By C.J. Peters, with Mark Olshaker. 323 pp., illustrated. New York, Anchor Books, 1997. $23.95. ISBN 0-385-48557-3.
In his celebrated Microbe Hunters, published in 1926 (New York:Harcourt, Brace), bacteriologist-turned-novelist Paul de Kruifdefined scientists who risk their lives by stalking deadly infectiousagents as heroes. Colonel C.J. Peters would turn down the labelof hero. Although "made more for sport shirts, blue jeans andsandals" than for a military uniform, he would simply describehimself as a good soldier telling the galvanizing but balancedaccount of his lifetime commitment to science, without indulgingin romanticism or self-celebration. Virus Hunter is not merelythe exhilarating tale of three decades of scientific research.It is also an outspoken, . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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