Why Us?: How Science Rediscovered the Mystery of Ourselves

A lucid, compelling, and provocative account of how science in the recent past has come face-to-face with two seemingly unanswerable questions concerning the nature of genetic information and the workings of the brain--questions profoundly relevant to its debate with religion--that suggest there may be more than we can know after all. Scientists do not 'do' wonder, James Le Fanu writes in his introduction. Rather . . . they have interpreted the world through the prism of supposing there is nothing in principle that cannot be accounted for. But Le Fanu argues that wonder is an apt reaction to human life, especially so in light of the two great conundrums posed by recent scientific research: How do genes generate the nearly infinite diversity of form and behavior of the living world? And how does the firing of the brain's billions of nerves translate into our sensual perceptions, thoughts, emotions, and memories? Le Fanu charts the remarkable scientific achievements of the last 150 years, but it is his exploration of the remaining mysteries--and of where they might lead us in our thinking about the nature and purpose of human existence--that forms the impassioned and riveting heart of Why Us? and guarantees it will be among the most talked about books of the year.

For the past twenty years James Le Fanu has combined working as a doctor in general practice with contributing a weekly column to "The Sunday Telegraph" and "The Daily Telegraph." His articles and reviews have appeared in the "New Statesman, The Spectator," "GQ," the "British Medical Journal," and the "Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine." He has made original contributions to current controversies over the value of experiments on human embryos, environmentalism, dietary causes of diseases, and the misdiagnosis of non-accidental injury in children. His previous book, "The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine," won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 2001. He lives in England.