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"Once upon a time it was fair to say that most people knew little of science. After all, scientists spent years learning their job so it's clearly tough going and, by and large, the rest of the world could get by knowing nothing of superconductivity or the origins of the universe. But increasingly our daily lives have come to be dominated by science and part of that revolution has been the ever-expanding reach of television and the internet as sources of information. It's as though, unwittingly, we've all signed up to the Open University. And, it should be said, when it comes to science this has all been helped by a growing awareness amongst those in the trade that they have an obligation to let the world know how they while away their days"--
List of contents
1. Painting a clear picture; 2. Ancient history; 3. Counting cancer; 4. From DNA to protein; 5. What is a cell?; 6. Mutations; 7. Causes of cancer that can be controlled; 8. Causes of cancer that are difficult to control, accidents ... and other things; 9. Treating cancer by chemotherapy; 10. The road to utopia?
About the author
Robin Hesketh has been a member of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Selwyn College for over 40 years, working on cancer biology. He has published over 100 research papers, a textbook on cancer (Introduction to Cancer Biology, Cambridge, 2013) and popular science books (Betrayed by Nature, Palgrave, 2012). He has spoken on cancer and has run a blog on the topic of cancer for the general public since 2011.
Summary
This book will enable general readers to understand the molecular features of cancer. It answers the questions commonly asked about cancer, looks at the global statistics, describes how damage to DNA (aka mutations) corrupts the behaviour of cells, explains current therapies and how treatments may advance in future.
