I Think The Cardinal Rule Of Learning

In The Laboratory, We Call This The Six-degrees-of-separation-from-cancer Rule: You Can Ask Any Biological Question, No Matter How Seemingly Distant-what Makes The Heart Fail, Or Why Worms Age, Or Even How Birds Learn Songs-and You Will End Up, In Fewer Than Six Genetic Steps, Connecting With A Proto-oncogene Or Tumor Suppressor.

In Paris, Friend Of Bequerel’s, A Young Physicist-chemist Couple Named Pierre And Marie Curie, Began To Scour The Natural World For Even More Powerful Chemical Sources Of X-rays. Pierre And Marie (then Maria Sklodowska, A Penniless Polish Immigrant Living In A Garret In Paris) Had Met At The Sorbonne And Been Drawn To Each Other Because Of A Common Interest In Magnetism.

There's A Phrase In Shakespeare: He Refers To It As The 'hidden Imposthume', And This Idea Of A Hidden Swelling Is Seminal To Cancer. But Even In More Contemporary Writing It's Called 'the Big C'.

Down To Their Innate Molecular Core, Cancer Cells Are Hyperactive, Survival-endowed, Scrappy, Fecund, Inventive Copies Of Ourselves.

I Am A Scientist And I Am A Physician. So I Write Papers.