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Ravenous: Otto Warburg, the Nazis, and the Search for the Cancer-Diet Connection Kindle Edition
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The extraordinary story of the Nazi-era scientific genius who discovered how cancer cells eat—and what it means for how we should.
The Nobel laureate Otto Warburg—a cousin of the famous finance Warburgs—was widely regarded in his day as one of the most important biochemists of the twentieth century, a man whose research was integral to humanity’s understanding of cancer. He was also among the most despised figures in Nazi Germany. As a Jewish homosexual living openly with his male partner, Warburg represented all that the Third Reich abhorred. Yet Hitler and his top advisors dreaded cancer, and protected Warburg in the hope that he could cure it.
In Ravenous, Sam Apple reclaims Otto Warburg as a forgotten, morally compromised genius who pursued cancer single-mindedly even as Europe disintegrated around him. While the vast majority of Jewish scientists fled Germany in the anxious years leading up to World War II, Warburg remained in Berlin, working under the watchful eye of the dictatorship. With the Nazis goose-stepping their way across Europe, systematically rounding up and murdering millions of Jews, Warburg awoke each morning in an elegant, antiques-filled home and rode horses with his partner, Jacob Heiss, before delving into his research at the Kaiser Wilhelm Society.
Hitler and other Nazi leaders, Apple shows, were deeply troubled by skyrocketing cancer rates across the Western world, viewing cancer as an existential threat akin to Judaism or homosexuality. Ironically, they viewed Warburg as Germany’s best chance of survival. Setting Warburg’s work against an absorbing history of cancer science, Apple follows him as he arrives at his central belief that cancer is a problem of metabolism. Though Warburg’s metabolic approach to cancer was considered groundbreaking, his work was soon eclipsed in the early postwar era, after the discovery of the structure of DNA set off a search for the genetic origins of cancer.
Remarkably, Warburg’s theory has undergone a resurgence in our own time, as scientists have begun to investigate the dangers of sugar and the link between obesity and cancer, finding that the way we eat can influence how cancer cells take up nutrients and grow. Rooting his revelations in extensive archival research as well as dozens of interviews with today’s leading cancer authorities, Apple demonstrates how Warburg’s midcentury work may well hold the secret to why cancer became so common in the modern world and how we can reverse the trend. A tale of scientific discovery, personal peril, and the race to end a disastrous disease, Ravenous would be the stuff of the most inventive fiction were it not, in fact, true.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherLiveright
- Publication dateMay 25, 2021
- File size16990 KB
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Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
“A fascinating account of an impossibly arrogant scientific genius, his collision with the monster Adolph Hitler, and the revolutions in cancer research. Sam Apple, a lively stylist, handles these complex, braided narrative threads with clarity, insight, and a nose for the paradoxical and absurd. The result is a genuine contribution to science writing and a model for how to do contemporary nonfiction.”
― Phillip Lopate, Professor of Writing, Columbia University, editor of The Glorious American Essay
“Sam Apple is a spellbinding storyteller and explainer of science. Ravenous will change the way you think about cancer and how to prevent it.”
― Jason Fung, MD, author of The Cancer Code
“Otto Warburg’s decades-old science is central to a revolution in thinking about cancer as a metabolic disease. Sam Apple’s riveting book, Ravenous, reveals Warburg in all his brilliant, bizarre complexity and is a must-read for anyone interested in the science behind low-carbohydrate/high-fat and ketogenic eating.”
― Gary Taubes, science journalist, author of The Case Against Sugar
“Sam Apple’s Ravenous is biography at its best. Otto Warburg is an uncommonly good subject―a cell biologist who could not stand his fellow humans but devoted himself to saving them from the scourge of cancer. The author’s understanding of Warburg’s life and scientific legacy is perceptive and subtle, his biology lessons are a joy to read, and his history of the connections between Hitler and Germany’s early cancer research is a small masterpiece.”
― Patricia O’Toole, author of The Five of Hearts, When Trumpets Call, and The Moralist
“A remarkable book that just might make you rethink your diet. It’s well known―or should be―that poor nutrition can disrupt metabolism and lead to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. In Ravenous, Sam Apple reveals that many of the most deadly cancers are connected to this very same diet-driven disease process.”
― Mark Hyman, MD, author of The Pegan Diet and Head of Strategy and Innovation at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine
"A brilliant weave of history and science, Ravenous tells the riveting story of how Otto Warburg, a Nobel Prize–winning biochemist and a gay man of Jewish descent, survived the Third Reich in a posh Berlin suburb, and how his theories of metabolic cancer cells may yet hold the key to finding a cure for the defining disease of our time.”
― Helmut Walser Smith, professor of German studies at Vanderbilt University and author of The Butcher’s Tale and Germany: A Nation in Its Time
“Ravenous reads like a cancer mystery with the larger-than-life Warburg in the role of the determined detective. By learning of the scientific struggles of the past, you'll gain a new appreciation for the modern focus on hormones, such as insulin, in the development of cancer.”
― Benjamin Bikman, Associate Professor, Brigham Young University, author of Why We Get Sick
“A fantastic read. If you’re interested in history or science― or just need inspiration to eat less sugar―this is the book for you.”
― Nina Teicholz, science journalist and best-selling author of The Big Fat Surprise
“While tobacco-induced cancer deaths continue to decline, the second major cause of cancer―obesity―moves to center stage. Few realize its profound importance in causing cancer. Sam Apple has written an endlessly interesting and carefully researched book.”
― Robert A. Weinberg, founding member of the Whitehead Institute and professor of biology at MIT
“A gripping and smart page-turner, Sam Apple’s Ravenous tells two fascinating interwoven stories: that of the pioneer of cancer metabolism research Otto Warburg, who in the twenty-first century finally has been proven right, and that of Hitler’s fear of cancer, both as the disease that had killed his mother and as a political metaphor.”
― Thomas Weber, professor of history and international affairs at the University of Aberdeen and author of Becoming Hitler
Review
― Sam Kean, Wall Street Journal
"Ravenous tells the story of an extraordinary life, and of the visionary work that sustained it.... [An] exceptionally interesting and well-written book."
― Thomas Morris, Times Literary Supplement
"The research that Warburg is best known for today, and the work that forms the backbone of Ravenous, is his discovery that cancer cells behave differently from healthy cells in two very specific ways: They consume massive amounts of glucose ― Apple compares them to ravenous shipwrecked sailors ― and they eschew aerobic respiration in favor of fermentation. . . Apple covers everything from Hitler’s obsessive preoccupation with cancer to how the German Empire’s transformation into an industrial powerhouse led to a Romanticism-fueled movement that emphasized both environmental and racial purity. The fact that Apple can make these stories . . . feel so immediate is a testament to his canny knack for choosing apposite details."
― New York Times Book Review
"[Apple] weaves together this complex narrative in a way that makes arcane science accessible and fascinating. The book is also thought-provoking for anyone interested in avoiding cancer ― and who isn’t?"
― Marie McCullough, Philadelphia Inquirer
"[A] fascinating new book about the link between diet and cancer... [Ravenous] has received positive reviews from both cancer researchers and general readers interested in how the way we eat in Western societies (specifically the inordinate amounts of sugar we consume) makes us vulnerable to cancer."
― Renee Ghert-Zand, The Times of Israel
"Ravenous is a page-turner, and much of its success is due to Apple’s fluid, approachable writing.... A joy to read and an utterly fascinating tale."
― Juli Berwald, Jewish Book Council
"A fascinating account of Warburg."
― Sylvia R. Karasu M.D., Psychology Today
"[A] spellbinding new work of reporting by science journalist Sam Apple. Rarely has such an array of medical troubles, historical events, bench science and political intrigue come together as they do in Ravenous."
― Paul John Scott, Post Bulletin
"Apple . . . delivers a gripping account of biochemist Otto Warburg (1883–1970) and the origins of modern cancer science in his excellent latest. . . As he draws fascinating insights from the interplay between science and ideology. . . Apple keeps the scientific explanations easy to understand, while interviews with a slew of characters add color. This is a bona fide page-turner."
― Publishers Weekly, starred review
"[Apple] skillfully blends science writing with biography to present the story of this quirky, arrogant, and brilliant scientist, who revolutionized research on cancer and photosynthesis (how organisms use energy to make glucose).... An illuminating account that makes Warburg (the man and the scientist) accessible to general readers."
― Karl Helicher, Library Journal
"A long-overdue biography of German biologist Otto Warburg (1883-1970), who won the Nobel Prize for his work on cell respiration and metabolism, especially as related to cancer.... A welcome addition to the library on the disease and one of its most successful enemies."
― Kirkus Reviews --This text refers to the paperback edition.
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B08L6Y3W2B
- Publisher : Liveright (May 25, 2021)
- Publication date : May 25, 2021
- Language : English
- File size : 16990 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 422 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #149,918 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #8 in Cell Biology (Kindle Store)
- #88 in Oncology (Books)
- #145 in Science History & Philosophy
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Sam Apple is on the faculty of the MA in Science Writing and MA in Writing programs at Johns Hopkins. Prior to his arrival at Johns Hopkins, Apple taught creative writing and journalism at the University of Pennsylvania for ten years. He holds a BA in English and Creative Writing from the University of Michigan and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Columbia University.
Apple is the author of Ravenous American Parent, and Schlepping Through the Alps. He has published short stories, personal essays, satires, and journalistic features on a wide range of topics. In recent years, he has primarily written about science and health. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Wired, The Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times Magazine, ESPN The Magazine, The MIT Technology Review, and McSweeney’s, among many other publications. Schlepping Through the Alps was a finalist for the PEN America Award for a first work of nonfiction.
Customer reviews
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviewed in the United States on June 16, 2021
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Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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The book ostensibly concerns Otto Warburg, a gay Jewish Nobel Prize winner living in Berlin under Hitler. That it's actually about much more than that is a real credit to Apple, who helps us trace the line of scientific inquiry into the causes of cancerous tumors in humans, and how that line diverged, broke up, and came back together. The Warburg connection feels tenuous at times, but Apple finds a way to bring him back into the discussion, and notably, doesn't pretend Warburg was nicer than he was. But Warburg also gets his due -- he's a forgotten Nobel Laureate who deserves much more credit than he's received by the general public, and this book is going a long way to giving him the notoriety he deserves.
Meanwhile, I can't look at food the same way any more, so whether your bag is nutrition, health, chemistry, cancer research, or stories about truly fascinating people, this great read is worth every dime and minute that you spend on it.
If you are curious to learn how you have a chance at preventing cancer, this book is for you. If you are interested in history, it's also for you. It's dense material delivered in a wonderfully readable fashion. I highly recommend this book to everyone, and particularly to medical professionals who are seeking a more in depth look at cancer development. I already limit my sugar consumption. Now I'm going to make sure it's essentially zero. Thanks to the author, Sam Apple, for helping me on my journey to improve my health!
Top reviews from other countries
This expertly told story mixes an accessible history of Warburg's academic research on metabolism's role in cancer progression with a biography of a scientist whose personal narrative is heavily influenced by Nazi Germany and family history.
While Warburg is the star of this story, Apple makes connections for the reader of other scientific discoveries that broadened our understanding of the growth and death of cancer. We're shown how Warburg's views faded and are coming back again with new found understanding of the sugar cancer connection.
If you're interested in the history of science this is a great, entertaining book. If you're interested in the history of cancer science, it's that much more brilliant and important of a read.





