* In fact, the “normal” cells that Weinberg had used were not exactly normal. They were already growth-adapted, such that a single activated oncogene could tip them into transformed growth. Truly “normal” cells, Weinberg would later discover, require several genes to become transformed.

†In fact, ras, like src, had also been discovered earlier in a cancer-causing virus—again underscoring the striking capacity of these viruses to reveal the mechanisms of endogenous oncogenes.

* The Laskerites had largely been disbanded in the aftermath of the 1971 National Cancer Act. Mary Lasker was still involved in science policy, although with nowhere near the force and visceral energy that she had summoned in the sixties.

* Although cancer is not universally caused by viruses, certain viruses cause particular cancers, such as the human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer. When the mechanism driving this cancer was deciphered in the 1990s, HPV turned out to inactivate Rb’s and p53’s signal—underscoring the importance of endogenous genes in even virally induced cancers.