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Breath from Salt is a popular science book published by BenBella Books. The author is Bijal P. Trivedi, an award-winning freelance journalist specializing in long-form narrative features about biology, medicine, and health. She currently works as the senior science editor for National Geographic. Trivedi has focused on long-form feature stories on complex scientific topics, from genetic testing and art authentication to the carbon footprint of our diet and genetically modified mosquitoes.

The book is divided into five parts with fifty-five chapters. In each chapter, the author chronicles the attractive saga of cystic fibrosis, from its ancient origins to its identification in the dank autopsy room of a hospital basement, and from the CF gene’s celebrated status as one of the first human disease genes ever discovered to the groundbreaking targeted genetic therapies that now promise to cure it. The story began in 1974. Joey O’Donnell was born with strange symptoms. His insatiable appetite, constant vomiting, and a relentless cough—which shook his tiny, fragile body and made it difficult to draw breath—confounded doctors and brought his parents agonising, sleepless nights. After six sickly months, his salty skin provided the critical clue: he was one of the thousands of Americans with cystic fibrosis. This inherited lung disorder would most likely kill him before his first birthday.

The gene and mutation responsible for CF were found in 1989—discoveries that promised to cure kids like Joey. However, treatments unexpectedly failed, and CF was deemed incurable. It was only after the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, a grassroots organization founded by his parents, formed an unprecedented partnership with a fledgling biotech company that transformative leaps in drug development were harnessed to produce groundbreaking new treatments: medicine that could fix the root of this deadly disease.

1.2 Translation Background and Significance

Breath from Salt is an attractive title that succinctly depicts the condition of children with cystic fibrosis, whose lungs are filled with thick, sticky mucus that blocks their breathing and whose skin with salty sweat as if they were breathing in salt. The book tells the story of discovering a rare disease: finding out how cystic fibrosis differs from other pancreatic diseases in hundreds of autopsy cases. It was still an extraordinarily difficult quest in the United States nearly a century ago. But with the relentless efforts of all walks of life in this area, a cure for this congenital disease has become possible. The reader is able to read it in a way that evokes reflection on the disease and optimistic hope for technology. The translator has therefore chosen this work of science with a narrative quality. In the author’s account, Joey’s parents fought this incurable disease at his birth, seeking all the forces they could rely on to get Joey as long a life as possible. Joey eventually passed away at the age of 12. But his parents never gave up on the disease, leading to creating the Joey Fund, which continues Joey’s existence nowadays. It will move the reader that the strength of the parents of thes本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。