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Book Reviews

Intuition
by Allegra Goodman
Dial Press Trade Paperback

Karl Popper once likened the scientist's condition to that of a blind man who enters a black room in search of a black hat that might not even be there. This grim and controversial image closely describes the unpredictable enterprise of individuals who venture into science. Ms. Goodman's book has the merit to detail this "truth" into the lives, passions, and all the human kind that comes with a research group striving for success and survival. Have you seen anything like that in your experience yet? The story thus unravels over the notoriously sincere effort of a bunch of post-docs, their expectations and ambitions, and mostly those of their PI's. Nothing of this should be new to the scientists that followed through graduate studies, apprenticeship, and the famously unattractive rat race. The book is slightly overdone when the accountability of spending taxpayers' money comes into the picture. But somehow it conveys the message that the ball remains in the scientists' hands, and with that, all the burden and limited success rate that come with it. This novel is simple yet very introspective, and the author has been quite good at detailing the life of the major characters involved in it. In some cases I myself thought I was there (for instance at some of the laboratory parties!). This is a meritorious effort that describes the scientist's pain in the times we live. It will be up to the lay people to grab its implications. To scientists, it will read as a nicely woven plot filled with deja vu's.

Review by ricciodimare
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