The Life Project is a book filled with people fighting incredible odds, of important discoveries from unexpected places, of determination, dedication and compassion.

From libraries, laboratories and living rooms, talking with geneticists, economists, epidemiologists and statisticians, science writer Helen Pearson spent five years piecing together the story of an extraordinary project, and the scientists who created and sustained it.

Beginning just after the Second World War, this single study has grown to encompass five generations of children and over 70,000 people. The resulting work is recognized by a small group of people worldwide as one of the greatest projects in science, but almost unknown by the rest of us. Its story reveals how studying who we are and how we develop - gathering information on birth weight, school work, ambitions, class, health and wealth - has enraptured scientists, and thrown vital light on how childhood and inequality influence the course of our lives.

Written with great verve and sensitivity, this is the astonishing tale of the best-kept secret in British science - and, ultimately, a way to better understand our country and ourselves.

About the Author
Helen Pearson is a science journalist and editor for the international science journal Nature. She has been writing for Nature since 2001 and her stories have won accolades including the 2010 Wistar Institute Science Journalism Award and two best feature awards from the Association of British Science Writers. Based in London, she has a PhD in genetics and spent eight of her years with Nature in New York.