Billy's Halo

Science is just one way of looking at life. As a neuroscientist working at the forefront of medical research it is Ruth McKernan's way. When her father, Billy, succumbed to a mystery illness and slipped from consciousness into coma, Ruth watched his life ebb away with a mixture of love and terror. She struggled for control by using her scientific knowledge to analyse his medical condition.In this moving account of her father's last year, love, grief and hope are intertwined with a crystal-clear scientific explanation of the way our brains and bodies work. The result is an inspired blend where the contrasting view of scientist and daughter ultimately unite.

Préface
A daughter's memoir of love, science and her father's death.

Auteur

Ruth McKernan is a Vice President of Drug Discovery for a multinational pharmaceutical company and a visiting professor at London's Institute of Psychiatry. She is an internationally recognized neuroscientist whose talent for making complex science interesting, entertaining and understandable earned her the Glaxo/ABSW Science Writers' Award for her articles in the Independent. Ruth lives with her husband and two children near Canterbury in Kent.

Texte du rabat

'An illuminating combination of medical science and personal feeling' Lewis Wolpert

When her father, Billy, succumbed to a mystery illness and slipped from consciousness into coma, Ruth McKernan watched his life ebb away with a mixture of love and terror. She struggled for control by using her knowledge as a neuroscientist working at the forefront of medical research to analyse his condition.

In this moving account of her father's last year, love, grief and hope are intertwined with a crystal-clear scientific explanation of the way our brains and bodies work. The result is an inspired blend where the contrasting view of scientist and daughter ultimately unite.

'Charts the anatomy of love and loss . . . an original, enlightening and ultimately very moving book' Paul Broks, author of Into the Silent Land: Travels in Neuropsychology

'An intriguing original venture . . . The excursions into science genuinely augment the story-line' Independent