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Maszyna Genów. Wyścig do rozszyfrowania tajemnic rybosomu
Laureat Nagrody Nobla w dziedzinie chemii opowiada pasjonującą historię wyścigu do rozszyfrowania wewnętrznych mechanizmów najważniejszej cząsteczki organizmów żywych.
Każdy słyszał o DNA, jednak niewielu z nas wie, czym są rybosomy. To ogromne konstrukcje molekularne, biologiczne maszyny, bez których żadna żywa komórka nie może funkcjonować. Wiedza na temat rybosomów wykorzystywana jest m.in. w leczeniu śmiertelnych chorób. Badania w dziedzinie biologii molekularnej, których celem było zrozumienie struktury rybosomu i jego funkcji, są jednym z wątków opowieści. Drugi, wybitnie osobisty, obejmuje portrety naukowców jako zwykłych ludzi, motywowanych nie tylko pragnieniem poznania tajemnic przyrody, lecz także osobistymi aspiracjami.
Każdy słyszał o DNA, jednak niewielu z nas wie, czym są rybosomy. To ogromne konstrukcje molekularne, biologiczne maszyny, bez których żadna żywa komórka nie może funkcjonować. Wiedza na temat rybosomów wykorzystywana jest m.in. w leczeniu śmiertelnych chorób. Badania w dziedzinie biologii molekularnej, których celem było zrozumienie struktury rybosomu i jego funkcji, są jednym z wątków opowieści. Drugi, wybitnie osobisty, obejmuje portrety naukowców jako zwykłych ludzi, motywowanych nie tylko pragnieniem poznania tajemnic przyrody, lecz także osobistymi aspiracjami.
329 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 313 reviews
March 24, 2019
Reading this quite good book, caused me to realize how much we owe to James Watson, he of the famous "Watson and Crick" duo who became famous by discovering the structure of DNA.
But, not because of that. As Ramakrishnan tells so well in this book, once an idea is discoverable, whether the structure of DNA or electricity or radio or the internal combustion engine or even evolution by natural selection, there will be multiple people who will have the potential to discover it. If Watson and Crick had not discovered DNA's structure, Rosalind Franklin or Maurice Wilkins or Linus Pauling or someone else would have published an article doing so, not long after they in fact did. Ramakrishnan's target was the ribosome, that factory that actually uses the genetic code to assemble proteins, and he was most definitely in a race with others to figure out how it was made and how it functioned.
Also, not because he wrote an excellent book explaining how the structure of DNA came to be. Many scientists, before and after, have written essays or books about how they came to the ideas that made them famous. It's well worth reading, just for that, but that is not what was special about James Watson, and if he had not existed then whoever else took his place would likely have told the story somewhere, just as Ramakrishnan has told his story here.
No, the real debt we owe to James Watson is the part that would not have happened if someone else had taken his place, and that is the fact that "The Double Helix" is such a gossipy, snarky, utterly human tale. No other scientist before him, that I am aware of, wrote for popular consumption such an unabashedly human tale of how science actually gets done, full of rivalries and mistakes and emotional conflict and non-scientific concerns intruding into the lives of the people trying to figure out how the world works. But, once Watson had written his book, it appears to me that it made it more acceptable, expected even, that if a great scientist is going to tell their story, they should admit to all of the gossipy, political, emotional, irrational pushing and pulling that can both impede and occasionally propel them on their path to discovery. Ramakrishnan is not, I think, by nature the sort to do that, but he has given us a great tale here, and I think a great part of why is that Watson has made it acceptable to tell a story about science in a way that fills it with humans.
There are rivalries and disappointments and fears and exuberance in Ramakrishnan's tale, and he takes us through it with an excellent mix of science and oh-so-human scientists. There are other scientists on the hunt for the same prize he is, and despite his best efforts to be even-handed you can tell which ones got on his nerves the most. He is quite candid about the role that luck, politics, the "Matthew effect" (success brings you opportunities which brings success which brings...), and all the other things besides being talented, that allow a person to end up in Stockholm accepting a Nobel Prize. He discusses the quite problematic restriction that no more than 3 people can share a prize, and how utterly out of step this is with the way science gets done, often with hundreds and usually with dozens of people involved in an integral way with any truly important discovery.
In a way, that highlights the importance of books like these. The idea of the Scientist Discoverer, like Albert Einstein working nearly alone and figuring it out, is still the impression most people have about how science happens. It is as if we thought Elon Musk was designing and assembling the Tesla car himself, or that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were busy in their garage assembling every Macintosh computer ever sold. We know that the CEO whose face appears on the cover of the magazine is more the surfer perched atop the wave than the actual force propelling the surfboard forward, but with scientists one gets the impression this is not as well understood. Ramakrishnan manages to relate his tale in an enjoyable way, even to a reader like me who could not quite recall what it is that the ribosome was about before I started reading his book. Well done.
But, not because of that. As Ramakrishnan tells so well in this book, once an idea is discoverable, whether the structure of DNA or electricity or radio or the internal combustion engine or even evolution by natural selection, there will be multiple people who will have the potential to discover it. If Watson and Crick had not discovered DNA's structure, Rosalind Franklin or Maurice Wilkins or Linus Pauling or someone else would have published an article doing so, not long after they in fact did. Ramakrishnan's target was the ribosome, that factory that actually uses the genetic code to assemble proteins, and he was most definitely in a race with others to figure out how it was made and how it functioned.
Also, not because he wrote an excellent book explaining how the structure of DNA came to be. Many scientists, before and after, have written essays or books about how they came to the ideas that made them famous. It's well worth reading, just for that, but that is not what was special about James Watson, and if he had not existed then whoever else took his place would likely have told the story somewhere, just as Ramakrishnan has told his story here.
No, the real debt we owe to James Watson is the part that would not have happened if someone else had taken his place, and that is the fact that "The Double Helix" is such a gossipy, snarky, utterly human tale. No other scientist before him, that I am aware of, wrote for popular consumption such an unabashedly human tale of how science actually gets done, full of rivalries and mistakes and emotional conflict and non-scientific concerns intruding into the lives of the people trying to figure out how the world works. But, once Watson had written his book, it appears to me that it made it more acceptable, expected even, that if a great scientist is going to tell their story, they should admit to all of the gossipy, political, emotional, irrational pushing and pulling that can both impede and occasionally propel them on their path to discovery. Ramakrishnan is not, I think, by nature the sort to do that, but he has given us a great tale here, and I think a great part of why is that Watson has made it acceptable to tell a story about science in a way that fills it with humans.
There are rivalries and disappointments and fears and exuberance in Ramakrishnan's tale, and he takes us through it with an excellent mix of science and oh-so-human scientists. There are other scientists on the hunt for the same prize he is, and despite his best efforts to be even-handed you can tell which ones got on his nerves the most. He is quite candid about the role that luck, politics, the "Matthew effect" (success brings you opportunities which brings success which brings...), and all the other things besides being talented, that allow a person to end up in Stockholm accepting a Nobel Prize. He discusses the quite problematic restriction that no more than 3 people can share a prize, and how utterly out of step this is with the way science gets done, often with hundreds and usually with dozens of people involved in an integral way with any truly important discovery.
In a way, that highlights the importance of books like these. The idea of the Scientist Discoverer, like Albert Einstein working nearly alone and figuring it out, is still the impression most people have about how science happens. It is as if we thought Elon Musk was designing and assembling the Tesla car himself, or that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were busy in their garage assembling every Macintosh computer ever sold. We know that the CEO whose face appears on the cover of the magazine is more the surfer perched atop the wave than the actual force propelling the surfboard forward, but with scientists one gets the impression this is not as well understood. Ramakrishnan manages to relate his tale in an enjoyable way, even to a reader like me who could not quite recall what it is that the ribosome was about before I started reading his book. Well done.
February 16, 2019
I remember reading Craig Ventner's book about racing to sequence the human genome. It read like a novel. I couldn't look away as Ventner spilled all the secrets about his personal life as well as all the nasty, behind the scenes antics that arise when scientists compete. I remember thinking he seemed a bit bitter, but I didn't care because I wanted to know everything I could about this usually hidden side of scientific discovery. Ramakrishnan's book is very similar in that it allows the reader to witness the arguments, insecurities, and questionable tactics scientists engage in when trying to outdo each other.
This book was a little lighter on the science than I was expecting, which usually annoys me, but I didn't care. I loved every bit of this book, which recounted the harried race to discover the structure of the 30 subunit - and to a lesser extent, the 50 subunit structure. Ramakrishnan's journey through grad school to winning the Nobel was incredibly interesting, fraught with with fear of making the wrong decisions, the desire to follow his passions, the desire to not get caught up in pursuits of money or fame, the confusion about how to handle difficult colleagues, and more than anything else fraught with his angst over his own possible misunderstandings. He often jumped to conclusions that ended up being ill conceived. I loved how frank he was when self-reflecting. Most people tend to try to paint themselves in a better light. Of course, he did end up looking better than his rival Ada Yonath, who shared the Nobel with him. I should like to read her side of the story....
This book was a little lighter on the science than I was expecting, which usually annoys me, but I didn't care. I loved every bit of this book, which recounted the harried race to discover the structure of the 30 subunit - and to a lesser extent, the 50 subunit structure. Ramakrishnan's journey through grad school to winning the Nobel was incredibly interesting, fraught with with fear of making the wrong decisions, the desire to follow his passions, the desire to not get caught up in pursuits of money or fame, the confusion about how to handle difficult colleagues, and more than anything else fraught with his angst over his own possible misunderstandings. He often jumped to conclusions that ended up being ill conceived. I loved how frank he was when self-reflecting. Most people tend to try to paint themselves in a better light. Of course, he did end up looking better than his rival Ada Yonath, who shared the Nobel with him. I should like to read her side of the story....
July 7, 2020
This is 90% boring auto-biography and 10% interesting molecular biology. If nothing else, it's great to hear science straight from the scientist.
And the race to decipher the ribosome is quite interesting. It reminds me of the race to decode the human genome.
I just wish the author had gone into more detail on the whole ribosome. Instead, we get his perspective on the piece he worked on, and even then it's only doled out as relevant to the narrative of competitiveness, which I couldn't care less about.
And the race to decipher the ribosome is quite interesting. It reminds me of the race to decode the human genome.
I just wish the author had gone into more detail on the whole ribosome. Instead, we get his perspective on the piece he worked on, and even then it's only doled out as relevant to the narrative of competitiveness, which I couldn't care less about.
December 25, 2018
I seldom read biographies or memoirs. By me, the world is best understood by those who are not at the center of the story being told because a solipsism seeps through otherwise.
Within the story is the real nature of how science progresses with its messiness, competition and sometimes luck ('chance favors the prepared mind').
A wonderful quote from Blake 'the fool in his persistent folly becomes wise'. That quote is applicable for all of us who are thrown into this world without certainty and who want to know and understand. What often appears as folly to others can lead to a Noble Prize. All of us in our 'persistent folly' can seek our own meaning by our own search for wisdom.
For a memoir or biography to be meaningful to me, the author needs to remove the main character in such a way that the thought takes over. Issacson's biography of Einstein was such a book for me, and I seldom get that otherwise and therefore I stay away from this genre.
Within the story is the real nature of how science progresses with its messiness, competition and sometimes luck ('chance favors the prepared mind').
A wonderful quote from Blake 'the fool in his persistent folly becomes wise'. That quote is applicable for all of us who are thrown into this world without certainty and who want to know and understand. What often appears as folly to others can lead to a Noble Prize. All of us in our 'persistent folly' can seek our own meaning by our own search for wisdom.
For a memoir or biography to be meaningful to me, the author needs to remove the main character in such a way that the thought takes over. Issacson's biography of Einstein was such a book for me, and I seldom get that otherwise and therefore I stay away from this genre.
April 27, 2019
An amazing, honest and humbling look into the race to discover the structure of the 30 subunit and 50 subunit structure of the ribosome. Venki's journey from grad school to the foremost of science, his struggles in the cut-throat, competitive world of academia, frustration with troublesome colleagues are presented quite well here. A fast-paced read!
My Rating - 4.5/5
My Rating - 4.5/5
August 2, 2020
It is probably not the best scientist memoir I have read in terms of literary quality or philosophical depth, but it is one of the most honest description of a scientist’s life. It is this honesty that makes this a remarkable read, and the memory of it will stay with me for a very long time. Modern day science can be ruthlessly competitive, especially in the experimental domain. Venki Ramakrishnan describes his race to discover the structure and functionality of one of the most surprising molecular machine we know – the ribosome, that eventually got him the Nobel prize in Chemistry. He describes the excitement of this race, the fierce competition, and the occasional generosity that peeked through the rivalry and pettiness among scientists. Unlike many such books, he never tries to glorify the scientists as people singularly motivated by their quest, but rather as fallible human beings who are curious, but are also attracted by the lure of fame and success, and even a prize. He is acutely aware that all scientific breakthroughs happen when the time is right, and if one person does not do it then someone else will soon crack the same problem. He is also honest enough to admit that prizes are somewhat subjective, and for any award there are many others who are equally deserving, but gets ignored. Of course everyone says similar magnanimous things after winning a prize, but there is something genuine in his conviction that makes one believe that he really means it. It is so refreshing to hear a Nobel laureate say that he is not sage after all. It is all too common to see people expressing profound opinions on subjects they know very little about after they receive the Nobel prize.
In my life I was fortunate enough to know a few such incredibly successful scientists, with major prizes under their belt, including the Nobel prize. Most of them are incredible human beings – fiercely intelligent and well versed in a wide array of things. Two things that I found was common among all of them – they are exceptionally curious people, and they are all human beings like you and me, with the same human frailties. Venki Ramakrishnan seems to be like the rest of them, except he seems to be aware of his ordinariness.
November 13, 2018
A thoroughly sublime read. Dr. Venki's humility and honesty shines through in each chapter. His perseverance in his work despite failure and competition is a true testimony to the nature and spirit of science. Here are some of the quotes I highlighted while reading the book:
"But that wasn’t all. Over the course of a single night, Brian had located one protein after another, until he had located all seven previously known protein structures in the 30S maps. Actually, although he knew where it was, he had left S5 for me to place since he knew it was the first protein structure I had ever solved and had a particular affection for it. Placing a protein in the 30S subunit had been so exciting that Brian said it had been like eating crisps. Once he did the first one, he couldn’t stop."
"What Malvolio said in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night equally applies to Nobels: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them."
"Like Ditlev, the other Scandinavian I’ve had in the lab, she was intelligent, organized, pleasant, and cheerful and just generally well rounded. It made me wonder if Scandinavians are doing something right in the way they bring up their children, or whether taking them from dark Scandinavia and placing them farther south, even if only as far south as Cambridge, made them particularly cheerful and free of any Bergman-like angst."
"I was fed up with the politics of the ribosome, so I began my talk by being uncharacteristically blunt in my assessment of our 70S structure compared to the one from Harry’s lab published around the same time, by pointing out some of the differences. I also felt that going all the way back to our 30S structure, people had failed to appreciate how much our structures had been used not only to interpret biochemical data but also to correct other structures. To make a point of this, I suddenly showed a picture of an Ordnance Survey map of my village of Grantchester. I could feel the audience wondering what on earth this had to do with the ribosome. Perhaps they thought I had lost my mind. I went on to point out that the Ordnance Survey is thought to sprinkle a few spurious features in their maps so that if other map makers merely copied them rather than doing their own surveys, they would be found out. As scientists, I continued, we don’t deliberately introduce bogus features, but we do make mistakes. I added that by using a new detector we had recently collected much higher-resolution data, which allowed us to correct some mistakes in our original 30S structure, and sarcastically said that it was odd how those exact same mistakes had appeared in other people’s structures too."
"After the celebration, Vera and I walked my bicycle home in the rain."
"A contrite clarification partly mollified some but further infuriated others because I had said nationality was an accident of birth. Some Hindu nationalists had already been annoyed with me because they had learned from news reports that in the aftermath of the Gujarat riots in 2002, I had supported a scholarship to help poor Muslim girls, partly as a gesture from someone who was of Hindu ancestry and partly because the education of girls lifts society as a whole everywhere. Now they had further reason to think I was a traitor to their cause."
"When we have a clear goal in mind, we think we are struggling to reach a summit. But there is no summit. When we get there, we realize we have just climbed a foothill, and there is an endless series of mountains ahead still to be climbed."
"Of course, nobody had taken the slightest interest in honouring me in these ways during the many years after the key breakthroughs with the ribosome; without my having won the Nobel lottery, none of them would have given me a second thought - if they had thought of me at all. So there were really rewards of getting an award, and it reminded me of the line from Matthew 13:12: 'For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.'"
"So I don’t subscribe to the heroic narrative of science. Rather, some of us are fortunate enough to be the agents of important discoveries that would have been made anyway, sometimes not even that much later. But this cold analytical view does not sit well with our emotional selves. We humans tend to personify everything we touch. We give names to theories and theorems, discoveries, laboratories, even pieces of apparatus. Science becomes a play, with heroes and villains. So even if discoveries are inevitable, we recognize that it is individuals who make them happen, and we like to honour those who took that first leap into the unknown, to go just beyond what was thought to be possible. And when someone like Newton or Einstein sees much further than others, or Watson and Crick synthesize in one stroke the essential features of DNA that might have dribbled out in pieces, we tend to immortalize them."
"But that wasn’t all. Over the course of a single night, Brian had located one protein after another, until he had located all seven previously known protein structures in the 30S maps. Actually, although he knew where it was, he had left S5 for me to place since he knew it was the first protein structure I had ever solved and had a particular affection for it. Placing a protein in the 30S subunit had been so exciting that Brian said it had been like eating crisps. Once he did the first one, he couldn’t stop."
"What Malvolio said in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night equally applies to Nobels: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them."
"Like Ditlev, the other Scandinavian I’ve had in the lab, she was intelligent, organized, pleasant, and cheerful and just generally well rounded. It made me wonder if Scandinavians are doing something right in the way they bring up their children, or whether taking them from dark Scandinavia and placing them farther south, even if only as far south as Cambridge, made them particularly cheerful and free of any Bergman-like angst."
"I was fed up with the politics of the ribosome, so I began my talk by being uncharacteristically blunt in my assessment of our 70S structure compared to the one from Harry’s lab published around the same time, by pointing out some of the differences. I also felt that going all the way back to our 30S structure, people had failed to appreciate how much our structures had been used not only to interpret biochemical data but also to correct other structures. To make a point of this, I suddenly showed a picture of an Ordnance Survey map of my village of Grantchester. I could feel the audience wondering what on earth this had to do with the ribosome. Perhaps they thought I had lost my mind. I went on to point out that the Ordnance Survey is thought to sprinkle a few spurious features in their maps so that if other map makers merely copied them rather than doing their own surveys, they would be found out. As scientists, I continued, we don’t deliberately introduce bogus features, but we do make mistakes. I added that by using a new detector we had recently collected much higher-resolution data, which allowed us to correct some mistakes in our original 30S structure, and sarcastically said that it was odd how those exact same mistakes had appeared in other people’s structures too."
"After the celebration, Vera and I walked my bicycle home in the rain."
"A contrite clarification partly mollified some but further infuriated others because I had said nationality was an accident of birth. Some Hindu nationalists had already been annoyed with me because they had learned from news reports that in the aftermath of the Gujarat riots in 2002, I had supported a scholarship to help poor Muslim girls, partly as a gesture from someone who was of Hindu ancestry and partly because the education of girls lifts society as a whole everywhere. Now they had further reason to think I was a traitor to their cause."
"When we have a clear goal in mind, we think we are struggling to reach a summit. But there is no summit. When we get there, we realize we have just climbed a foothill, and there is an endless series of mountains ahead still to be climbed."
"Of course, nobody had taken the slightest interest in honouring me in these ways during the many years after the key breakthroughs with the ribosome; without my having won the Nobel lottery, none of them would have given me a second thought - if they had thought of me at all. So there were really rewards of getting an award, and it reminded me of the line from Matthew 13:12: 'For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.'"
"So I don’t subscribe to the heroic narrative of science. Rather, some of us are fortunate enough to be the agents of important discoveries that would have been made anyway, sometimes not even that much later. But this cold analytical view does not sit well with our emotional selves. We humans tend to personify everything we touch. We give names to theories and theorems, discoveries, laboratories, even pieces of apparatus. Science becomes a play, with heroes and villains. So even if discoveries are inevitable, we recognize that it is individuals who make them happen, and we like to honour those who took that first leap into the unknown, to go just beyond what was thought to be possible. And when someone like Newton or Einstein sees much further than others, or Watson and Crick synthesize in one stroke the essential features of DNA that might have dribbled out in pieces, we tend to immortalize them."
October 22, 2023
Gene Machine: The Race to Decipher the Secrets of the Ribosome by Venki Ramakrishnan is the standard post-Nobel memoir in some ways. It recounts his biography, his research, and his perspective on science writ large.
Ramakrishnan is an affable and deceptively driven figure. The brief glimpses into his personal life he allows are mostly self-effacing episodes. He strikes this chord so often it is hard to judge its authenticity. On his science, Ramakrishnan is voluble, especially embroiled in the competitive dynamics and attribution of credit - the horse race if you will. I imagine this was something his editors encouraged and was likely particularly vivid in his memory given its relevance to his career.
Interestingly, he seems to genuinely lament many of the incentives of prestigious scientific research and makes some magnanimous gestures to many former competitors. The most important aspect of this book is Ramakrishnan's high-level critique of scientific institution and the norms and procedures of research science. He even has some jabs for the Nobel prize itself.
The non-science content marginalizes the actual science in the work, which is unfortunate. Alternatively, structural biology is not particularly amenable to seamless science communication. It is one of the more technical and visual fields in biomedical research, where most of the techniques are drawn from physics and chemistry. Thus, it is a high-prestige field, which is why it is often a source of Nobel laureates, but it is not something science popularizers can readily wax eloquent about. Furthermore, Ramakrishnan doesn't work to get his audience invested in the idea that the ribosome is important and relevant to their lives. Its biological significance is mostly assumed by the text, but few general readers will be blown away by this. Ramakrishnan needed to translate the ribosome significance quite a bit more. He also shirked tying his work to particularly translational insights for human health. This is somewhat because this is beyond the focus of his work, but this also make Ramakrishnan appear a bit siloed.
Nonetheless, this was an interesting read. Covers a lot of classical structural biology (history, methods, accomplishments) that rarely commands the public's attention but is fundamental to many functional and translational findings that impact human health and our understanding of life.
Ramakrishnan is an affable and deceptively driven figure. The brief glimpses into his personal life he allows are mostly self-effacing episodes. He strikes this chord so often it is hard to judge its authenticity. On his science, Ramakrishnan is voluble, especially embroiled in the competitive dynamics and attribution of credit - the horse race if you will. I imagine this was something his editors encouraged and was likely particularly vivid in his memory given its relevance to his career.
Interestingly, he seems to genuinely lament many of the incentives of prestigious scientific research and makes some magnanimous gestures to many former competitors. The most important aspect of this book is Ramakrishnan's high-level critique of scientific institution and the norms and procedures of research science. He even has some jabs for the Nobel prize itself.
The non-science content marginalizes the actual science in the work, which is unfortunate. Alternatively, structural biology is not particularly amenable to seamless science communication. It is one of the more technical and visual fields in biomedical research, where most of the techniques are drawn from physics and chemistry. Thus, it is a high-prestige field, which is why it is often a source of Nobel laureates, but it is not something science popularizers can readily wax eloquent about. Furthermore, Ramakrishnan doesn't work to get his audience invested in the idea that the ribosome is important and relevant to their lives. Its biological significance is mostly assumed by the text, but few general readers will be blown away by this. Ramakrishnan needed to translate the ribosome significance quite a bit more. He also shirked tying his work to particularly translational insights for human health. This is somewhat because this is beyond the focus of his work, but this also make Ramakrishnan appear a bit siloed.
Nonetheless, this was an interesting read. Covers a lot of classical structural biology (history, methods, accomplishments) that rarely commands the public's attention but is fundamental to many functional and translational findings that impact human health and our understanding of life.
September 21, 2020
It was a great challenge to decipher the arrangament of the intricate ribosome molecule, integral to converting DNA into useful proteins in a cell. Here is a 3D map of a cell showing ribosomes as little red dots
https://arvr.google.com/scene-viewer?...
Here is a colourful image of a ribosome from the author's website:
https://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/group-...
Although there is just about that image in black and white on the title page, I missed it. It would have helped if the image on page 184 of 30S, a subunit of ribosome had been shown earlier to say "this is what was being sought to reveal." And then show (even obliquely what portion of the ribosome that was hidden in. It was not clear to me that 30S and 50S were separate components and also later on 70S.
It was an enormous accomplishment to work out the molecular structure and the book outlined the history of research and the author's involvement in acheiving the goal along with colleagues, for which a Nobel Prize was rewarded.
What raised this book to four stars for me was the mention of a possible other reason the third codon in DNA is usually redundant is the flexibilty it gives in toggling molecule parts. PreviouslyI had just latched onto the redundancy being protective of mutations, given most mutations occur at the third codon.
Also praiseworthy was his chapter on questioning the validty of Noble prizes. It would have been appropriate to mention Rosalind Franklin missing out for her work on DNA.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosal...
Here is a brief of description of ribosome that helps one appreciate its significance:
https://biologydictionary.net/ribosome/
https://arvr.google.com/scene-viewer?...
Here is a colourful image of a ribosome from the author's website:
https://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/group-...
Although there is just about that image in black and white on the title page, I missed it. It would have helped if the image on page 184 of 30S, a subunit of ribosome had been shown earlier to say "this is what was being sought to reveal." And then show (even obliquely what portion of the ribosome that was hidden in. It was not clear to me that 30S and 50S were separate components and also later on 70S.
It was an enormous accomplishment to work out the molecular structure and the book outlined the history of research and the author's involvement in acheiving the goal along with colleagues, for which a Nobel Prize was rewarded.
What raised this book to four stars for me was the mention of a possible other reason the third codon in DNA is usually redundant is the flexibilty it gives in toggling molecule parts. PreviouslyI had just latched onto the redundancy being protective of mutations, given most mutations occur at the third codon.
Also praiseworthy was his chapter on questioning the validty of Noble prizes. It would have been appropriate to mention Rosalind Franklin missing out for her work on DNA.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosal...
Here is a brief of description of ribosome that helps one appreciate its significance:
https://biologydictionary.net/ribosome/
February 6, 2022
Immersive and inspiring. A great read for a graduate student in life sciences and anyone who likes popular science.
It is a captivating story not only of one’s scientific career, which included a major change in research fields from physics to biology, but also of an intense scientific race. Reading this as a young scientist helps to realise that scientific problems are rarely solved by a single scientist: it is instead a collaborative effort of the scientific community. One can often find themselves intimidated by the possibility of getting “scooped” by another team in the field, but Gene Machine shows that although the competition may seem fierce, it is the desire to answer outstanding questions that drives progress and each scientific team towards their goal, and it is indeed the best and most productive way to approach science - through unconditional curiosity.
The author gracefully gives credit to as many people as he could although at times such an account becomes overwhelmingly too detailed.
The book ends with an update on the ribosome field in the post-Nobel prize era, the techniques, questions and new research teams driving the progress further.
It is a captivating story not only of one’s scientific career, which included a major change in research fields from physics to biology, but also of an intense scientific race. Reading this as a young scientist helps to realise that scientific problems are rarely solved by a single scientist: it is instead a collaborative effort of the scientific community. One can often find themselves intimidated by the possibility of getting “scooped” by another team in the field, but Gene Machine shows that although the competition may seem fierce, it is the desire to answer outstanding questions that drives progress and each scientific team towards their goal, and it is indeed the best and most productive way to approach science - through unconditional curiosity.
The author gracefully gives credit to as many people as he could although at times such an account becomes overwhelmingly too detailed.
The book ends with an update on the ribosome field in the post-Nobel prize era, the techniques, questions and new research teams driving the progress further.
August 1, 2021
Academecians are rockstars in their domain. For the rest of us, they can be as alien as a martian. This book was like watching one of the jawdropping visual effects sequence in a Chinese movie without subtitles.
Venki Ramakrishnan's landmark book on the race to identifiying the Rhibozome structure and understanding the protein creation and activation/deactivation mechanism is a mixed one. The journey could not be explained without understanding the science (physics, chemistry and philosophy!) and hence it doesn't shy away from making the reader aware of the intention. In one of the defining part so the book the author says to the effect 'people assume nobel prize winners are geniuses. Only a few of them are. The rest are just dedicated scientists who have given it they all' and that is the human element of it.
Take out the science part - it is a story of dedicated pursuit for truth and the reward at the end of the journey. There is a lot of human elements that make it a story and stories are all we have.
I read Feynman lectures with my basic understanding of science and the innate curiosity and hope that I would grasp something. That is the underlying assumption of science - that it is a matter of understanding and could be transferred. This is not such book for a non-field professional to feel good about understanding something not in their area. This is a book for scientists and people in the domain.
Venki Ramakrishnan's landmark book on the race to identifiying the Rhibozome structure and understanding the protein creation and activation/deactivation mechanism is a mixed one. The journey could not be explained without understanding the science (physics, chemistry and philosophy!) and hence it doesn't shy away from making the reader aware of the intention. In one of the defining part so the book the author says to the effect 'people assume nobel prize winners are geniuses. Only a few of them are. The rest are just dedicated scientists who have given it they all' and that is the human element of it.
Take out the science part - it is a story of dedicated pursuit for truth and the reward at the end of the journey. There is a lot of human elements that make it a story and stories are all we have.
I read Feynman lectures with my basic understanding of science and the innate curiosity and hope that I would grasp something. That is the underlying assumption of science - that it is a matter of understanding and could be transferred. This is not such book for a non-field professional to feel good about understanding something not in their area. This is a book for scientists and people in the domain.
March 4, 2021
It is beautifully written and reads like a detective novel. Not only Prof. Ramakrishnan introduces scientific terms, questions, and methods of solution in accessible language, he tries to portray the personalities involved in the research. While introducing a new character in the story, be it a new graduate student in his lab or a well-respected researcher in the field, he tries to say something about their personalities and interests outside the lab. While introducing a new post-doc, he uses something like "a curious mixture of sports jock and hopeless romantic moody fellow". I think what he was driving at is that doing science involves working with people who not only have complementary skills but different social/cultural backgrounds, and personal temperaments. Managing people is something scientists are not trained in, and it is one of the least talked about difficulties in doing a project where combined effort is essential. Some of the technical aspects are difficult to grasp at first reading, which I don't try to do. But one can always go back if interested in knowing a particular technique, such as why a trainee in one lab looked at a Patterson plot for the first time and said this is a correlation function. If you can save the technical aspects for a second reading, then it is a fast- paced detective novel.
February 27, 2019
An amazing awe inspiring journey of path-breaking discovery of RNA structure by the author leading RNA biologist. The story cites the persistence and hard-work of many researchers all over the world engaged in the race to uncover the mystery.The account starts with the author taking the life altering decision of taking part in the cut throat competition of finding the structure of gene machine.With progress in time, he acquired the requisite skill and gathered a group of ambitious researchers who worked relentlessly with him for the cause.Their path stricken with multiple risks,setbacks, wrong decisions,failures,politics and need of proper recognition is bound to strike a chord with every reader.
Loved the way author emphasized on keep doing core science without falling prey to the lure of big awards and fame that came along-with them.I would recommend the book to each and every science student and to reader who harbor a scientific attitude.
Loved the way author emphasized on keep doing core science without falling prey to the lure of big awards and fame that came along-with them.I would recommend the book to each and every science student and to reader who harbor a scientific attitude.
July 20, 2021
3.5
Less of a memoir, more of a textbook.
Less of a memoir, more of a textbook.
July 12, 2022
ribosome is the powerhouse of the cell
June 4, 2019
The author, Venkatraman ‘Venki’ Ramakrishnan is a Nobel Prize-winning biologist whose many scientific contributions include his work on the atomic structure of the ribosome. He was born in Chidambaram in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu.
The book is all about advance study of function of Ribosome and its Ribo Nucleic Acid (RNA). RNA holds the mystery of origination of life in the Earth. The author describes his journey from India to ultimately obtaining Nobel prize. The path was not easy. There was cut-throat competition, politics and nepotism too among scientists. Rat race does not spare even scientists.
The discovery of structure and function of two subunits of Ribosome for e.g. 30S and 50S have immense contribution in clinical field.
The book raised hope among many ordinary Indian students that even if one started from mundane position, however, can reach the sky by sheer determination and hard work.
The book is all about advance study of function of Ribosome and its Ribo Nucleic Acid (RNA). RNA holds the mystery of origination of life in the Earth. The author describes his journey from India to ultimately obtaining Nobel prize. The path was not easy. There was cut-throat competition, politics and nepotism too among scientists. Rat race does not spare even scientists.
The discovery of structure and function of two subunits of Ribosome for e.g. 30S and 50S have immense contribution in clinical field.
The book raised hope among many ordinary Indian students that even if one started from mundane position, however, can reach the sky by sheer determination and hard work.
September 28, 2022
Don’t be deterred by the three stars. It was an amazing book but the title was misleading as it didn’t even touch on the making of genes but instead was focused on the genetic flow of information by deciphering the atomic structure of the subunits of the ribosome and the breaking and forming of peptide bonds of different RNAs through X-ray crystallography. Super cool but nothing compared to The Code Breaker and Jennifer Doudna’s race😤 anyway that’s my rant for the night
August 19, 2022
Enjoyed reading the path to unraveling the structure of ribosomes, the scientific passion, the human ego and more.
December 26, 2018
An inside look at how an outsider rose to the “pinnacle” of science: winning the Nobel Prize in 2009, along win Ada Yonath and Tom Steitz, for contributions to understanding the structure and function of the ribosome. Venkatraman (“Venki”) Ramakrishnan was trained as a physicist but fell in love with biology as a PhD student. This book reads as Venki’s memoir. The book contains approachable descriptions of myriad scientific techniques, primarily in X-ray crystallography, that eventually enabled the author and fellow Nobel winners to succeed at what was considered crazy for the first decades of his career: solving the atomic structure of the ribosome. These descriptions help the reader grasp the incredible persistence involved in pursuing ribosome structural studies until quite recently, when advances in electron microscopy have vastly expedited progress in the field. The book describes the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of working on this vexing problem from the author’s point of view, with due credit to his mentors, lab members, and numerous collaborators who enabled the successful story. The personal stories, scientific storytelling, and colorful personalities made the book an enjoyable, fast read. The author describes his experience of moving from pursuit of an interesting scientific question with fairly open collaboration (at least on the receiving end!), to growing increasingly nervous and closed-off to potential competition. It struck me not so much as the story of the ribosome, but as an honest description of the evolution of a scientist and a scientific field, the allure of fame and fortune, and a behind-the-scenes look at what is actually involved in receiving such a prestigious prize as the Nobel.
October 23, 2018
Excellent memoir/history of science but technical in parts
I loved this book. Author Venki Ramakrishnan tells a great story about his work on the ribosome, the part of the cell that reads the genetic code and translates it into proteins. He describes in detail the techniques used and the results. This is perhaps one weakness of the book, as Ramakrishnan used the very complex technique x-ray crystallography. I didn’t understand much of the finer details but I did understand enough to get the broad brushstrokes. To me, this isn’t a big deal, because it isn’t a huge part of the book. The book is the author’s memoir, and his stories about his family and personal life, studies, and travels are fascinating. Equally fascinating were the stories about competition in science and basically how science works. The book is well paced and Ramakrishnan held my attention from page to page, except for the occasional too-technical pages. Ultimately, Ramakrishnan’s work won the Nobel Prize but he is honest in the analysis and criticism of the process. This book is well worth reading for anyone interested in the history of science.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.
I loved this book. Author Venki Ramakrishnan tells a great story about his work on the ribosome, the part of the cell that reads the genetic code and translates it into proteins. He describes in detail the techniques used and the results. This is perhaps one weakness of the book, as Ramakrishnan used the very complex technique x-ray crystallography. I didn’t understand much of the finer details but I did understand enough to get the broad brushstrokes. To me, this isn’t a big deal, because it isn’t a huge part of the book. The book is the author’s memoir, and his stories about his family and personal life, studies, and travels are fascinating. Equally fascinating were the stories about competition in science and basically how science works. The book is well paced and Ramakrishnan held my attention from page to page, except for the occasional too-technical pages. Ultimately, Ramakrishnan’s work won the Nobel Prize but he is honest in the analysis and criticism of the process. This book is well worth reading for anyone interested in the history of science.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.
December 28, 2019
An interesting account of a life in science. I can’t say that I know a whole lot more about ribosomes, but something must’ve sunk in somewhere.
There was sure lots of information about ribosomes and RNA and DNA and how to crystallize them using the fascinating discipline of crystallography in order to gradually learn their structures at the atomic level. It seemed to me that he spent years working on this only to find new technology coming along that would’ve cut it down to a few hours. Well, at least he got a Nobel Prize. There was lots of stuff about relationships within the scientific community, scientific prizes, politics, and rivalries between scientists and labs. People are people in every discipline.
I loved when he won the Nobel and his wife said she thought they gave that the smart people. Apparently, behind every great man is a surprised woman.
The account, overall, was a little on the dry side but a worthwhile read nonetheless
There was sure lots of information about ribosomes and RNA and DNA and how to crystallize them using the fascinating discipline of crystallography in order to gradually learn their structures at the atomic level. It seemed to me that he spent years working on this only to find new technology coming along that would’ve cut it down to a few hours. Well, at least he got a Nobel Prize. There was lots of stuff about relationships within the scientific community, scientific prizes, politics, and rivalries between scientists and labs. People are people in every discipline.
I loved when he won the Nobel and his wife said she thought they gave that the smart people. Apparently, behind every great man is a surprised woman.
The account, overall, was a little on the dry side but a worthwhile read nonetheless
July 7, 2019
Scientists are naturally averse to being too cavalier with their opinions - but Ramakrishnan is much like James Watson, he is an exception to the rule.
He’s very candid about what he sees as the key steps taken to determine the overall structure of the ribosome, the four stroke piston engine of life.
It was a very enjoyable read, but I found myself having to stop and take a lot more time to allow the physics of X-Ray Crystallography to sink in (but this may be down to my lack of a physics background).
He’s very candid about what he sees as the key steps taken to determine the overall structure of the ribosome, the four stroke piston engine of life.
It was a very enjoyable read, but I found myself having to stop and take a lot more time to allow the physics of X-Ray Crystallography to sink in (but this may be down to my lack of a physics background).
May 16, 2019
Sometimes, the simplest questions are the most difficult to answer. One such is that of how many Indians have won the Nobel Prize so far. The figure can be as high as twelve, if you count Ronald Ross, Rudyard Kipling, Dalai Lama, V S Naipaul and Mother Teresa. Some or of Indian origin, or been born in India or left India too early in their career. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan was a graduate of Physics from Baroda but immediately migrated to the US for further studies. He won the Nobel in Chemistry in 2009 for ribosome research along with two others. Ramakrishnan’s research strengthened our understanding of the fundamental processes of life and provided a clue to the evolution of modern species of life. This book is a combination of popular science and an autobiography with a seamless blending of the two. His life is devoted to research and learning.
We know that our genetic material is locked up in a structure called DNA inside the nucleus of each of our cells. Apart from heredity, these contain recipes for building proteins which are essential for life. Insulin, adrenaline and albumin are all proteins required to sustain the organism. What makes these proteins inside a cell is a molecular gene-machine called ribosome. This machine reads the component list from data derived from the DNA and assembles the protein using amino acids just like a production line. The critical nature of the process need not be emphasized further, as the animal will soon be dead if the pathways are somehow clogged. Virtually every molecule in every cell in every form of life is either made by the ribosome or made by enzymes that are themselves made by ribosomes. Discovery of ribosomes and its role in making protein is the culmination of one of the great triumphs in modern biology. This was by no means easy as the ribosome is not a simple molecule like DNA. It was enormous and complex. The attempt to decipher it was taken up by Crick and Watson, who found the structure of DNA but was abandoned in despair.
Ramakrishnan was attracted to ribosomes by an article in the magazine Scientific American. He knew practically nothing of biology which he made up through courses studied part-time. Thus we have a physicist who studied the structure of a crucial biological unit being awarded with a Nobel in chemistry! He attempted to solve the ribosome structure first by neutron scattering which was eventually proved ineffective but was well understood by people with a physics background. The author dwells at length on the step by step progress in revealing the structure and the race with other scientists doing similar work, but this is not in a form that can be easily digested by ordinary readers. I found it extremely tedious especially after reading Siddhartha Mukherjee’s great book ‘The Gene - An Intimate History’ a few weeks before. Of course, you cannot expect such lucidity from a Nobel laureate, but the pertinent fact is that almost all of the readers are not Nobel laureates themselves. It is only during the autobiographical passages that the book becomes even slightly interesting.
Study of ribosomes is important in learning how medicines cure us of diseases. Some antibiotics work by blocking the protein creation function of bacterial ribosomes. This is done by binding to a vulnerable location in its structure. Since bacterial and human ribosomes are very different, humans will not be adversely affected by the mechanism of its action. This study also casts light on the dark alleyways of early evolution. Building blocks of RNA can be made from simple chemicals that could have been around in the earth billions of years ago. It may be possible that life emerged with lots of randomly made RNA molecules until some of them could reproduce entirely by themselves. RNA could also preserve heredity between generations.
This book presents some valid advice to novices in scientific research. The author asks them not to be hesitant to ask questions, however basic it might be. He justifies it by claiming that no question is too stupid to ask if you want to know the answer. It is also a bare necessity for present-day researchers to belong to the top-line institutes and laboratories. Advanced science has now become a team effort transcending national frontiers and continental boundaries. The members of the theoretical and testing facilities should be known to each other, otherwise it would be difficult to obtain and manage precious time allocated for using sophisticated machines.
The author makes a short but pointed criticism of the Nobel award conventions. There is a ‘Rule of Three’ in force. This means that the award, if shared, shall not be divided into more than three parts. This criterion is claimed to be impractical now. When the prize started in 1901, scientists worked in relative isolation and met only once every few years. By the time they announced their results, there was no question of who had discovered what. In the current world, an idea quickly spreads and a lot of people contribute to it in various measures and capacities. And it is not always clear whether the original idea or a later contribution was the truly ground breaking advance. It is a difficult task to select three people from a crowd of somewhat equal contributors without causing resentment or heartburn.
Ramakrishnan left India very early and harbours no soft spots in his mind for the mother country. Ignorant of his real feelings, thousands of naïve Indians sent congratulatory emails to him upon winning the Nobel. This clogged his inbox and they received a curt reminder that ‘nationality was an accident of birth’ and by corollary, he does not attach much importance to it. This is a clear case of brain drain.
The narrative about the role and secrets of ribosomes is disappointingly matter-of-fact. The author has failed to share the awe he might have felt in revealing the heretofore hidden details. The scientist’s idea of a paper for publishing in a journal is too far away from an ordinary reader’s preference of what is interesting. The book is a veritable Who’s Who of the rapidly growing field of structural biology in general and ribosomes in particular. The author has had a great collaboration with like-minded scholars from across the globe. There are many photographs of co-workers and even rivals. The illustrations given as part of the description are not at all helpful. Relevance has not been a parameter for inclusion as we even see a conceptual diagram of a four-stroke internal combustion engine as part of the narrative.
The book is recommended only to serious readers.
We know that our genetic material is locked up in a structure called DNA inside the nucleus of each of our cells. Apart from heredity, these contain recipes for building proteins which are essential for life. Insulin, adrenaline and albumin are all proteins required to sustain the organism. What makes these proteins inside a cell is a molecular gene-machine called ribosome. This machine reads the component list from data derived from the DNA and assembles the protein using amino acids just like a production line. The critical nature of the process need not be emphasized further, as the animal will soon be dead if the pathways are somehow clogged. Virtually every molecule in every cell in every form of life is either made by the ribosome or made by enzymes that are themselves made by ribosomes. Discovery of ribosomes and its role in making protein is the culmination of one of the great triumphs in modern biology. This was by no means easy as the ribosome is not a simple molecule like DNA. It was enormous and complex. The attempt to decipher it was taken up by Crick and Watson, who found the structure of DNA but was abandoned in despair.
Ramakrishnan was attracted to ribosomes by an article in the magazine Scientific American. He knew practically nothing of biology which he made up through courses studied part-time. Thus we have a physicist who studied the structure of a crucial biological unit being awarded with a Nobel in chemistry! He attempted to solve the ribosome structure first by neutron scattering which was eventually proved ineffective but was well understood by people with a physics background. The author dwells at length on the step by step progress in revealing the structure and the race with other scientists doing similar work, but this is not in a form that can be easily digested by ordinary readers. I found it extremely tedious especially after reading Siddhartha Mukherjee’s great book ‘The Gene - An Intimate History’ a few weeks before. Of course, you cannot expect such lucidity from a Nobel laureate, but the pertinent fact is that almost all of the readers are not Nobel laureates themselves. It is only during the autobiographical passages that the book becomes even slightly interesting.
Study of ribosomes is important in learning how medicines cure us of diseases. Some antibiotics work by blocking the protein creation function of bacterial ribosomes. This is done by binding to a vulnerable location in its structure. Since bacterial and human ribosomes are very different, humans will not be adversely affected by the mechanism of its action. This study also casts light on the dark alleyways of early evolution. Building blocks of RNA can be made from simple chemicals that could have been around in the earth billions of years ago. It may be possible that life emerged with lots of randomly made RNA molecules until some of them could reproduce entirely by themselves. RNA could also preserve heredity between generations.
This book presents some valid advice to novices in scientific research. The author asks them not to be hesitant to ask questions, however basic it might be. He justifies it by claiming that no question is too stupid to ask if you want to know the answer. It is also a bare necessity for present-day researchers to belong to the top-line institutes and laboratories. Advanced science has now become a team effort transcending national frontiers and continental boundaries. The members of the theoretical and testing facilities should be known to each other, otherwise it would be difficult to obtain and manage precious time allocated for using sophisticated machines.
The author makes a short but pointed criticism of the Nobel award conventions. There is a ‘Rule of Three’ in force. This means that the award, if shared, shall not be divided into more than three parts. This criterion is claimed to be impractical now. When the prize started in 1901, scientists worked in relative isolation and met only once every few years. By the time they announced their results, there was no question of who had discovered what. In the current world, an idea quickly spreads and a lot of people contribute to it in various measures and capacities. And it is not always clear whether the original idea or a later contribution was the truly ground breaking advance. It is a difficult task to select three people from a crowd of somewhat equal contributors without causing resentment or heartburn.
Ramakrishnan left India very early and harbours no soft spots in his mind for the mother country. Ignorant of his real feelings, thousands of naïve Indians sent congratulatory emails to him upon winning the Nobel. This clogged his inbox and they received a curt reminder that ‘nationality was an accident of birth’ and by corollary, he does not attach much importance to it. This is a clear case of brain drain.
The narrative about the role and secrets of ribosomes is disappointingly matter-of-fact. The author has failed to share the awe he might have felt in revealing the heretofore hidden details. The scientist’s idea of a paper for publishing in a journal is too far away from an ordinary reader’s preference of what is interesting. The book is a veritable Who’s Who of the rapidly growing field of structural biology in general and ribosomes in particular. The author has had a great collaboration with like-minded scholars from across the globe. There are many photographs of co-workers and even rivals. The illustrations given as part of the description are not at all helpful. Relevance has not been a parameter for inclusion as we even see a conceptual diagram of a four-stroke internal combustion engine as part of the narrative.
The book is recommended only to serious readers.
May 25, 2022
A part-memoir, part-educational account of the race to solve the ribosome structure, culminating in the grandest of victories.
The one thing that I can confidently say after reading this book, is that Dr. Ramakrishnan does not mince words. It was a highly personal view of his involvement in the field of structural biology, complete with bitter comments and sardonic jokes against his competitors, praise and attributions towards his students and friends, his constant worries and fear of being a nobody or a has-been in the field, and most importantly, of what it means to follow a goal or an ambition. As a science student myself, reading about a Nobel prize winner starting off his book by talking about how he had no clue what he had to do after his graduate studies and essentially stumbling from one path to another, was perhaps the most uplifting thing I have read till now.
The actual science part, which is how exactly the ribosome structure was solved and the machines and technology used was a bit high-brow, which is embarrassing since it's one of my core subjects in University as well. The "race" by itself was exciting to read, regardless of the fact that most of the technical jargon wasn't easy enough to follow.
The one thing that I can confidently say after reading this book, is that Dr. Ramakrishnan does not mince words. It was a highly personal view of his involvement in the field of structural biology, complete with bitter comments and sardonic jokes against his competitors, praise and attributions towards his students and friends, his constant worries and fear of being a nobody or a has-been in the field, and most importantly, of what it means to follow a goal or an ambition. As a science student myself, reading about a Nobel prize winner starting off his book by talking about how he had no clue what he had to do after his graduate studies and essentially stumbling from one path to another, was perhaps the most uplifting thing I have read till now.
The actual science part, which is how exactly the ribosome structure was solved and the machines and technology used was a bit high-brow, which is embarrassing since it's one of my core subjects in University as well. The "race" by itself was exciting to read, regardless of the fact that most of the technical jargon wasn't easy enough to follow.
April 10, 2023
A very well-written biography about the race to determine the first atomic ribosome structures, and how Venki Ramakrishnan ultimately received the Nobel Prize for it (among others), despite being a 'late-comer' to the race and despite the field being actually pioneered by others, such as Ada Yonath. What stood out to me was Ramakrishnan's clear-cut way of explaining technical problems without much unnecessary detail. Additionally, he came across as very humble, making it clear on several pages that Nobel Prize winners are usually just lucky:
'So I don’t subscribe to the heroic narrative of science. Rather, some of us are fortunate enough to be the agents of important discoveries that would have been made anyway, sometimes not even that much later.'
Ramakrishnan never bragged about his abilities and always spoke very respectfully of his fellow scientists. However, some chapters did feel a bit long-stretched, particularly when mentioning many of his graduate students and postdocs throughout the years and then referring to them by their first name, which might confuse some readers.
Overall, I found the book to be a great read, with some valuable insights on how to increase your chances of winning the Nobel Prize yourself.
'So I don’t subscribe to the heroic narrative of science. Rather, some of us are fortunate enough to be the agents of important discoveries that would have been made anyway, sometimes not even that much later.'
Ramakrishnan never bragged about his abilities and always spoke very respectfully of his fellow scientists. However, some chapters did feel a bit long-stretched, particularly when mentioning many of his graduate students and postdocs throughout the years and then referring to them by their first name, which might confuse some readers.
Overall, I found the book to be a great read, with some valuable insights on how to increase your chances of winning the Nobel Prize yourself.
January 10, 2020
This book is more important for what it stands for in addition to the scientific content. It's not just another nonfiction, but packs knowledge with the author's wisdom that he has gathered throughout his unconventional career... He describes challenges and difficulties that scientists face in this era.
I'd recommend this more for motivation and inspiration although the author gives a very detailed insight into Ribosomes.
For a more detailed scientific book, also written in a very nice prose, would be The Gene: An Intimate History by the Pulitzer Prize winning author Siddhartha Mukherjee.
I'd recommend this more for motivation and inspiration although the author gives a very detailed insight into Ribosomes.
For a more detailed scientific book, also written in a very nice prose, would be The Gene: An Intimate History by the Pulitzer Prize winning author Siddhartha Mukherjee.
February 19, 2019
This book is a Nobel Laureate’s equivalent of Usain Bolt’s 100m sprint. It has similar dopamine kick, but sustained for decades.
Usually, building prequel to such science stories is very challenging. Venki manages it brilliantly- he both tells his personal experience around the story and describes in layman’s-term the concrete science behind. One good thing about such story telling is, the reader can nail the story to a parallel experience from his/her life in general.
Once Venki begins explaining the race to solve the problem that brought him Nobel, it is hard to keep the book down. Especially, since Venki describes the background and strengths of all the four competing groups in such fine details that it is difficult to route for one group as favorites.
Personally, I analyzed that Venki had three things working for him in his path for Nobel. 1. He made some really good decisions, sometimes completely outside the box. 2. He had excellent team- from his lab’s director to his students and they worked relentlessly. 3. He was at the right place at right time.
I personally think there are things in Venki’s story that makes him less of an ideal. One such instance is his reaction towards India after he wins the Nobel. Also, I did not find any of his students go on to do outstanding work. He could have added more of his personal emotions and insights as well.
I also could not help but to compare the value of Nobel now a days to that during say Einstein’s for example. This is because, Venki explains that now there is a new technology that could do Venki’s decades of work that brought him Nobel just in a week.
Usually, building prequel to such science stories is very challenging. Venki manages it brilliantly- he both tells his personal experience around the story and describes in layman’s-term the concrete science behind. One good thing about such story telling is, the reader can nail the story to a parallel experience from his/her life in general.
Once Venki begins explaining the race to solve the problem that brought him Nobel, it is hard to keep the book down. Especially, since Venki describes the background and strengths of all the four competing groups in such fine details that it is difficult to route for one group as favorites.
Personally, I analyzed that Venki had three things working for him in his path for Nobel. 1. He made some really good decisions, sometimes completely outside the box. 2. He had excellent team- from his lab’s director to his students and they worked relentlessly. 3. He was at the right place at right time.
I personally think there are things in Venki’s story that makes him less of an ideal. One such instance is his reaction towards India after he wins the Nobel. Also, I did not find any of his students go on to do outstanding work. He could have added more of his personal emotions and insights as well.
I also could not help but to compare the value of Nobel now a days to that during say Einstein’s for example. This is because, Venki explains that now there is a new technology that could do Venki’s decades of work that brought him Nobel just in a week.
April 24, 2019
You need to hang on to it in the beginning, when it starts to get boring with a lot of names and (for me) uninteresting stuff that seems to go nowhere.
But then you kind of connect to the issues the author has. As a science student, I for one, never really figured out which field of chemistry to indulge myself into going back and forth on quantum and organic.
The author inspires by writing the account of not falling into “oscar” traps of the science world and taking risks, experimenting with the unknown.
Truly a Nobel laureate’s work.
But then you kind of connect to the issues the author has. As a science student, I for one, never really figured out which field of chemistry to indulge myself into going back and forth on quantum and organic.
The author inspires by writing the account of not falling into “oscar” traps of the science world and taking risks, experimenting with the unknown.
Truly a Nobel laureate’s work.
March 12, 2023
What I liked about this book was that the author expressed his feelings throughout. A lot of people would write about their experiences and themselves as though they were not afraid or anxious.
It’s a good feeling when a scientist is speaking, pretty much pitching, his research to the Nobel committee and expresses he was a nervous wreck backstage. Brought home to me as a young aspiring researcher that no matter how much experience you may have nerves about speaking tend to linger with every presentation.
The addition of little ‘mis-haps’ and awkward encounters, like accidentally standing on the Swiss princesses dress tail and her flicking it out from under him, bring home that we are never perfect; even when your a Nobel laureate you still have awkward moments.
It’s a good feeling when a scientist is speaking, pretty much pitching, his research to the Nobel committee and expresses he was a nervous wreck backstage. Brought home to me as a young aspiring researcher that no matter how much experience you may have nerves about speaking tend to linger with every presentation.
The addition of little ‘mis-haps’ and awkward encounters, like accidentally standing on the Swiss princesses dress tail and her flicking it out from under him, bring home that we are never perfect; even when your a Nobel laureate you still have awkward moments.
June 11, 2023
Great read, both for scientists and non-scientists. Gives a personal view point on how someone goes to win a Nobel Prize, the hardship, the teamwork, stress, and the excitement!
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