Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory researcher Mina Bissell got the royal treatment from New York Times science writer (and sister of Judy Bari) Gina Kolata yesterday morning. Bissell is among a handful of cancer researchers who have spent decades quietly developing a provocative thesis: cancer isn’t just a matter of genes going kablooie, but somehow arises from the interaction between the cancerous cells and surrounding tissue. The piece opens 20 years earlier, with Bissell handing a paper she had written on the subject to a fellow scientist visiting the lab. “What do you want me to do with it?” her colleague snorted as he dropped it in the garbage. Now, Bissell and others are making fascinating new progress on the genesis of malignant tumors. Read it all, and learn that even now, you’re probably walking around, littered with tiny tumors that don’t become malignant for some reason. One word: eww.
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