Natural Obsessions: Striving to Unlock the Deepest Secrets of the Cancer Cell – An Unforgettable Portrait of Scientific Research and Inquiry

Inside the world of molecular biology lies a high-stakes race of sleepless nights, fierce rivalries, and unexpected breakthroughs.

As dramatic as The Double Helix and as absorbing as The Soul of a New Machine, Natural Obsessions explores the advanced reaches of molecular biology, the nature of the human cell, and the genes that control cancer. It unforgettably portrays some of the best young scientists in the world, the rewards and discouragements of scientific research, and the very process of scientific inquiry.

Natalie Angier chronicles the fierce rivalries of research teams, the daily tedium of benchwork, and the breakthroughs that unmasked the first cancer genes.

Her account moves between laboratories at MIT and Cold Spring Harbor, following young investigators through long nights at the bench. Competing teams confront the pressure of being scooped, bitter disputes over precedence, and the hard-won isolation of the retinoblastoma gene.

• Cancer Biology: Follows the breakthrough experiments that uncovered the ras oncogene, revealing how a single altered nucleotide at codon twelve can transform normal tissue into a runaway tumor.
• Genetics: Examines the fierce race to isolate the retinoblastoma gene on chromosome thirteen, demonstrating how the loss of vital growth-stanching genes triggers childhood eye and bone tumors.
• History of Science: Provides an unfiltered insider portrait of laboratory life, from the frustration of failed transfections and radioactive blots to the high-stakes politics of authorship and funding.
• Oncology: Explores the struggle to bridge basic research and clinical therapy, contrasting the genetic clarity of laboratory model organisms with the daunting complexity of human cancer.
• Also by This Author: The Canon, The Beauty of the Beastly and The Best American Science Writing 2009.

NATALIE ANGIER is a Pulitzer-Prize winning science columnist for The New York Times. She is the author of several books including The Canon, Woman, The Beauty of the Beastly, and Natural Obsessions. She lives outside Washington, D.C.,