Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Natural Obsessions : Striving to Unlock the Deepest Secrets of the Cancer Cell by Natalie Angier ISBN: 0-395-92472-3 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 06 April, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A book of enormous impact
Comment: In my senior year of college, we were assigned Natural Obsessions for the relevance to oncology as a science. I had expected, as with all other undergraduate literature, to find only academic value in the book and approached it as such. But what unfolded instead was a journey through the strange and passionate world of research. It is what made me want to become an oncologist.
The nature of the story is of the many races during the 1980s to identify the genes causative of cancer. The narrative largely follows one lab, that of Robert Weinberg at MIT, and details their many setbacks and their even more groundbreaking victories. The author takes an active part, effectively becoming absorbed into the research and drawing the readers with her.
What the book offers, then, is a daily tread through the lives of basic researchers: not filled with sterile labs and stuffy professors, but with the drama, intrigue, and bittersweet triumphs normally found only in fiction. As there are no outright heroes or villains (except perhaps cancer itself), the moral ambiguity of each of the subplots makes the struggles more human. There is as much backstabbing, cut-throat competitiveness, and outright selfishness in the research world shown here as in any other professional field. But there is also collaboration, celebration, and respect. Anyone who thinks basic science is boring should be convinced otherwise.
The other side of the story is, indeed, academic in nature, though interwoven seamlessly with the stories. Despite the heavy scientific concepts throughout the book, Natalie Angier -- a non-scientistist herself -- has taken great pains to evince the most convoluted theories in a light, colorful language. Not all of it will be clear immediately, but the essence of the book doesn't require total familiarity with the technicalities. It is the humanity of the researchers that drives this book, not the research itself.
For undergraduates unsure of thier career choices, I can recommend no better book than Natural Obsessions for deciding if scientific research is for them. For some, like one of my friends who chose med school over grad school, the themes of competitiveness and failure can be disheartening. For others, like myself, it can open up a new perspective on science, one that can be exciting as well as rewarding if you have a passion for it.
Rating: 5
Summary: In depth, but not a bore.
Comment: This book covers all the in-depth information a person could want to know about cancer, while at the same time not burying the reading in technical jargon and biological confusion. I enjoyed reading this book for the information presented, but also the method in which it was conveyed. A must buy for anyone interested in this terrible disease.
 |
Title: One Renegade Cell : How Cancer Begins by Robert A. Weinberg ISBN: 0465072763 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: January, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: Woman : An Intimate Geography by Natalie Angier ISBN: 0385498411 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 15 February, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
 |
Title: The Beauty of the Beastly by Natalie Angier ISBN: 0395791472 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 04 April, 1996 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
 |
Title: CURING CANCER: The Story of the Men and Women Unlocking the Secrets of our Deadliest Illness by Michael Waldholz ISBN: 0684848023 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 24 March, 1999 List Price(USD): $20.95 |
 |
Title: How to Win the Nobel Prize: An Unexpected Life in Science by J. Michael Bishop ISBN: 0674008804 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
