Oliver Sacks (Awakenings, The Man Who Mistook His Wife
for a Hat, and An Anthropologist on Mars) is a professor of neurology who has a penchant for probing the mysteries of life and unraveling the enigmas of disease. On this cassette, he travels to Micronesia to investigate two troubling maladies affecting the inhabitants of Pingelap and Guam. The first is a form of colorblindness and the second a neurodegenerative paralysis which results in motionlessness.

In the midst of these medical detective stories, Sacks marvels at the evolutionary wonders and terrors of island living. Listening to him read about his travels and his investigations, you'll come to a fresh appreciation for the complexities of the natural world, disease, and the search for humane ways to treat the sick.