The Experimental Man October 19, 2009

If you could, would you like to know how long you had to live? What diseases you're susceptible to? Or what the environment around you is doing to your overall health? Ultimately, would you want to know how you might die? Most of us would decline but most of us aren't author and journalist David Ewing Duncan.

Duncan has taken "guinea pig" journalism to the very edge of science, building on award-winning articles he wrote for National Geographic and Wired, in which he was tested for hundreds of chemical toxins - from pesticides to plastic additives - and for millions of genetic markers associated with disease, emotions, and other traits. Expanding on these tests, he examines his genes, environment, brain, and body, exploring what they reveal about his and his family's future health, beliefs, attitudes and behavior, and his ancestry, as well as the profound impact of this new self-knowledge on what it means to be human.

Duncan weaves personal stories relating to his tests - such as growing up near a toxic waste dump in Kansas, and family incidents of disease - with visits to cutting-edge scientists and labs around the world.

Free.

Official Website: http://www.sciencecafesf.com