity; Yong has succeeded in delivering a compelling and informative exploration of a vast research field and a fundamental work that can stand as textbook and a rip-roaring read!

—— Professor Jack Gilbert, University of Chicago

With a simply wonderful book, Ed Yong opens the doorway to a hidden world around and inside us. He's smart, he's witty, and he's at the cutting edge. You could not get a better guide.

—— Tim Harford, author of The Undercover Economist Strikes Back and Messy

Ed Yong is one of our finest young explainers of science—wicked smart, broadly informed, sly, savvy, so illuminating. And this is an encyclopedia of fascinations—a teeming intellectual ecosystem, a keen book on the intricacies of the microbiome and more.

—— David Quammen, author of The Song of the Dodo and Spillover

This compelling and beautifully written book will change the way people look at the world around, and within, them. It provides an insight into the latest research in the field, and into the people doing the work, that is unmatched by any other book on the microbiome to date. Certainly among the best books in an increasingly crowded field and written with a true passion for and understanding of the microbiome.

—— Professor Rob Knight, University of California

A whistle-stop tour of the microbial world for the non-expert… Yong has won numerous awards for his science writing…it doesn’t take long to realise why.

—— Florence Greatix , Chemistry World

A marvellous book! Ed Yong’s brilliant gift for storytelling and precise writing about science converge in I Contain Multitudes to make the invisible and tiny both visible and mighty. A unique, entertaining, and smart read.

—— Jeff Vandermeer, author of the Southern Reach Trilogy

[A] magnificent revaluation of bacteriology.

—— Kate Womersley , Spectator

This is a book of wonder.

—— Bookseller

A state-of-the art look at what we know about microbes… Yong makes difficult concepts and scientific terms easy to understand – and his excitement at the variety and wonder of nature makes him an enthusiastic and engaging writer’

—— Kate Whiting , UK Press Syndication

The complex relationships between microbes and their environments are explored with rigour and humour.

—— Bridie Pritchard , Northern Echo

A deep and sensible dive in to this complex and fascinating dimension of biology.

—— Irish Times, Book of the Year

[It] is superbly judged. It brilliantly synthesises the surprising and recently-revealed inter-dependencies of visible and invisible organisms… Look out for it on numerous book prize shortlists in 2017.

—— Guardian, Book of the Year

Yong will make you think about yourself – and the world around you – in a different way.

—— Brad Davies , i

It is a fascinating account of the unseen creatures that live within and all around us. Yong takes us on this journey through the microscope to discover the most recent research from scientists all round the world and tell us of the secrets that are being discovered about microbes… Yong writes with an engaging and eloquent style and makes the science in here really accessible. Well worth reading.

—— Paul Cheney , Nudge

Yong’s enthusiasm for bacteria is infectious, as he describes the beauty of luminescent bacteria in the Hawaiian bobtail squid and the benefits of our microscopic neighbours.

—— Jane Shilling , Daily Mail

A master class in popular scientific education.

—— Simon Shaw , Mail on Sunday

Yong made me think “wow” over and over again. He tells us that there is a universe of tiny things. We should think about them.

—— William Leith , Evening Standard

Enlightenment Now seeks to undo, with facts and figures, the pessimism that has paralysed the world ... We must read this book and absorb its message

—— El Pais (Colombia)

Guys, it's really not that bad. In fact, it's the best it's ever been ... Pinker urges people to look at the bigger picture and dive into the data

—— New York Post

Things are not as bad as your Facebook news feed makes them seem ... a cheerful, contrarian tract for dark times

—— Niall Ferguson , Boston Globe

Compelling ... At a moment when liberal Enlightenment values are under attack, from the right and the left, this is a very important contribution ... An impressive and useful accomplishment

—— Atlantic
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