Science and the Quiet Art describes the experiments and the experimenters, shows how the tools of science have been applied to the study of disease through history to the present, and looks to the future.

David Weatherall emphasizes the complex interplay in disease between nature, nurture, and aging and hence why, even with todays sophisticated methods, progress will be slow. Publishers Weekly describes the book as a revealing and sobering appraisal of the successes, limitations, and promise of modern medicine.