The author of the acclaimed Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice transports us from Arctic wastes to ocean depths to jungles where the race is on to find new medicines for intractable diseases like AIDS, cancer and diabetes: painkillers from rainforest frogs, anticoagulants from leech saliva, anti-tumor agents from snake venom. An entertaining weave of medicine, ecology, ethnobotany, history, exploration and adventure.