4 comments about Egg and Ego: An Almost True Story of Life in The Biology Lab.

1. This is an excellent book for anyone who might have some idea that they might want to be a professional scientist, working in biomedical research or as a professor in a university. Slack writes very well and he can tell an amusing anecdote. There is a some good science in it too. He is slightly curmidgeonly, perhaps, but I think this is part of his appeal. He tells it like it is. Read this book to find out that being a research scientist, perhaps unfortunately, is like being in the corporate world, and scientists have egos just like anyone else. There is a wealth of guidance for a new 'starry eyed' student. Slack is a good scientist and he portrays with a light touch some of the characters he knows, journals, government regulations and career structures. In addition he explains how he got into science and why. Anyone who is already a biological scientist will find much to chuckle at and I think that all biology students should read it - particularly if contemplating going on to take a higher degree. This book is an antidote to the ridiculous idea that scientists are 'higher beings' concerned only with 'truth'.



2. Slack interweaves real science (Cell, Molecular and Developmental Biology; frog and fly biology) with job descriptions of biologists and events in the laboratory to portray the fragile existence of academic scientists.

   As a career university biologist myself, I repeatedly found myself asking the question as I navigated through the book "Why did I get into this business in the first place?" Slack's work will certainly prompt the budding young scientist to confront their own destiny.

   To those interested in what professors do (since they are not in the classroom 8 hours per day), this is the book for you. Though clearly written, the science is still not for everyone; occasionally, Slack lapses into jargon without definition. However, the lighthearted and accurate picture of life in the laboratory will certainly provide enough entertainment for any reader, especially if you are undecided if you want to spend the rest of your life cohabitating with an academic.




3. Slack does a grand job of telling his story...life and living as a researcher working on problems of development. Slack has the ability to get you to grin as he talks about cow brains, growth factors, and other scientific adventures..."Where are the brains, Dad?" (You'll have to read the book to know what that means.) He also ably tells what it's like to be a scientist, as well as how one negotiates the politics and requirements of becoming successful as a research scientist.

   The format of the book is interesting. It includes several chapters that address what it's like ("Ego") to be a research scientist, i.e., chapters 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10. He defines what he calls "good places," as well as who "good people" are in the scientific community. If you are a budding scientist, these chapters contain nugget after nugget of wisdom and insight. This book is worth the price for them alone.

   The remaining chapters, 3, 5, 8 contain the essence of the research that Slack and his group do, thus the "Egg" portion of the book's title. There is good information about the role of growth factors in development, and a broad brush review of the essentials of some of the processes of development and their molecular bases.

   If you are up for a good read about life as a biologist, then come on along. The only reason I didn't award this book 5-stars is that there would be a strong tendency for those not trained in the sciences to get lost in the technical aspects of the chapters on developmental processes. For most biologists, however, especially for upper division undergraduate and graduate students, this book is a gem!

   4 stars for the non-scientist, and 5 stars for the science crowd.

   Kudos to Slack for this great little book (though he seems to take a rather dim view of places other than research universities -- we part ways there). There is, I believe, too strong a sentiment among researchers (represented by some of Slack's opinions) that what non-researcher biologists do, i.e., teach, is not just different, it is "less than." It all comes down to what you choose to do for your own career, and how you define success for yourself.

   I hope this review was helpful!

   Alan Holyoak, Dept of Biology, Manchester College, IN




4. As an undergraduate studying biology and hoping to pursue a career in research I found this book both informative and shocking. J.M.W Slack openly reveals all the ins and outs of "Life in the Biology lab." I strongly recommend this book to anyone curious to what's truly in store for them if they choose to enter a field of science.

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2 comments about Translate This Darkness : The Life of Christiana Morgan.

1. Sorry, I don't know how to let you know other than this but you have an extra author's name in the listing of my book. It is by Claire Douglas alone. Your Chaire Douglas as co author needs to be deleted. Whoever is reading this please send it on to the right person. Thanks. C. D. As I'm on the subject: my The Woman in the Mirror is out again thanks to you, Holly, and Backinprint.com and through the authors guild. Could you also list it? Thank you.



2. Translate this Darkness is an unevenly argued book that one cannot decide is about how dangerous men are to women or how dangerous women are to themselves, or how dangerous life is to the living.

   While on the one hand author Claire Douglas describes her heroine, Christiana Morgan, in sympathetic terms almost exclusively, Carl Jung's and Henry Murray's influence on Mrs. Morgan is seen as predominantly destructive. Their general existence in her life -- as father figures, as receivers of her endlessly extolled beauty and erotic influence -- is seen as parasitic. They are all 'round exploitative conquerors of the feminine mystique

   One cannot help but simply exclaim out loud at several points in the book, especially during the epilogue, what a load of hypocritical American feminist rubbish it is. Why doesn't Christiana just leave Murray, find someone else, and write something in her own right. Jung's 'women', after all, did not need his permission to write and create and have lives of their own.

   Douglas claims that these men somehow did not allow Morgan to take responsibility for her own life. Her famous visions, painted by her, and the subject of a four-and-a-half year seminar by Jung in the 1930s (which Douglas has edited, published by Princeton) are considered by Douglas to be of biblical importance to the women of the world. Rather than being used to further an understanding of the feminine by Morgan, these visions were expropriated by Jung for his own supposedly deluded purposes, and were "feared" by Murray as they represented an overwhelming feminine "power" that must be thwarted, lest he lose his own masculine power to it.

   First Jung: for the great part of Morgan's life he was simply 3,000 miles away in another part of the world, after the age of 50 making use of Morgan's visions as he made use of so much other diverse literature that influenced his ideas. To say that he unjustly "bent" Morgan's visions to satisfy his own theory of archetypes, thereby damaging Christiana Morgan's soul, becomes irreconcilable when one considers Douglas's statement that these visions also helped Jung to develop those theories (should have been good for her soul, no?)

   Wolfgang Pauli's dreams and visions served the same purpose for Jung (see the book Atom and Archetype). Pauli, it may be argued, also lived a life of relatively unrealized potential. He had bouts of alcoholism as did Morgan, and died relatively young, but no one would think to lay this at Jung's feet, perhaps because Pauli was a man and had won a Nobel prize. Morgan was just a poor uneducated girl with a lot of potential that was subsumed by the power of male masculinity and not allowed to be realised into some Golden Flower, if we are to believe the thesis.

   Now Murray: he was influenced by Jung to take Christiana as a mistress. This is because Murray was already married, as was Morgan. So it's a tough call who's at fault here. If it was a man's influence that has again ruined the life of yet another woman, blaming Murray for being the wrong man begs the question that there is probably a right man. If the answer is that there should be no man and that Morgan could have gone it alone with strength and conviction, why didn't she, if she had so much "power"? Perhaps she was not so powerful, after all, and certainly without Jung, her visions would not have seen the light of day, as they were "visioned" with his encouragement.

   We are left simply with a melodrama of Jungian proportion, an analysis that has been terminated prematurely through the exhaustion and limitations of the two participants. Douglas comes in to pronounce that the unjust winners are still the men and losers the women, in the process ignoring or misrepresenting the success of the women in Jung's circle, and smarter women everywhere.

   Men are once again back to being faulted for wanting something from women. To make something out of a mass of visions which would in another time and place be considered certifiable, is not enough. It remains with feminism that it must be the cake and the eating of it, too, something which, if Ms. Douglas would only admit, Jung and Murray were simply not able to have with the impunity she implies, and, therefore, not at all.

No comments about Strong Force: The Story of Physicist Shirley Ann Jackson (Women's Adventures in Science).

5 comments about Alfred Russel Wallace: A Life.

1. Bronowski's Ascent of Man acquainted me with the main facts of Wallace's life. Frankly, that sufficed... Raby did not delve deeply enough into aspects of Wallace's character or contributions. The value of Raby's detailed biography lies not in learning more about Wallace's travels or seances, but in his careful, evenhanded examination of the relation between Darwin and Wallace.

   Anybody pondering accusations of conspiracy would be well advised to read this book. The ending is particularly well done.




2. Victorian Britain was a time of exploration, industrial advance, social and political experiments and scientific speculation. Although many key figures appeared, few covered so many elements of this dynamic as did Alfred Russell Wallace. From almost desparately poor beginnings, Wallace became a dedicated explorer and specimen collector. Raby's sympathetic portrayal of this complex character is a good introduction. Wallace travelled and collected far more widely than did his contemporary Charles Darwin. That both developed the same concept, evolution of species by natural selection, was the result of keen powers of observation. Wallace's wide-spread interests took his attention into areas Darwin either ignored or avoided. Unlike the retiring Darwin, Wallace was at the forefront of many issues, speaking and writing on many issues. Some of these, as Raby carefully recounts, led him into difficulties, both financial and intellectual.

   Raby traces the development of a man who almost beggars analysis. Wallace's life was dogged by near penury due to family commitments and lack of regular employment. His decision to explore the upper Amazon basin was almost an act of desparation, but it led to a lifelong interest in nature and "primitive" people. Overcoming the loss of four years of exploration and study, he recovered deftly with a long-term examination of the East Indies archipelago. Early flirtations with socialist ideals gave him a more sympathetic view of indigenous people than the average Victorian Briton. He adopted a strong sense of independence from authoritarian measures, leading him to oppose land enclosures and vaccination, which he saw as doing more harm than good. The great issue in his later years was spiritualism. This last proved a stumbling block to his scientific ambitions. Although many authors disparage this interest as demeaning, in Raby's view it is simply another aspect of Wallace's probing intellect.

   The primary concern with Wallace remains his co-authorship of evolution by natural selection. Darwin's insight occupied his thinking for two decades while he considered evidence. Wallace had been considering the issue for several years, finally synthesising his ideas during confinement from a malarial attack. Wallace never disputed Darwin's priority nor his superiority as a scientific genius, although recent historians have taken up his "cause" in an attempt to erode Darwin's reputation. Raby examines these claims in some detail, either refuting them or questioning the validity of the evidence. Wallace diverged from Darwin's version of natural selection in some details, most notably over human evolution. In line with his spiritualism, Wallace insisted the human mind could not be an adaptation and must be the result of influence by a "higher power". He wasn't alone in that view either then or now.

   Raby's examination of the life of another "tormented evolutionist" is an engaging read and fluent introduction to this charismatic figure. With his long life encompassing an era of many new ideas, Wallace doesn't stand out in the history of science nearly as much as is his due. This book goes far in restoring his image. Raby's prose style is clear and expressive without descending into unnecessary adulation of his subject. The greatest lack is in his failure to place Wallace more fully in the context of his times. Since that would cover the whole of the Victorian era and beyond, we may forgive this curtailment. There are, after all, numerous works providing that overview. A valuable summary for the reader interested in exploration, natural science and Victorian personalities. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]




3. an elegant and fascinating account of a true pioneer of natural history and evolution. One must really be curious and patient to get into this book, as there are innumerable details given on not just this man's life but his actual work. The book proves to be an illuminating academic biography that deserves its place among other excellent biographies in your collection.



4. As the great scientist Newton said " I see further for I stand on the shoulders of giants". Wallace may have seen further than Darwin when he suggested that we have souls that make us human. Ofcourse these kinds of things are hard to emperically observe by scientists that is the reason why they are skeptical but not everything has to be observed. It is true that "observation is the key to knowledge" but Einstein said that "imagination is much more important than knowledge". Probably Wallace knew that not everything could be explained by science because not everything could be observed. So even though Darwin was right about his observations of the process of evolution, Wallace saw further when he imagined that most probably we have souls that make us not only the highest form of animal but the only animals that has a soul, a human. Science cannot observe everything....there are things meant to be imagined along with our observations, that is how we could see further.



5. If you want to enrich your picture of where the theory of evolution came from, how men saw it emerge "on the ground," rather than in specimen jars and private laboratories, this is a great complement to any life of Darwin. Wallace was a much wider and woollier adventurer than Darwin. As a professional collector he had to be, and he lived in strange parts of the world rather than just drop by on cruise as Darwin had the luxury to do. I was especially moved by the story about Wallace's experience adopting and trying to sustain the life of an infant orangutan in Borneo or thereabouts. Wallace must have been a much more restless man than Darwin, more of the brew of industrial revolution and 19th century culture in turmoil.Take Me With You When You Go

4 comments about Genius in the Shadows: A Biography of Leo Szilard, the Man Behind the Bomb.

1. Leo is one of my ultimate heros, and Bill Lanouette has done what is in my mind, the perfect popular bio of a rocket scientist. Knowing Leo's peripitatic life style, I can only imagine the horrific amount of time and cunning it took the author to get his research. Few books I go back to more often, just for pure pleasure. And I met Leo when I was but a wee sprout. Please. Don't miss this one.



2. Leo Szilard's life is traced from his early childhood in Budapest, Hungary through his student days in Berlin; and the development of the first atomic reactor and bomb. Dealing openly with Szilard's ambitions, obsessions, and fears the book delves into the intriguing details of his intensely adventurous life. For example, the very day in 1933 Adolf Hitler became Chancellor, Szilard caught the last train out of Germany; saving his worldly possessions and himself from the hands of the Nazis. Szilard's pluck is revealed when in England, not having access to a laboratory, he borrows equipment and performs perhaps the first nuclear physics chain reaction experiments in his hotel room! Throughout the details of his evolving atomic theories and practical inventions is woven his love life. Because of his genius, vision, and high human values, Szilard is always regarded with suspicion; especially by the American military bureaucracy. Indeed, General Grove who oversees the United States atomic bomb project has it in for Szilard; and even tries to get him deported as an undesireable alien. This is the story of the man who not only ushered in atomic power into the 20th Century but maintained his individuality while doing so. A somewhat sad love story is woven through the fascinating history of Szilard's atomic power. Many classic photographs of Szilard at important and personal events accompany the very well organized text. Although not a literary masterpiece, this book is a biographical masterpiece and should be read by scholars and romantics alike



3. Anyone interested in Szilard, early 20th Century World History, the A-Bomb, or all of the above will find this book hard to put down. This biography is comprehensive, well-researched and properly kind to its subject. Dr. Szilard probably will never get enough credit for his genius and all his great ideas and achievements, but this book does him justice. He seems to come alive in this book, always several steps ahead of everyone else.

   American culture's emphasis on individualism often ignores the more collaborative contributions such as Dr. Szilard's. An original, he both created and collaborated, and this book tells his story.

   At times, I thought the author might have been over-stating some of Dr. Szilard's accompishments, but the story is otherwise well-done, and frankly, Dr. Szilard deserves a little promotion, so I didn't mind.




4. "Never destroy what you cannot create" was one of Leo Szliard's codes of conduct. Books about unsung heros' of the scientific age are almost like novels. Nevertheless, great men seem to rise above dry biography if they had some esoteric ways. We have all read stacks of magazines and books about Albert Einstein to probe into all the details of what made him tick (in relative time, of course). Leo Szliard was a mental gypsy from the old world who saw the new world before most of the other "famous" thinkers of the 20th Century even opened their eyes. A must read for a knowledge foundation in enjoying the lifestyles of the Wise and Unusual.

1 comments about Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Aerial Age.

1. Discount the "genius" factor, the elder brother, Wilbur Wright, argued. It was an aggregation of peculiar circumstances that led the two brothers to succeed where many predecessors had failed. The author describes those peculiar circumstances in lengthy details that could be summed up as follows:
   
   1- The religious, rigid, uncompromising father of two sons and a daughter had passed to them his character of steadfastness and distrust in the world around them. That isolated them from others. Their introversion contributed to their dedication to hard work. Hard work led to learning of new skills. Their introverted sister stayed unmarried until 52. Her income and strong dedication to her family supported the odd and bizarre experimentation of her two brothers. The feud of their father with the church led them to move and the two brothers failed to graduate from high school. Thus, they faced more hard work and despair.
   
   2- Starting a new business in printing local newspapers helped them in two ways. They followed the scientific progress of previous flight efforts by the German and French and mastered new mechanical skills on how to make machines work. A friend of the Wrights sneaks under a printer to figure out how it does the printing despite its mute existence, to no avail. The Wrights entrusted machines to do impossible tasks that defy common sense.
   
   3- Their failure in the printing business got them into the bicycle business. Here, they refined their mechanical skill further but learned a pivotal key to their future success. That is: control. Bicycles are the most complex machines that man has invented since they depend on the instinct of brain control in order to maintain equilibrium (balance). That control factor will give birth to the new age of flight.
   
   4- Their literary knowledge gained from printing, mechanical craftsmanship gained from designing bicycles and fixing printers, had coincided with the role of the Smithsonian Institute and a childhood's toy of a helicopter brought to them by their father. The death of a famous German glider few years earlier induced them to approach the Smithsonian Institute for information on flight machines.
   
   5- Living in rural Ohio in 1900 afforded them the space and time to aspire for a new dream to fame and wealth. The vast landscape and observation of nature sustained their curiosity and hope for attaining fame. They rose above their neighbors with their noisy and huge boxy flight machines, while their father had failed to rise above his adversaries in the local church.
   
   6- What set them different from others was the common sense of lay persons. The three dominant steps for attempting flying at those days were: obtaining power for propulsion using heavy steam engines, starting with small models of manned machines, and gliding. The Wright's common sense of mastering "control" first of all stemmed from their bicycle experience.
   
   7- They started with unmanned kites, worked on their aeronautic control and equilibrium when airborne, then manned the controllable glider, and finally added power to it. Progressively, they pushed for distance, airborne time, and altitude, until gained confidence in their ability to control take off, balance, and landing. Their contribution to the flight is founded on their demonstration that control of an airborne, heavier than air flying machine was within reach. (Haven't birds mastered that principle for millenniums?)
   
   8- In 1908, they were transformed from destitute common people into world figures welcomed by the monarchs of Italy, Britain, Spain, and Germany. In a photograph prior to flying over the Governor's Island in New York, Wilbur looked miserably depressed while three New York Policemen watched him gambling with his life. He realized the perils of being alone in a new age. With a suit, tie, and soft hat, approaching the age of 40, conquering the air alone with no substantial gain, frightened the elder brother. Yet, he died from typhoid fever shortly afterwards. He always felt that success and happiness had passed him by since his early years. In a Carnival to honor their achievement, Wilbur felt being used for advertisement gimmicks for the city. His depression stood in his way to rejoice his historic accomplishment.
   
   9- Their rigid upbringing, though aided them battle the painstaking experimentation with aeronautics; it hampered their ability to excel in the world of businessmen. Their patent did not offer them secure, affluent living and the fast pace technology had surpassed them sooner than they expected. They were born to serve the history and the only reward they got was honor. They lived and died in their father's home, unmarried to the end.
   
   
   Mohamed F. El-Hewie
   Author of
   Essentials of Weightlifting and Strength Training

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1 comments about J. D. Bernal: The Sage of Science.

1. .D.Bernal(1901-1972) was a genius level crystallographer who made original contributions to the study of protein structures in the early days of X-ray crystallography.The author portrays him as the first molecular biologist, although he was trained as a physicist. He worked at Birkbeck College and at the Royal Institution. He helped plan the D-Day landings in Normandy, and helped train proteges such as Dorothy Hodgkins and Helen McGaw.He served as an advisor to Lord Mountbatten in the far east. Unfortunately he was also an ardent communist and seemed to feel that scientific research was better organized in the USSR than in the west. He failed to condemn the Soviet liquidation of its geneticists or the biology of Lysenko.
   This in-depth biography contains many quotes from Bernal's extensive writings on subjects at the interface of science and politics.
   Not omitted are Bernal's many love affairs and open marriage.
   Many of the great figures of 20th century science come into this book, including Lord Rutherford(Bernal was one of two people Rutherford loathed),Francis Crick, Max Perutz( who was Bernal's student), John Kendrew ,"Solly" Zuckerman, William and Lawrence Bragg and Lord Cherwell
   ( the other person Rutherford loathed).
   The book will appeal most to the scientifically inclined, although there
   is nothing really technical to understand. Bernal came close to understanding the helical structure of DNA. Ironically Francis Crick wanted to work with Bernal, but was sent away by his secretary.
   The book started slowly, but became really interesting in the part about WW II as Bernal's career accelerated toward what seemed to be a crash
   over his communist ideas.We learn about the British plan(never realized) to construct a huge aircraft carrier out of ice reinforceed with wood pulp.
   Bernal was a true polymath, able to discuss diverse subjects such as art and architecure as well as science, and had the sort of mind that could comprehend and organize vast masses of data, making him valuable in tasks like assessing bomb damage during the Blitz.
   Overall, an absorbing interesting book.