DISEASE DETECTIVE: Your Career in Medical Research

A generally helpful but not all-inclusive survey of the variety of possibilities in medical research. The author distinguishes between basic and applied research (nature and cause of disease vs. prevention, treatment, and cure) and suggests, in a somewhat winding treatment, some kinds of interdisciplinary work now carried on that reflect increasing degrees of specialization. Quotations from individual interviews and specific study procedures substantiate his record. Although a separate chapter for nursing and medical technology is addressed to girls, there is no enunciation of attitudes towards women, but the reader can conclude that there are opportunities from the many referred to in the text. In some instances the number of training years is tallied but not the intricacies of admissions policies nor the procedures for appointments. The ingratiating chapter headings (Of All the Nerve, for neurology) are unfortunate and sometimes the information is a bit shaky (he says mononucleosis can be ""cured"" but the causative organism is unknown so the treatment is only symptomatic). Uneven but usable.