Designs for Life
Molecular Biology after World War II

Review of the hardback: 'The author combines painstaking scholarship with superb narrative skills, and a gift for explaining technical matters accessibly … required reading for anyone interested in the politics, personalities and mechanics of science - from sixth formers to government ministers.' John Cornwell, The Sunday Times

Review of the hardback: 'This is a scholarly work … but it is also very readable … the book is a 'must' for academics teaching molecular biology, and for anyone with even a passing interest in the history of what perhaps will be the most pervasive science of the 21st century.' Microbiology Today

Review of the hardback: 'De Chadarevian meticulously traces the place of biophysics in the heady post-war expansion of British science …[A] composite portrait of the ways a new science is shaped by local circumstance.' The Times Higher Education Supplement

Review of the hardback: '… the book provides a fresh perspective on well-trodden ground and should fuel the continuing controversy about how, where and why molecular biology first came into being.' BioEssays

Review of the hardback: 'De Chadarevian is to be congratulated on the fascinating wealth of information which she has assembled about this classic period in the development of biological science in Britain.' Endeavour

Review of the hardback: '… Designs for Life is a very useful addition to the history of molecular biology.' Ambix