Editors' note: The author, Peter Duesberg, a pioneering virologist,
may be well known to readers for his assertion that HIV is not the
cause of AIDS. The biomedical community has roundly rebutted that
claim many times. Duesberg's ideas about chromosomal abnormality as a
root cause for cancer, in contrast, are controversial but are being
actively investigated by mainstream science. We have therefore asked
Duesberg to explain that work here. This article is in no sense an
endorsement by SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN of his AIDS theories.