You might start by reading this: http://www.amazon.com/The-Emperor-All-Maladies-Biography/dp/1439107955 http://www.amazon.com/The-Emperor-All-Maladies-Biograph

You might start by reading this: http://www.amazon.com/The-Emperor-All-Maladies-Biography/dp/1439107955 http://www.amazon.com/The-Emperor-All-Maladies-Biography/dp/... .. there isn't one thing called "cancer", there are at least thousands of different varieties that have different genetic profiles, different behavior and risk factors, etc. The thick, opaque layers represent actual human learning and experience and judgment, and you can't just skip over them because it seems more fun to jump right to the high-profile heroic stuff. You can't do the good stuff without learning the rest. (*Ok, once in awhile people come up with breakthroughs in fields they know nothing about - and once in awhile a monkey will accidentally type something intelligible, given a typewriter. We still don't issue typewriters to monkeys when we need to get some writing done, even if it would work from time to time.)