Stephen S. Hall

Stephen S. Hall is most recently the author of Merchants of Immortality: Chasing the Dream of Human Life Extension (Houghton-Mifflin, 2003). Described recently by the editor of M.I.T.’s Technology Review magazine as “our nation’s best chronicler of biomedicine,” Hall has been an editor and a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine. His recent cover stories have included pieces on the biology of fear, the biology of memory, adolescent male body image, MRI experiments on his own brain and the science of embryonic stem cells. Specializing in stories about the impact of science on the culture at large, his work has appeared in many other magazines, including the Atlantic Monthly, Smithsonian, Forbes FYI, Science, Health, Hippocrates, Science 86 and numerous travel magazines (he has also written extensively about the food and culture of Italy). He also wrote a column called “Biology, Inc.”, about the biotechnology industry, for Technology Review. His recent magazine article on exploring his own brain will be included in a forthcoming anthology, “The Best American Science Writing 2000,” which was edited by James Gleick and will be published by Ecco Press.

Hall is the author of three other critically acclaimed non-fiction accounts of contemporary science. Invisible Frontiers (1987), a description of the race to clone the first human gene and the birth of the biotech industry, is considered a classic of modern science writing and has been taught in numerous college courses, including at M.I.T. Mapping the Next Millennium (1992) surveyed recent scientific work in the fields of geophysics, biology, mathematics and astronomy within the historical context of map-making. A Commotion in the Blood (1997), an account of the use of the immune system to battle cancer and other diseases, was honored with cover treatment in the New York Times Book Review and received the Coley Award from the Cancer Research Institute. All three have been selected “Notable Books of the Year” by the Times Book Review, and have also appeared on many library association “Best of the Year” lists.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1951, Hall began his career in journalism at age 16 at the Chicago Tribune; he has worked as a sportswriter at the Washington Post, a general assignment reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle, and a general editor at the Rome Daily American. Between 1996 and 1999, in addition to writing for the New York Times Magazine, he served as the magazine’s science editor and worked on the small editorial team that conceived and executed the magazine’s six special Millennium issues that appeared in 1999. He lives with his wife and two children in Brooklyn.

• Merchants of Immortality: Chasing the Dream of Human Life Extension, June 2003
  ISBN: 0618095241
  
  
• Invisible Frontiers: The Race To Synthesize a Human Gene (co-written with James Watson), April 2002
  ISBN: 0195151593
  
  
• A Commotion in the Blood: Life, Death, and the Immune System (The Sloan Technology Series), June 1998
  ISBN: 0805058419
  

• "Where Is Thy Sting?"
  August 12, 2003, New York Times
  
  
• "Personalized Medicine's Bitter Pill
  Drugs tailored to an individual's genetic makeup promise to be safer and more effective, but they raise tricky economic and ethical questions."
  February 2003, Technology Review
  
  
• "Adult Stem Cells
  With research on embryonic stem cells mired in controversy, adult stem cells are quietly providing the basis for striking advances toward new therapies." November 2001, Technology Review
  
  
• "A Death in Philadelphia
  An experimental gene-therapy treatment kills an eighteen-year-old volunteer in a clinical trial. Is this the final blow for a much-beleaguered technology?"
  Biology Inc.
  January/February 2000, Technology Review
  
  
• "Ducking the Virus: Drug companies make millions on lifestyle potions. Is R&D on more vital therapies lagging?"
  Biology, Inc.
  May/June 2000, Technology Review
  
  
• “On the Trail of the Nile Virus” Smithsonian Magazine, July 2003
  
  
• “Vaccinating Against Cancer” The Atlantic, April 1997
  
  

Interviews

• Interview with Stephen S. Hall. Part of the “Winding Your Way Through DNA” Symposium, University of California, San Francisco, Fall 1992