Volume 11, Number 11—November 2005 Books and Media The AIDS
Pandemic: Impact on Science and Society Elsevier Academic Press,
Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Boston, Massachusetts, 2005
Pages: 537; Price: US $84.95 As we enter the third decade of the
AIDS pandemic, numerous texts explore the many aspects of AIDS
and its consequences. Mayer and Pizer's premise is that AIDS has
transformed many of the disciplines that it has touched. For the
most part, this well-written volume supports their thesis. The
authors, all established researchers, tackle many of the major
issues, including virology, immunology, vaccines, microbicides,
and sexually transmitted diseases, as well as the global impact
of HIV/AIDS. Each chapter provides a well-referenced overview of
its topic with many references as recent as 2003. One of the
real strengths of this book is a chapter on quantitative science
that explores not only the history of HIV clinical trials, but
also the design and importance of clinical trials in general.
This chapte