CANCER'S CAUSE, CANCER'S CURE by DPM Morton Walker Read Free Book Online Page A

him on his trash-sifting adventure? He might have found a path to his ground-breaking research another way, but he might not have, just as he could have elected to stay on the farm and raise geese and pigs instead of giving the world a potentially viable way to handle one of the most deadly and feared diseases on the planet.
     
    Paradise Lost
    Beljanski was motivated purely by science. As a microbiologist, he wanted to use his abilities and knowledge to work to better the lives of his fellow human beings. He had a very simple yet systematic way of going about solving any problem with which he was faced: first—sifting through various biochemical experimental projects second—setting up and completing the inevitable next experiment third—discovering from research the biological questions needing answers.
    Underlying it all was a commitment to constant, meticulous research. Hard work never discouraged Mirko. The two or three technicians working with him at their laboratory benches ran around day and night, each technician performing a vital operation in the piece of work being studied. This buzz of activity irritated his colleagues who scoffed at it, confusing passion for one’s work with opportunism.
    Mirko Beljanski was not an opportunist. Rather, he was a man totally consumed by his research endeavors. He was driven to understand nature and to make an original contribution for the benefit of humankind, leaving a positive mark by advancing his ideas. Most demanding of himself, he also demanded a great deal from his team members. He was often short on patience while rushing toward the completion of a goal. Because he did not take the time to gossip with colleagues who seemed to discuss at length how to recreate the world, Mirko made almost no friends among them. His lack of availability due to his devotion to his work was misunderstood. Instead, his colleagues interpreted Mirko’s absence as aloofness or pretension.
    While their assessment was incorrect, it is true that Mirko was not very approachable. From his Yugoslavian peasant origins, he retained a concrete mentality and did not enjoy the theorizing so beloved by French intellectuals. For such aloof-like behavior, Mirko Beljanski was rejected by coworkers, and this resulted in the failure of his colleagues to afford him the appropriate degree of recognition he deserved.
    In 1952, Mirko’s much loved mentor, Michel Macheboeuf, Ph.D., chief of his Pasteur Institute department, passed away suddenly. Dr. Macheboeuf had been exposed to poisonous gas during World War I, which resulted in chronic lung damage. From time to time, he had experienced debilitating episodes involving one of the lobes of his lungs. The lung’s weakness eventually led to Macheboeuf developing a bronchial lung cancer, which finally killed him during the summer of 1952.
    To replace Macheboeuf as director of the Department of Cellular Biochemistry, the Pasteur’s governing board named Jacques Monod, Ph.D. Mirko, Monique, and other researchers who had worked for the late Macheboeuf, were integrated into Dr. Monod’s expanded team of scientists. But there was a problem: Jacques Monod and Mirko Beljanski didn’t like each other at all.
    The conflict between them was ongoing. Very aware of his own personal image, Monod was not interested in Mirko’s investigatory strengths and did not appreciate the researcher’s straightforwardness. Simultaneously, Mirko failed to take into account the media savvy of his new boss, whom he believed to be more excited by the limelight of public relations than by the study of science. These two strong and opposing egos were simply not made for mutual cooperation, and they often clashed. Shortly after he had been named as head of the Department of Cellular Biochemistry, Monod asked Beljanski, as they passed each other in the hall, “What do you think? Should I accept the offer to head our department?”
    Jacques Monod craved praise and approval from everyone at the