Pirates of the Cell: The Story of Viruses from Molecule to Microbe

It's a beautiful book, well written, easy to understand, concise and well ordered. This author is gifted; his book is a must for any lay person, microbiologist or physician who desires a well-documented, global resume' of viral disease, its history and implications. In my view, the connection he describes between cancer causation and viruses is a bit conservative, but reasonable - considering the age of his copyright (1987). Would like to see a newer version, but his writings are sufficiently current to include this book in any library. Sheldon N. Feinberg MD

An excellent primer for anyone interested to know about viruses. Scott explains with clarity and in layman's language what viruses are, how they react biologically, why they are difficult to control, how to fight them, etc. It also has an informative chapter on the AIDS virus. Though directed at the general public, it contains also much technical material but expounded in Scott's remakable manner of making technical stuff clear for the lay reader. Having no background in biology at all, I was able to follow the book, even the technicalities of DNA, gene replication and so on.