Discusses scientists throughout history who have performed dangerous experiments on themselves for the benefit of humankind, including a zoologist who ate slug soup and a Nobel Prize-winning surgeon who put a catheter into his own heart.

Originally published: London : Century, 2010.

He came, he sawed, he chancred -- Sniff it and see -- Trials and tribulations -- Lovely grubs -- A diet of worms -- The desire for disease -- The disease detectives -- That unhealthy glow -- Found to be wanting -- Something in the blood -- A change of heart -- Behind the lines -- Suffer -- Adrift and alone -- Carnivorous and coming this way -- Into the abyss -- High, fast, and hazardous -- Risky business.