[The Life Project 01] • The Life Project · the Extraordinary Story of 70,000 Ordinary Lives

On March 3, 1946, a survey began that is, today, the longest-running study of human development in the world, growing to encompass six generations of children, 150,000 people, and some of the best-studied people on the planed. The simple act of observing human life has changed the way we are born, schooled, parent and die, irrevocably altering our understanding of inequality and health. This is the tale of these studies, the scientists who created them, sustained them, and perhaps most importantly, the remarkable discoveries that have come from them. The envy of scientists around the world, The Life Project is one of Britain’s best-kept secrets.

**

ReviewAn elegant mix of science and human drama, The Life Project was - by a considerable measure in my view - the best science book published this year -- Robin McKie, Best Science Books of 2016 * Observer * An elegant mix of science and human drama, The Life Project was - by a considerable measure in my view - the best science book published this year -- Robin McKie, Best Science Books of 2016 * Observer * Eye-opening book, extraordinary insights into ordinary lives ... Part scientific narrative and part postwar social history, along with some fantastically cut-throat academic politics ... A very British success story -- Isabel Berwick * Financial Times * Fascinating, shocking, heartening ... The greatest scientific experiment in modern British history -- Dominic Sandbrook * Daily Mail * Highly enjoyable ... Reading this book has reminded me of how much we owe to birth cohorts and their participants ... Delightful -- Kate Pickett * author of The Spirit Level * A spellbinding account of the UK's pioneering cohort studies ... [A] cogent, persuasive book -- Robin McKie * Observer * Intriguing ... [A] fine, detailed book -- Jenni Russell, 'Must Reads' * Sunday Times * Fascinating -- Alice Jones * Independent * The Life Project is in many ways a very British story ... Absorbing ... A tribute to Helen Pearson's skill as a writer -- Keith Kahn-Harris * Independent * Hugely engaging, and gives much to chew on ... the scientists are an irresistibly eccentric, passionate bunch -- Nick Curtis * Evening Standard * A highly readable, deeply informative book ... If you ever wondered whether the circumstances of your early life steered you along a particular path, look no further than this book ... [Pearson] does a superb job of bringing [the cohort studies] to life ... -- Eric Kaufmann * Literary Review * Fascinating ... A cogent exploration of Britain's groundbreaking birth-cohort studies ... The Life Project does a great service in bringing them and the people at their heart to life -- Andrew Steptoe * Nature * Pearson has done a real service in explaining how wide-ranging these extraordinary and little-known studies have been -- Michael Prodger * The Times * Persuasively argues ... the beauty and sheer vision of these longitudinal cohort studies * Telegraph * Incredible * Tech Insider *

About the Author

Helen Pearson is a science journalist and editor for the international science journal Nature. She has been writing for Nature since 2001 and her stories have won accolades, including the 2010 Wistar Institute Science Journalism Award and two best feature awards from the Association of British Science Writers. Based in London, she has a PhD in genetics and spent eight of her years with Nature in New York.