Splendid Solution : Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio

Jonas Salk was born shortly before one of the worst polio epidemics in United States history. In medical school when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was diagnosed with the disease shortly before assuming the Presidency, Salk was given an impetus to conduct studies on polio. His progress in combating the virus was hindered by the politics of medicine and by a rival researcher determined to discredit his proposed solution. But Salk's perseverance made history-and for more than fifty years his vaccine has saved countless lives, bringing humanity close to eradicating polio throughout the world. Splendid Solutionchronicles Dr. Salk's race against time-and a growing epidemic that reached 57,000 reported cases in the summer of 1952-to achieve an unparalleled medical breakthrough that made him a cultural hero and icon for a whole generation.

Jeffrey Kluger is a senior writer at Time. He is the co-author, with Jim Lovell, of Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13, which was the basis for the movie Apollo 13, and the author of Moon Hunters: NASA's Remarkable Expeditions to the Ends of the Solar System.