These readings are especially recommended for aspiring medical scientists and anyone who wants a behind-the-scenes look at medical research and discovery.

Claude Bernard. An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine, translated by Henry Copley Greene (New York: Dover Publications, 1957). Translation of Bernard's classic guide for methods of the science of medicine; he hoped to make medicine an experimental science comparable to physics and chemistry. This translation, first published in 1927, is still in print in paperback.

Robert Gallo. Virus Hunting. AIDS, Cancer, and the Human Retrovirus: A Story of Scientific Discovery (New York: Basic Books, 1991) The Nobel laureate's own story of his involvement in events leading up to the discovery of the AIDS virus.

Robert Kanigel. Apprentice to Genius: The Making of a Scientific Dynasty (New York: Macmillan, 1986). An inside look at the scientific research process and the daily life of scientists at the NIH and elsewhere.

Paul de Kruif. Microbe Hunters (San Diego: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1926/1954). Lively Portraits of the pioneers of bacteriology.

J. Rosser Matthews. Quantification and the Quest for Medical Certainty (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995). History of the use of statistics in medicine and the development of the modern clinical trial through scientific debates in France, Germany, and England from 1837 through the 1950s.

Joseph B. McCormick, Susan Fisher-Hoch, and Leslie Alan Horvitz. Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC (Atlanta: Turner Publishing, 1996). The two principal authors are leading virologists who tell their story here of work against deadly viruses and political obstacles.

P. B. Medawar. Advice to a Young Scientist (New York: Basic Books, 1979). British Nobel Laureate Sir Peter Medawar provides valuable advice to aspiring scientists in an amusing format.

Ed Regis. Virus Ground Zero: Stalking the Killer Viruses with the Centers for Disease Control (New York: Pocket Books, 1996). A science writer's lively account of the work of CDC virus detectives aounrd the world.

Thomas E. Starzl. The Puzzle People: Memoirs of a Transplant Surgeon (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992). Starzl's own story of his controversial career in transplant surgery. Starzl performed the world's first human liver transplant in 1963 and the first successful liver transplant at the University of Colorado in 1967.

Paul D. Stolley and Tamar Lasky. Investigating Disease Patterns: The Science of Epidemiology (New York: Scientific American Library, 1995). How epidemiologists have collected and analyzed data to identify causes of chronic diseases, such as lung cancer and heart disease. Stolley is a leading epidemiologist.

Lewis Thomas. The Youngest Science: Notes of a Medicine Watcher (New York: Penguin, 1983). An acclaimed writer and scientist writes about his career experiences in medical research and health care.

Mark Weatherall. In Search of a Cure: A History of Pharmaceutical Discovery (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990). A very readable account of the development of drugs, largely from about 1800 up to recent times.

David Weatherall. Science and the Quiet Art: The Role of Medical Research in Health Care (New York: W. W. Norton, 1995). A unique look at how the industry of medical research has changed and how researchers confront novel challenges.