THE VACCINE RACE

(Black Swan £9.99) MEASLES, rubella, polio and rabies have devastated the lives of countless people across the centuries.

Scientists in the Sixties were desperate to produce vaccines to counter their spread. In 1968, a young microbiologist, Leonard Hayflick, removed 375 vials from his former employers and took them to Stanford University, where he had just become a medical microbiology professor.

The vials contained cells grown by Hayflick from a human foetus: they would bring remarkable benefits to humanity and are still used today.

But, although Hayflick had created the cells, they were not his to take. He narrowly avoided prosecution and his career never recovered from the controversy.

Meredith Wadman tells the inspiring, and sometimes murky, story of the battle to protect the world from viral disease.