Science and Quiet Art Role Medical

Notwithstanding the public's growing disillusionment with high-tech, high-cost medicine, Weatherall believes that the biological and medical sciences are moving into their most exciting phase, with enormous potential for improving medical practice. In a revealing and sobering appraisal of the successes, limitations and promise of modern medicine, he cautions that the diagnosis and effective treatment of major killers like cancer and coronary disease may not be in the immediate offing because such conditions are likely to have multiple causes resulting from the interplay of genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors, as well as aging. A geneticist and professor of medicine at Oxford University, Weatherall uses the management of heart disease as an example to show how a slow accumulation of incomplete knowledge has led to a mix of scientifically based treatment and guesswork. His study includes a succinct global survey of health problems and a cautious prognosis of the potential benefits of current research in molecular biology and genetics. (Jan.)