Science Book Club discussion

This is our book discussion for March 2019.

I received this book for Christmas and read it in January. I work in this field so it was very interesting for me to read the background on events I am familiar with and stories about people I know! I am always cautious about dry, science books and I think Venki had a nice tone with his writing. I am curious to hear what others think about it, since I have a more personal interest in the author and subject. I can also try to answer any questions people have about the science too!

I am enjoying the book so far ! I like the style of writing, The book is not too complicated to follow but a person in the field would be able to appreciate the twists and turns in it much better I think.

What I could not get, I googled ! :)

However, if you have some good links (for general audience type) on the subject - they would be welcome.

Nothing comes to mind immediately but I’ll see what I can find!

Overall I quite liked the book. The author's candor, writing style and the sense of being caught up in the race was enjoyable.

The book also brings to mind how much science is an interplay of the hard work of multiple people and technology.

The irony that today getting the ribosome structure would take about a week or two - from start to finish is not lost on me !

Had never heard of microRNAs till I read this book.

It does take longer than a few weeks to determine a structure, but do to all the past work and improved technologies it can take significantly less time than the author struggled with. There are many projects out there that still require this struggle and people just as dedicated to committing the effort to figuring it all out. There are so many moving parts to a scientific experiment that for each one to work perfectly the first time rarely happens. A common adage is if every experiment worked the first time, it would only take 6 months to earn a PhD instead of 6 years. I think that is overly simplified, especially since you gain a lot more than experimental success during those years, but it does illustrate the level of dedication required to deal with failure and successfully see a project through.

The field has benefited immensely from advances in computing and specifically from the developments in speed and graphics for gaming and machine learning. Sometimes all things come together at the right time, including those seemingly outside of that specific scientific field.

Collaboration is a necessary part of science and the author did a great job of illustrating how imperative it is and how difficult it can be to award prizes to a limited number of scientists for a larger field of study. While the world may perceive the Nobels as the highest award for scientists, these awards can only recognize one very specific field a year and so much more revolutionary work exists. Many other prizes are awarded but they all fail to honor everyone who played an important role due to the highly collaborative nature of experimental science. I appreciated how Venki addressed this through the book.

I agree. The collaboration aspect was brought out very nicely.

We have a similar adage in the software world - 'If it worked the first time you wrote and ran it - you probably did not write it or you have missed something completely !' Obviously the programs need a lot of testing before they can be considered done. However we do learn a lot when we make mistakes in the process.

Yes awarding individual prizes are difficult and he mentioned the integrity of the Nobel awarding team which makes it a coveted prize.

20 years from now we may see what the zeitgeist of these technologies coming together has brought into the world ! :)