Is it possible to be passionate about politics, football or R&B and still be a creative scientist? In this entertaining and inspiring account, Nobel Prize winner Peter Doherty offers readers an insider's guide into discovery science and the individuals who work in it.Starting with the story of his own career and its improbable origins in the outer suburbs of Brisbane, and its progression to a breakthrough discovery about how human immunity works. Doherty explores the realities of a life in science. How research projects are selected; how discovery science is resourced and organised; the big problems it is trying to solve; and the rewards and pitfalls of a career in scientific research: all these are explored in The Beginner's Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize.Doherty gives readers an insight into the issues that make him tick including his belief that the mission of science is to help make the world a better place to live in. He also essays answers to some of the great questions of our age. Are Nobel Prize winners exceptional human beings or just lucky? Are GMO crops really dangerous? Why can't scientists and born-again Christians get along?

Peter Doherty's pioneering research into human immune systems earned him the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine in 1996. He was Australian of the Year and awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1997 and currently divides his professional time between the University of Melbourne and St Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis, where he is helping unravel the mystery of childhood cancer.