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A rich and riveting book, Gerald Weissmann’s Democracy and DNA (Hill and
Wang, $23, ISBN 0 8090 9305 7) could boringly be described as about the
social responsibilities of science. It is, but it teems with figures, events and
anecdotes, all connected with discoveries in medical science and the social
reforms that they can lead to, set against the furious history of the past 150
years. Every page is spellbinding. Start it and you’ll have to take it with you
on the train.