The Life Project

Book excerpt: A fascinating account of a scientific project that tracked 5 generations of children—the longest-ever-running study of human development. The lives of 70,000 people reveal the importance of our beginnings on the greater trajectory of our lives. In March 1946, scientists began to track thousands of children born in one cold week as part of a birth cohort study. No one imagined that this would become the longest-running study of human development in the world, growing to encompass 5 generations of children. Today, they are some of the best-studied people on the planet, and the simple act of observing human life has changed the way we are born, schooled, parented, and die. This is the tale of these studies and the remarkable discoveries that have come from them. Touching people across the globe, they are one of the world’s best-kept secrets.