How to Win the Nobel Prize: An Unexpected Life in Science [Hardcover]

J. Michael Bishop (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0674008804 | ISBN-13: 978-0674008809 | Publication Date: June 23, 2003 | Edition: 1

In 1989 Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus were awarded the Nobel Prize for their discovery that normal genes under certain conditions can cause cancer. In this book, Bishop tells us how he and Varmus made their momentous discovery. More than a lively account of the making of a brilliant scientist, How to Win the Nobel Prize is also a broader narrative combining two major and intertwined strands of medical history: the long and ongoing struggles to control infectious diseases and to find and attack the causes of cancer.

Alongside his own story, that of a youthful humanist evolving into an ambivalent medical student, an accidental microbiologist, and finally a world-class researcher, Bishop gives us a fast-paced and engrossing tale of the microbe hunters. It is a narrative enlivened by vivid anecdotes about our deadliest microbial enemies--the Black Death, cholera, syphilis, tuberculosis, malaria, smallpox, HIV--and by biographical sketches of the scientists who led the fight against these scourges.

Bishop then provides an introduction for nonscientists to the molecular underpinnings of cancer and concludes with an analysis of many of today's most important science-related controversies--ranging from stem cell research to the attack on evolution to scientific misconduct. How to Win the Nobel Prize affords us the pleasure of hearing about science from a brilliant practitioner who is a humanist at heart. Bishop's perspective will be valued by anyone interested in biomedical research and in the past, present, and future of the battle against cancer.

(20040301)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Despite his book's encouraging title, Bishop-who won a Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1989-cautions that "I have not written an instruction manual for pursuit of the prize." Instead, he has written an amiable reflection on the experience of being a Nobelist, intertwined with some history and anecdotes about the award, and balanced by a wide-ranging review of his own career as an "accidental scientist"-his transformation from small-town boy who, when a college professor suggested he apply to Harvard for medical school, said, "Where is that?" to successful and celebrated microbiologist studying viruses and eventually cancer cells (the work that won him the Nobel). Along the way, Bishop reflects on the history of our knowledge of microbes, cancer, the politics of funding research and present-day disenchantment with science. His main purpose in writing this book, Bishop says, is to show that "scientists are supremely human"-which he does with grace and charm.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From The New England Journal of Medicine

Neither the title nor the subtitle of this book adequately reflects its true aim. Michael Bishop (Figure), who with Harold Varmus received the Nobel prize in 1989 for their discovery of oncogenes, is convinced that current difficulties in relations between science and society -- exemplified by the controversies over evolution and the use of embryonic stem cells for regenerative medicine -- result from the public's ignorance of the nature of science and scientists. He feels that showing that scientists are "supremely human," with both strengths and weaknesses, is the best way to reconcile science and society. In his book, Bishop aims to achieve this goal by means of three approaches, corresponding to distinct chapters. First, he recaps major advances in the understanding and treatment of infectious disease and cancer. Second, he describes many instances over the past 20 years in which scientists and the lay public or politicians have found themselves in opposition, and he traces the origins of these misunderstandings. Finally, the book presents Bishop's personal testimony as a way to demonstrate the human side of science. On the whole, the book is a success. It has a vivid tone and is stuffed with anecdotes embroidering the historical descriptions. Bishop's defense of teaching as a natural complement to research and discovery and the account of his personal contribution to "lobbying for science" with the establishment of relations between scientific leaders and the government are probably the most seductive elements of the book, particularly because some problems in the past resulted in part from the ignorance and disdain expressed by scientists for policymakers and politicians. Perhaps the best demonstration of the supremely human nature of scientists lies in Bishop's description of how difficult it is to be a Nobel Prize winner and to resist the temptation of seeing yourself as different and as "having risen over pedestrians" as a result of being awarded the prize. General readers will appreciate this book, but scientists and specialists in the history of science are likely to be frustrated by its overly aseptic presentation, which is too consensual and does not tackle current scientific controversies. Why, for instance, does Bishop end the chapter on the fight against infectious diseases with penicillin? Events have moved on considerably since the discovery of antibiotics, and this book would have benefited from a description of emerging infectious diseases such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Comments about the failure to develop vaccines against malaria or AIDS and the successful development of protease-inhibitor treatments for AIDS as emblematic of a new age of chemotherapy, in which drugs are designed on the basis of precise information about the structure of their targets, would have been welcome. Paradoxically, the least satisfactory part of the book is the author's description of the discovery of oncogenes. All the technical, conceptual, and even personal difficulties encountered by the principals in this research are swept under the carpet. The joint direction of scientific research, though the pattern for Bishop and Varmus, is a rather uncommon experience and deserves more detailed consideration. The contributions of other groups to the "oncogene paradigm" are also dealt with too briefly. This book lacks the element of surprise and contains too few new perspectives about scientific discoveries and the obstacles overcome along the way that scientific autobiography generally affords. Michel Morange, Ph.D.
Copyright © 2003 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press; 1 edition (June 23, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674008804
• ISBN-13: 978-0674008809
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #866,846 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Noble Work, December 14, 2004

By 

Donald B. Siano (Westfield, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Win the Nobel Prize: An Unexpected Life in Science (Jerusalem-Harvard Lectures) (Paperback)

This is, of course, not a how-to on winning the Nobel Prize. Rather it is Bishop's personal account of what happened when he won the Nobel Prize in "physiology or medicine" in 1989. This is told in a rather light-hearted, self deprecating way that is at once amusing and informative--he provides plenty of background on the prize itself, as well as the logistics of the ceremony of the presentation.

Actually the book is something of a grab-bag of topics. It is partly autobiographical, partly historical accounts of cancer research, and partly a commentary on the issues of the public's perception and misperceptions on science and society. And partly about the discovery that he and Harold Varmus made--the first oncogene.

Although I much enjoyed the other parts, it was to learn something of the discovery itself that brought me to buy the book. And here I must say I was a little disappointed. Basically, they found that one of the four genes carried by the Rous sarcoma virus is also found in the dna of many species of animals, including man. In fact it is found in normal cells, as well as those that are cancerous, and is expressed in both. I found this all a bit confusing. Is it the over-expression of the SRC gene responsible for some cancers, or is it a damaged form of the gene that is responsible? Is it an oncogene or a proto-oncogene? What does it do?

The current paradigm for cancer causation is that one of a few oncogenes and/or tumor supressor genes malfunction to give rise to cancer. I had hoped for a clearer statement of this rather dogmatic idea, and perhaps even some pros and cons for it. What makes a gene qualify for oncogene status? This is never made clear. What has become of SRC? What has been found out in the 30 years since the discovery? Has anyone ever seen a cancer in which only the supposed oncogene is different from that seen in the normal cell? I don't think so.

An opposing theory to this is that the fundamental event in cancer is aneuploidy: the cancer cell contains an abnormal number of chromosomes, thereby over-expressing some thousands of genes at once. Surprisingly, Bishop does not mention this alternative at all. Maybe the oncogene hypothesis is just plain wrong after all. And Peter Duesberg's paradigm is closer to the truth.

Bishop's last chapter covers some of the public controversies: stem cells and cloning, genetic testing and evolution. He gives us his two cents worth on all of them, and I can't help but think he is right on most of what he says. He's got a lot of common sense, and expresses it pretty well.