Natural Obsessions: Striving to Unlock the Deepest Secrets of the Cancer Cell

I am a biomedical researcher, currently a postdoctoral fellow. And this book is way better than I expected. I do not know whether the author has scientific training background, but reading the book is like talking with a scientist in the specific basal cancer research field for a long time, but not from a reporter. The author's vivid writing illustrate the far from straight knowledge discovery process. It's full of ups and downs of the so many well characterized established scientists, eager postdocs, and fresh Ph.D. students.It's a heavy and fantastic reading experience for me, even it was published first about 25 years ago. You need to have some background information in cancer search to fullly absorb the rich information in this book, but I think everyone will learn something from it. And I admire anyone who would dedicate enough time to read the whole book from outside of science field.Higly recommended for Ph.D. students in all disciplines of biomedical reserch. It will help you hold on in the so frequent frustrating time.

I like the content of the book fine, in fact, it's very good. It's what I would expect of a book by Ms. Angier. What I find unacceptable in a book I paid $12 for is the number of typos. Presumably, it was scanned in a while back when the technology wasn't as advanced, as most of the mistakes are things like "cl" being changed into a "d." That sort of thing. It's pretty annoying, particularly in a book full of medical terms I'm not familiar with. This is the copy editing I would expect in a $3 book.

This book describes the search for the genetic basis of human cancer. A journalist spent several months in the lab of Bob Weinberg at MIT and one of his main competitors at Cold Spring Harbor Labs. The book is written from a perspective of a non-scientist. Yet, the book has sufficient technical details for us professionals, and captures the complex personal and professional relationships of scientists. Books is useful for those who wish to understand how contemporary science works and for those who wish to pursue a postdoc in Weinberg's lab.

Kind of slow in the beginning, especially if you know the basics of cancer biology. But this book is brilliant and becomes engrossing after the first few chapters. I am shocked at how much access the author was given in the Weinberg lab. The author had many flattering but also not so flattering things to say about the lab.Really a great book to read for would-be graduate students.

not worth the money

Terrific book. Shows how difficult biological research is and how much time it takes to extract the tiniest pieces of information from mother nature. Great read for anyone interested in going into research or interested in seeing how these things work. Pretty complex in places, but still reads well and couldn't be written any better for the lay reader. Also, nowadays one can Google concepts and terms that cause problems. Buy it!

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.

I found this book a few weeks ago only by serendipity. I trusted the existing reviews, especially the one by mr.Kwong that I fully share. There is not much to add to his in depth analysis. Yet I would like once more to emphasize te great humanity that pervades this outstanding book. Sometimes it's really moving. I could simply not stop reading it, so enthralling it was. Moreover I would like to suggest to dr. Natalie Angier to think of an updated version with a brief synopsis of the major discoveries of the last decade and also a short dictionary of the most important terms which could be very useful for non biologist readers like me. I read a lot but very seldom I have read during the last years a book that explains key scientific discoveries with such a clarity. As J.J. says: Three things are needed for beauty: wholeness, harmony and radiance.

Make no bones about it, this is a brilliant book. It captures the feel of the research lab superbly and anyone contemplating embarking on a PhD should read this. My only moan about it is that it is clearly scanned from a printed original and is full (full) of excruciating typos. Do editors ever edit these days? Let me explain; what you do is read the book and correct mistakes when you see them. Clearly a novel concept for the publishers but grit your teeth and plough on, this is worth the effort.