The Life Project: The Extraordinary Story of 70,000 Ordinary Lives

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Catapult, Apr 18, 2016 - Social Science - 256 pages
A fascinating account of a scientific project that tracked 5 generations of children—the longest-ever-running study of human development.

The lives of 70,000 people reveal the importance of our beginnings on the greater trajectory of our lives.

In March 1946, scientists began to track thousands of children born in one cold week as part of a birth cohort study. No one imagined that this would become the longest-running study of human development in the world, growing to encompass 5 generations of children. Today, they are some of the best-studied people on the planet, and the simple act of observing human life has changed the way we are born, schooled, parented, and die.
 
This is the tale of these studies and the remarkable discoveries that have come from them. Touching people across the globe, they are one of the world’s best-kept secrets.
 

Contents

Authors note
The Douglas Babies
Born to Fail?
In Sickness and in Health
Staying Alive
Older and Wiser
Opening
The Millennium Children
Bridging the Divides
Where are They Now?
Bibliographical Notes and Sources
Acknowledgements
Copyright

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About the author (2016)

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.

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