[Dean's World] Dean: Strange Things Afoot In Amazon Review Land

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Posted by Dean:
Strange Things Afoot In Amazon Review Land
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1152175788.shtml


   After a glowing review full of praise in the pages of [1]Nature
   Biotechnology, and a shrieking, frothing review in the pages of
   [2]Nature itself, a wonderful little book has been shooting up the
   sales charts on Amazon: [3]Oncogenes, Aneuploidy, and AIDS: A
   Scientific Life & Times of Peter H. Duesberg. Having read this book
   myself about three times, I can't say I recommend it for the casual
   reader, but anyone with a reasonbly good background in biology should
   have little trouble following it--and then wondering how the twin
   boondoggles of the oncogene hypothesis of carcinogenesis, or the
   HIV-AIDS hypothesis, came to be so lavishly funded without anyone
   stopping and asking hard questions like, "have we gone off in the
   wrong direction?"

   What is most telling about books like this is the response of
   establishment "scientists" who choose name-calling (like "AIDS
   Denialist," a clearly anti-semitic reference to the Holocaust) and
   bluster as a response to cogent arguments and well-referenced
   criticism. One may see that in action in the few negative reviews the
   book has received: never do they attack the substance, apparently
   because they cannot. And so they attack the messenger, and anyone who
   would dare associate with the messenger. Which is almost as
   informative as this book itself is.

   Two Nobel laureate biologists, and quite a few other world-famous
   scientists, have endorsed this book. Yet it appears that [4]someone is
   trying to censor positive Amazon reviews of the book. Which I think is
   all you should need to know to realize that strange things are afoot
   in the world of biology.

References

   1. http://www.nature.com/nbt/index.html
   2. http://www.nature.com/index.html
   3. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1556435312/qid=1152175454/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/103-7424011-1607860?s=books&v=glance&n=283155/deansworld01-20
   4. http://www.newaidsreview.org/posts/1152159978.shtml