by Sam Apple ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 25, 2021
A fine life, warts and all, of a brilliant scientist and his fight against cancer.
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.
Self-confident and assertive, Warburg made his first groundbreaking discovery—that fertilized eggs vastly increased their oxygen consumption—even before receiving his medical degree. By the 1920s, his work on cell metabolism and cancer persuaded the Rockefeller Foundation to give him a yearly grant, followed by funds to build his own research facility at the Kaiser Wilhelm institutes in Berlin. Though occasionally harassed by Nazi officials, he was likely protected by Hitler, a hypochondriac terrified of cancer. Of more than 100 Jews at the institutes in 1933, he was the only one remaining in 1945. As health and science writer Apple shows, the postwar years produced little change in Warburg’s routine, and theories about the pathogenesis of cancer dominated research until the 1960s, when scientists turned their attention to DNA and cancer-causing genes. Since cancer remains unconquered, the 21st century has seen a “metabolism revival.” Apple begins and ends with sections on the nature of cancer, the incidence of which increases as technology progresses. This realization two centuries ago began an intense search for the cause, which is still in progress. The fact that “70 percent or more of cancers were caused by environment factors, a category that includes diet,” is less helpful than it sounds, although avoiding smoking, radiation, and toxic chemicals is recommended. Health gurus confidently prescribe “anticancer diets,” but good research turns up few specifics. Diabetes and obesity increase the risk, so there’s clearly a connection to overnutrition, but Apple admits that the “connection” needs serious narrowing. As the search continues, this book is a welcome addition to the library on the disease and one of its most successful enemies.
A fine life, warts and all, of a brilliant scientist and his fight against cancer.Pub Date: May 25, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-63149-315-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Liveright/Norton
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
Share your opinion of this book
More by Sam Apple
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
by Sam Apple
Awards & Accolades
Likes
37
Our Verdict
GET IT
Kirkus Reviews'
Best Books Of 2023
New York Times Bestseller
by Walter Isaacson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 12, 2023
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
Awards & Accolades
Likes
37
Our Verdict
GET IT
Kirkus Reviews'
Best Books Of 2023
New York Times Bestseller
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
Share your opinion of this book
More by Walter Isaacson
BOOK REVIEW
by Walter Isaacson with adapted by Sarah Durand
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
More About This Book
BOOK TO SCREEN
by Lulu Miller illustrated by Kate Samworth ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 14, 2020
A quirky wonder of a book.
A Peabody Award–winning NPR science reporter chronicles the life of a turn-of-the-century scientist and how her quest led to significant revelations about the meaning of order, chaos, and her own existence.
Miller began doing research on David Starr Jordan (1851-1931) to understand how he had managed to carry on after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed his work. A taxonomist who is credited with discovering “a full fifth of fish known to man in his day,” Jordan had amassed an unparalleled collection of ichthyological specimens. Gathering up all the fish he could save, Jordan sewed the nameplates that had been on the destroyed jars directly onto the fish. His perseverance intrigued the author, who also discusses the struggles she underwent after her affair with a woman ended a heterosexual relationship. Born into an upstate New York farm family, Jordan attended Cornell and then became an itinerant scholar and field researcher until he landed at Indiana University, where his first ichthyological collection was destroyed by lightning. In between this catastrophe and others involving family members’ deaths, he reconstructed his collection. Later, he was appointed as the founding president of Stanford, where he evolved into a Machiavellian figure who trampled on colleagues and sang the praises of eugenics. Miller concludes that Jordan displayed the characteristics of someone who relied on “positive illusions” to rebound from disaster and that his stand on eugenics came from a belief in “a divine hierarchy from bacteria to humans that point[ed]…toward better.” Considering recent research that negates biological hierarchies, the author then suggests that Jordan’s beloved taxonomic category—fish—does not exist. Part biography, part science report, and part meditation on how the chaos that caused Miller’s existential misery could also bring self-acceptance and a loving wife, this unique book is an ingenious celebration of diversity and the mysterious order that underlies all existence.
A quirky wonder of a book.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6027-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
Share your opinion of this book
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.