The Art and Politics of Science [Hardcover]

Harold Varmus (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 2009

A Nobel Prize-winning cancer biologist, leader of major scientific institutions, and veteran of science policy wars reflects on his remarkable career.

Jeffrey Sachs has called Harold Varmus a “global scientist-statesman who bridges science and society to solve the weightiest global challenges.” But as readers will learn in this engaging memoir chronicling one man’s series of remarkable careers, as well as some of the central health-policy issues of our time, Varmus didn’t decide that he was drawn to medicine until he was one year into a PhD in English literature! Changing course in characteristically adventurous fashion, Varmus dove headfirst into medical school, shifted shortly after graduating from practice to research, and soon found himself at the forefront of cancer research at the University of California, San Francisco, on his way toward a Nobel Prize in Medicine.

In 1993, Varmus transformed from an academic scientist to a political one when President Clinton asked him to direct the National Institutes of Health. After six years at the NIH, he took the reins as president of the world-renowned Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, a position he still holds. Along the way, Varmus has continued his own laboratory work, remains committed to collaborative science, and still finds time to ride his bike to work.

Beyond the elegant combination of science and biography, this is a book about health issues of truly global importance. Varmus’s work on cancer-causing genes foreshadowed the development of the recent targeted therapies for cancer. At the NIH, he not only persuaded Congress to commit record funds to national health programs but also turned attention to international concerns like the worldwide malaria crisis. And, as he discusses in these pages, he has long been an enthusiastic yet nuanced supporter of stem cell research. The Art and Politics of Science is a glimpse into the world of high-stakes, big-budget science narrated by a man intimately acquainted with its everyday applications—an education for people in all walks of life from a scientist whose own research and professional commitments helped to shape our scientific age.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Varmus offers a plain-spoken and fascinating story of his path from graduate student in English literature to the forefront of biomedical research. His journey to the highest echelons of the scientific establishment is as interesting for its incidental details as for its glimpse into the process of modern biomedical science.” (Seth Shulman - The Washington Post )

“[A] perceptive book about science and its civic value, arriving as the White House renews its acquaintance with empiricism. Varmus recounts his laboratory career and tenure as director of the National Institutes of Health, then surveys topical issues like stem-cell research. One implication of this book is that far from disconnecting politics and science, we should find better ways of linking them.” (Peter Dizikes - The New York Times )

“An engaging read, fascinating as a memoir of Varmus’s personal and scientific journeys, revealing in its account of his stewardship of the NIH. The book is like the man—honest and clear-eyed, thoughtful and outspoken, always good company, with more than a frequent touch of humour and self-deprecation.” (Scientific American )

About the Author

Harold Varmus, director of the National Cancer Institute and president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, lives with his wife, Constance Casey, and their two sons in New York City.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (February 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393061280
• ISBN-13: 978-0393061284
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #357,350 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beguiling story of science at many levels, March 4, 2009

By 

Marc Kirschner (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Art and Politics of Science (Hardcover)

Harold Varmus is an unusual scientist, who was a major participant in the most important discovery in cancer biology in history (for which he shared the Nobel Prize with J.Michael Bishop), directed the NIH, the most important medical research center in the world, and is presently the head of Memorial Sloan Kettering, where he has presided over an impressive growth in scientific discovery and clinical applications. In this reflection over his early development as a scientist, his important scientific discoveries, and his political experience in Washington, Varmus brings all of these down to a familiar and understandable level. Somehow this seems both remarkable and yet within reach of non-scientists. We trace Varmus's middle class beginnings, his love of books and flirtation with teaching English literature as a career, rejection from Harvard and acceptance to Columbia Medical School, his fortuitous associations at NIH, to his wonderful collaborations in California. These events are treated with gratitude, irony, and humor. The book is devoid of sentimentality, never condescends, explains the science accurately and simply, and portrays science as it often is, a combination of choosing a good problem, thinking clearly, working hard, and collaborating fairly and openly with students and other scientists. Somehow these simple virtues also worked pretty well in the frenetic Washington environment. For the reader of any background, Varmus's story will appear approachable and informative, a rare glimpse into modern science and science policy. It is an extraordinary career and a captivating story, told in a friendly and often humorous manner, with the goal of informing rather than impressing. It is an easy read that still manages to expand our appreciation of biology and the culture necessary to sustain it.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fans of Biographies -- take note, February 26, 2009

By 

reading widely (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art and Politics of Science (Hardcover)

I am fan of biographies and history of science, too. This book hugely satisfies on these levels. Dr. Varmus's passions come through beautifully -- from the lab, to heading large, important institutions, to his friends and colleagues, to his family, to the love of learning. I am not a scientist and you don't have to be one to enjoy this book (although a certain level of science literacy is necessary). This book is elegant on the science and the personal comes through. Very appealing.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "An Elegant Combination of Science and Biography", February 24, 2009

By 

Leigh Sutton (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art and Politics of Science (Hardcover)

Cancer researcher Harold Varmus has been called a Renaissance man, and the label is aptly bestowed. Varmus is as much at home in the world of art and literature as he is in the scientific realm, where his work with the oncogene--the mutating gene that causes cancer--earned him the Nobel Prize in Medicine. These dual abilities uniquely qualify him to tell his tale. While Varmus describes his life and work engagingly, he is able with equal and contagious enthusiasm to explain, for example, the structure and function of DNA. As a nonscientific person, I didn't understand all the details of the discoveries he describes, but I got the gist and was warmed by the excitement he communicates. A stunning story by a powerful intellect.