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p53: The Gene That Cracked The Cancer Code
Cancer and Society
Peter Ranscombe
Book p53: The Gene That Cracked The Cancer Code
p53: The Gene that Cracked the Cancer Code Sue Armstrong Bloomsbury Sigma, 2014 Pp 288. £16.99 ISBN 978-1472910516 For more on the Edinburgh International Science Festival see http://www.sciencefestival. co.uk For more on BBC Scotland’s Brainwaves series see http:// www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/ b04ws68y
496
Every now and then, a three-letter acronym from science and technology becomes lodged in the public’s consciousness. We may not know exactly what the three characters stand for, but we’re happy to use them anyway. Now, p53 is poised to join the ranks of BMI, DNA, and GPS on that colloquial list, thanks to a multitude of exposure in the popular media. p53’s rise into the realms of common usage has been boosted through the release of a book by science writer Sue Armstrong, who has worked for New Scientist magazine and British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) World Service radio in Belgium and South Africa, as well as writing Images On The Epidemic, a book for the WHO about the spread of AIDS, which involved reporting from the frontline in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. In p53: The Gene That Cracked The Cancer Code, Armstrong explains how scientists unravelled the mystery surrounding what Armstrong calls “a master switch in our cells whose main function is to prevent tumours arising when their DNA is damaged”. Rather than focusing solely on the science, Armstrong instead paints a very human picture. She uses vivid images of the characters involved, describing Curt Harris, chief of the Laboratory of Human Carcinogenesis at the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA, as “a bear of a man with a shaggy grey beard and a deep bass voice as rich as a pint of brown ale” and Maria Isabel Achatz, director of the Department of Oncology at AC Carmargo Hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil, as “tall, slim, and effortlessly elegant, with long brown hair which she occasionally ties back into a swinging ponytail”. It’s the small details that really bring the story to life, like describing Moshe Oren—chair of the
Molecular Biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel— eating clementines from his garden while Armstrong interviewed him, or the drawing by the granddaughter of Varda Rotter, chair of Cancer Research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, depicting p53 as both an angel and a demon. Armstrong’s background as a foreign correspondent also shines through in the text, using examples of Achatz’s work on patients with Li-Fraumeni Syndrome in southern Brazil or the instances of liver cancer in Mali and other parts of west Africa. Instead of just focusing on the work going on in laboratories in Europe and the USA, Armstrong paints a richer and much more vivid picture of the effects that p53 research can have on people’s lives globally. Nonetheless, despite the author’s excellent job of explaining complex scientific ideas, chapter 4 on “Unseeable biology” would benefit from a simple diagram or two to help to clarify the architecture of a cell, while chapter 17 would be enhanced by a relief map of South America to highlight the geography of southern Brazil. In this age of internet search engines, there’s still merit to including such illustrations alongside the text. Speaking about her book during an event at the 2015 Edinburgh International Science Festival, Armstrong said: “Very often when I’ve been to an interesting interview, I’ll come away thinking ‘Why aren’t I a scientist myself?’ Then I realise what a privilege it is to be a science writer— you get the chance of experiencing, albeit vicariously, some of the drama of science without having to go through the great drudgery of painstakingly accumulating the knowledge.”
Ewan Aitken, one of the festival’s board members, who chaired Armstrong’s event, responded: “You may not be a scientist but you make science very understandable and the human impact of science understandable, which is very important and is a gift to us.” Not only does Armstrong make p53 understandable but she also sheds light on the scientific method. In an age of government austerity, highlighting the importance of scientific research is also a gift. Armstrong isn’t the only science communicator to highlight the importance of p53. In the fourth episode of the second season of BBC Radio Scotland’s Brainwaves series, Pennie Latin interviews Karen Vousden, director of the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow, UK. In a similar fashion to Armstrong’s book, Latin used Vousden’s personal story and career history to tell the tale of p53’s discovery and applications in the cancer research. The programme does a good job of describing life in a modern science facility, painting an image of real people in real jobs, rather than boffins in white coats carrying out unintelligible experiments. The Beatson Institute is funded by Cancer Research UK and so Vousden also highlights the link between “all the people who run a 5 km or hold a bake sale or do all of these wonderful crazy things to raise money” and the work carried out by her and her colleagues in their laboratories. Latin always brings energy and enthusiasm to her shows and her bubbly delivery is matched by Vousden’s passion for her job—an inspiring advert for science in general and cancer research in particular.
Peter Ranscombe
www.thelancet.com/oncology Vol 16 May 2015
Peter Ranscombe
Book p53: The Gene That Cracked The Cancer Code
p53: The Gene that Cracked the Cancer Code Sue Armstrong Bloomsbury Sigma, 2014 Pp 288. £16.99 ISBN 978-1472910516 For more on the Edinburgh International Science Festival see http://www.sciencefestival. co.uk For more on BBC Scotland’s Brainwaves series see http:// www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/ b04ws68y
496
Every now and then, a three-letter acronym from science and technology becomes lodged in the public’s consciousness. We may not know exactly what the three characters stand for, but we’re happy to use them anyway. Now, p53 is poised to join the ranks of BMI, DNA, and GPS on that colloquial list, thanks to a multitude of exposure in the popular media. p53’s rise into the realms of common usage has been boosted through the release of a book by science writer Sue Armstrong, who has worked for New Scientist magazine and British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) World Service radio in Belgium and South Africa, as well as writing Images On The Epidemic, a book for the WHO about the spread of AIDS, which involved reporting from the frontline in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. In p53: The Gene That Cracked The Cancer Code, Armstrong explains how scientists unravelled the mystery surrounding what Armstrong calls “a master switch in our cells whose main function is to prevent tumours arising when their DNA is damaged”. Rather than focusing solely on the science, Armstrong instead paints a very human picture. She uses vivid images of the characters involved, describing Curt Harris, chief of the Laboratory of Human Carcinogenesis at the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA, as “a bear of a man with a shaggy grey beard and a deep bass voice as rich as a pint of brown ale” and Maria Isabel Achatz, director of the Department of Oncology at AC Carmargo Hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil, as “tall, slim, and effortlessly elegant, with long brown hair which she occasionally ties back into a swinging ponytail”. It’s the small details that really bring the story to life, like describing Moshe Oren—chair of the
Molecular Biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel— eating clementines from his garden while Armstrong interviewed him, or the drawing by the granddaughter of Varda Rotter, chair of Cancer Research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, depicting p53 as both an angel and a demon. Armstrong’s background as a foreign correspondent also shines through in the text, using examples of Achatz’s work on patients with Li-Fraumeni Syndrome in southern Brazil or the instances of liver cancer in Mali and other parts of west Africa. Instead of just focusing on the work going on in laboratories in Europe and the USA, Armstrong paints a richer and much more vivid picture of the effects that p53 research can have on people’s lives globally. Nonetheless, despite the author’s excellent job of explaining complex scientific ideas, chapter 4 on “Unseeable biology” would benefit from a simple diagram or two to help to clarify the architecture of a cell, while chapter 17 would be enhanced by a relief map of South America to highlight the geography of southern Brazil. In this age of internet search engines, there’s still merit to including such illustrations alongside the text. Speaking about her book during an event at the 2015 Edinburgh International Science Festival, Armstrong said: “Very often when I’ve been to an interesting interview, I’ll come away thinking ‘Why aren’t I a scientist myself?’ Then I realise what a privilege it is to be a science writer— you get the chance of experiencing, albeit vicariously, some of the drama of science without having to go through the great drudgery of painstakingly accumulating the knowledge.”
Ewan Aitken, one of the festival’s board members, who chaired Armstrong’s event, responded: “You may not be a scientist but you make science very understandable and the human impact of science understandable, which is very important and is a gift to us.” Not only does Armstrong make p53 understandable but she also sheds light on the scientific method. In an age of government austerity, highlighting the importance of scientific research is also a gift. Armstrong isn’t the only science communicator to highlight the importance of p53. In the fourth episode of the second season of BBC Radio Scotland’s Brainwaves series, Pennie Latin interviews Karen Vousden, director of the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow, UK. In a similar fashion to Armstrong’s book, Latin used Vousden’s personal story and career history to tell the tale of p53’s discovery and applications in the cancer research. The programme does a good job of describing life in a modern science facility, painting an image of real people in real jobs, rather than boffins in white coats carrying out unintelligible experiments. The Beatson Institute is funded by Cancer Research UK and so Vousden also highlights the link between “all the people who run a 5 km or hold a bake sale or do all of these wonderful crazy things to raise money” and the work carried out by her and her colleagues in their laboratories. Latin always brings energy and enthusiasm to her shows and her bubbly delivery is matched by Vousden’s passion for her job—an inspiring advert for science in general and cancer research in particular.
Peter Ranscombe
www.thelancet.com/oncology Vol 16 May 2015