The incidental tourist : on the road with a globetrotting Nobel Prize winner

Join Nobel Prize winner Peter Doherty on his extraordinary adventures around the globe. Doherty's dazzling schedule can leave his head spinning. So what happens when he lifts his gaze and asks: 'What the hell am I doing here?' Doherty has kept a journal about the far-flung destinations his work has taken him to for more than thirty years. His observations and discoveries in The Incidental Tourist make for perfect armchair travel. Is it possible to be passionate about politics, football or R&B and still be a creative scientist? In this entertaining and inspiring account, Nobel Prize winner Peter Doherty offers readers an insider's guide into discovery science and the individuals who work in it.Starting with the story of his own career and its improbable origins in the outer suburbs of Brisbane, and its progression to a breakthrough discovery about how human immunity works. Doherty explores the realities of a life in science. How research projects are selected; how discovery science is resourced and organised; the big problems it is trying to solve; and the rewards and pitfalls of a career in scientific research: all these are explored in The Beginner's Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize.Doherty gives readers an insight into the issues that make him tick including his belief that the mission of science is to help make the world a better place to live in. He also essays answers to some of the great questions of our age. Are Nobel Prize winners exceptional human beings or just lucky? Are GMO crops really dangerous? And why can't scientists and born-again Christians get along? Join Nobel Prize winner Peter Doherty on his extraordinary adventures around the globe. Doherty has kept a journal about the far-flung destinations his work has taken him over more than thirty years. He shares his observations, thoughts and discoveries, which make perfect in-flight reading. Scientists travel the world speaking, researching, advising. Their focus is usually firmly trained on their colleagues, on data and the problems at hand. But what happens when they lift their gaze to their surroundings, investigate the local history and culture, and ask: 'What the hell am I doing here?' The Incidental Tourist is about these new connections between people and places Climate scientists have warned that we need to change our behaviour in ways that may be inconvenient and threaten the commercial status quo. The result has been a polarising division in society and a sustained attack on their research. In The Knowledge Wars, Nobel prizewinner Peter Doherty makes a passionate case for citizens to become informed so they are able to evaluate the facts of any scientific debate. It provides practical advice on how to analyse research and take meaningful action. The Knowledge Wars challenges our assumptions and encourages us to take an evidence-based view of the world. There's something here to offend everybody! Climate scientists have warned that we need to change our behaviour in ways that are both inconvenient and threaten established power. The result is a polarising division in society and a sustained attack on the researchers and their findings. In The Knowledge Wars, Nobel prize winner Peter Doherty makes a passionate case for citizens to become informed and evaluate the facts of the debate for themselves and provides practical guidance on how to take action. The Knowledge Wars challenges our assumptions and encourages us to take an evidence-based view of the world. There's something here to offend everybody! "Professor Peter C. Doherty AC was awarded the Nobel Prize for Phyiology amd Medicine with Swiss colleague, Rolf Zinkernagel, in 1996 for discovering 'the nature of the cellular immune defence', and was also recognised as Australian of the Year in 1997"--Jacket