The Strongest Boy in the World

Book excerpt: Philip R. Reilly is a physician, geneticist, and a lawyer. He is also a storyteller. His new book, The Strongest Boy in the World: How Genetic Information is Reshaping Our Lives,contains twenty engaging stories, each of which offers the reader a delightful excursion that will expand his worldview. As tour guide, Reilly is passionately committed to ensuring that intriguing discoveries lie around every bend in the road. Whether it is speculating on the impact of genetics on the future of sports, the evolutionary origins of humans, the mysteries of genetic diseases, the similarities between dogs and people, the impact of genetic engineering on what we eat, or the ethical dimensions of stem cell research, Reilly offers up spell binding tales. In each of the twenty chapters, he deftly reviews complex scientific and medical information in a manner that offers the reader the facts necessary to debate the value questions.