Sin Aliento / Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus - Paperback

by David Quammen (Author)

La apasionante crica de la carrera contrarreloj para descifrar el SARS-CoV-2 y frenar una pandemia devastadora.

Finalista del National Book Award

«Unacrica iluminadora y apasionada de la crisis que ha definido nuestro tiempo .--The New York Times

David Quammen, uno de los mejores escritores cient凬icos del mundo y autor de Contagio (Debate, 2020), la obra de referencia sobre enfermedades zoonicas (las que saltan de animales a humanos), nos sumerge en la fren騁ica carrera por descifrar el coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, encontrar su origen y hacer posible el desarrollo de vacunas para combatir la pandemia de COVID-19.

Tras entrevistar a casi un centenar de cient凬icos, entre ellos los virogos m疽 importantes del panorama internacional, Quammen denuncia co durante d馗adas los expertos advirtieron de que esta pandemia llegar僘, pero sus consejos fueron ignorados por razones econicas o pol咜icas. Adem疽, tambi駭 se encarga de descifrar las claves para entender algunas teor僘s sobre el origen del virus y descartar otras suposiciones m疽 escandalosas, pero menos fiables.

Este libro nos traslada a la primera l匤ea de batalla contra la COVID-19 a trav駸 de los ojos de aquellos cient凬icos que lideraron esta lucha, y lo hace con la prosa comprensible y reveladora de un maestro incomparable como Quammen.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

National Book Award finalist, Breathless, tells the story of the worldwide scientific race to decipher the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, trace its source, and make possible the vaccines to fight the Covid-19 pandemic--a "luminous, passionate account of the defining crisis of our time." (The New York Times).

Breathless is a "gripping" (The Atlantic) but "clear-eyed analysis" (Time) of SARs-CoV-2 and its fierce journey through the human population, as seen by the scientists who study its origin, its ever-changing nature, and its capacity to kill us. David Quammen expertly shows how strange new viruses emerge from animals into humans as we disrupt wild ecosystems and how those viruses adapt to their human hosts, sometimes causing global catastrophe. He explains why this coronavirus will probably be a "forever virus," destined to circulate among humans and bedevil us endlessly, in one variant form or another. As scientists labor to catch it, comprehend it, and control it, with their high-tech tools and methods, the virus finds ways of escape.

Based on interviews with nearly one hundred scientists, including leading virologists in China and around the world, Quammen explains that:

-Infectious disease experts saw this pandemic coming
-Some scientists, for more than two decades, warned that "the next big one" would be caused by a changeable new virus--very possibly a coronavirus--but such warnings were ignored for political or economic reasons
-The precise origins of this virus may not be known for years, but some clues are compelling, and some suppositions can be dismissed
-And much more

Written by "one of our finest explainers of the natural world for decades" (Chicago Tribune), this "compelling and terrifying" (The New York Times) account is an unparalleled look inside the frantic international race to understand and control SARS-CoV-2--and what it might mean for the next potential global health crisis.

Author Biography

David Quammen (Cincinatti, 1948) es un escritor estadounidense apasionado de la ciencia y la naturaleza. Ha escrito 15 libros acerca de temas que van desde los virus y epidemias hasta las relaciones del hombre con la naturaleza, la teor僘 de la evoluci de Darwin y los procesos naturales. Su vocaci por la divulgaci cient凬ica le ha permitido escribir en medios como Outside, National Geographic, Rolling Stone y The New York Times.

Su obra Spillover (W.W. Norton & Company, 2012), sobre las enfermedades transmitidas por los animales (zoonosis), fue finalista en 2013 del PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. Su producci literaria no se limita a la difusi de la ciencia, tambi駭 destacan sus libros de ficci: To walk the line (Knopf, 1970), The Soul of Viktor Tronko (Dell, 1988), en el contexto de la Guerra Fr僘, Blood Line: Stories of Fathers and Sons (Johnson Books, 2000), entre otros.