Books on cancer — science and history

Interested in cancer research? Here are the books to read:

Siddhartha Mukherjee: The Emperor of All Maladies (2011) I have written several times already about this Pulitzer- prize winning book – it’s really great and everybody interested in cancer research should have read it.

Ok, that was an easy pick! After all Mukherjee was all over the news in the last year. But there is more:

Mix Tape #7: When you and sleep escape me

Cap’n Jazz – We Are Scientists (<1998)

“now my tongue has tangled me toothless. and we don’t have a thought between us. in this one light room in this neon museum the walls itch in closer.”

Don’t believe the petabytes! Against Big Data Empiricism

The data never speak for themselves; and even Big Data doesn’t change that.

“The business of Big Data, which involves collecting large amounts of data and then searching it for patterns and new revelations, is the result of cheap storage, abundant sensors and new software. It has become a multibillion-dollar industry in less than a decade,”

writes Quentin Hardy at NYtimes.com. Big Data is everywhere, even in medicine. Just have a look at Atul Butte‘s presentation at TEDMED2012:

“Who needs the scientific method? Vast stores of available data and outsourced research are simply waiting for the right questions,” claims Atul Butte.

A philosophical suicide — Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending

“I don’t envy Adrian his death, but I envy him the clarity of his life,” says Tony Webster about his friend, who committed suicide when they were at university. Julian Barnes’ award-winning novel The Sense of an Ending explores the themes of history, memory and responsibility while bringing some clarity into Adrian’s death.

Tony, a man in his 60′s, looks back at his life: Four friends at school; a one-year relationship with Veronica at university; a humiliating visit to Veronica’s parents; a split-up; Veronica coming together with his best friend, Adrian; Adrian’s suicide in a bathtub — that’s the first half of The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes’ award-winning novel.

The story Tony tells about his life gets challenged in the second part, when it turns out that Adrian had kept a diary, which surprisingly was in the possession of Veronica’s mother until her death. In her will she passed it on to Tony, but Veronica is reluctant to hand it over. Tony’s efforts to get the diary from Veronica start the second part of the book and end in a complete reassessment of the initial story.