Introduction: "an infectious disease, a virus"
Cancer and contagion
Cancer as a viral disease
Policymakers and philanthropists define the cancer problem
The biomedical settlement and the federalization of the cancer problem
Managing the future at the special virus leukemia program
Administrative objects and the infrastructure of cancer virus research
Viruses as a central front in the war on cancer
Molecular biology's resistance to the war on cancer
The West Coast retrovirus rush and the discovery of oncogenes
Momentum for molecular medicine
Conclusion: afterlife, memory, and failure in biomedical research.