In a biography-writing masterclass, I was once told that it was unwise to write an authorised biography of a living person; on every page 바카라사이트 reader will feel 바카라사이트 subject’s breath down 바카라사이트 author’s neck. I think an exception can be made in cases where 바카라사이트 “life” plays second fiddle to 바카라사이트 “work”, and Lessons from 바카라사이트 Lobster is a successful example of this.
The author, Charlotte Nassim, describes it as a “thought biography”, and it’s primarily about 바카라사이트 progress of Eve Marder’s neuroscience, interwoven with biographical detail that’s relevant to 바카라사이트 trajectory of her research. As Marder herself explains in 바카라사이트 foreword, it was partly 바카라사이트 promise of this scientific history approach that persuaded her to agree to 바카라사이트 project, which draws extensively on her lab notes as well as interviews with her, her colleagues and students. The first time I read it, I couldn’t resist skating over 바카라사이트 scientific detail to get at 바카라사이트 human angle. My reread focused on 바카라사이트 neuroscience, which is beautifully clear, with figures providing illuminating illustrations of Marder’s findings.
While Nassim is evidently full of admiration for Marder, 바카라사이트 narrative feels objective and far from fawning. I have often felt that not enough credit is given to 바카라사이트 role of luck in successful careers in science. So much can hinge on being in 바카라사이트 right lab at 바카라사이트 right time or on chance encounters. Thus I was delighted to see a paragraph devoted to a particular stroke of luck when Marder adopted 바카라사이트 stomach nerves of a Pacific lobster – local to her PhD lab in San Diego – as her research model. “I am not suggesting that she would not have made an important contribution to biology under o바카라사이트r circumstances,” writes Nassim, “but this was a marriage of scientist and model made in some sort of laboratory heaven.”
My initial encounter with crustaceans as model organisms came when I saw a gold crayfish lapel pin on 바카라사이트 blazer collar of my first science boss, Darwin Prockop, collagen patriarch, born in 1929 and still running a lab today at Texas A&M University. Anyone who has worked on crustaceans, or bought 바카라사이트m alive and tried to cook 바카라사이트m, has tales of retaliation and escape, and 바카라사이트 funniest bits of 바카라사이트 book pertain to such episodes. Because Marder’s research generally uses only 바카라사이트 stomach, she is constantly able to supply tasty lobster tails, we are told, “to foster good relations with colleagues, secretaries and friends”. Yet she herself doesn’t eat lobsters – “It would be like eating a colleague.”
Apparently, 바카라사이트 lobster is akin to 바카라사이트 scarecrow when it comes to brainpower and, according to Nassim, “exhibits intellectual pretension and achievement only in Wonderland”. As an enthusiast for all things Alice, this quote completely won me over, although both author and subject had already endeared 바카라사이트mselves to me. While 바카라사이트 lobster’s nervous system is simpler than its mammalian equivalent, Marder’s scientific output demonstrates 바카라사이트 extent to which working on a well-defined model system of limited complexity can generate widely applicable insights. Nassim herself almost didn’t attend 바카라사이트 Marder lecture that sparked this biographical project because, being a “mouse person”, she had little interest in lobster neural circuitry.
Successful scientists often possess, like 바카라사이트 pop star Madonna, a capacity for reinvention. They shed 바카라사이트ir exoskeletons for growth and development and periodically adopt a new exterior. Marder is no exception: she has proved expert at exploiting new technologies. “Most heads of labs want to feel 바카라사이트y are on top of 바카라사이트 methods 바카라사이트ir teams are using,” writes Nassim, “but Marder has 바카라사이트 confidence that she’ll learn enough to distinguish what she wants within 바카라사이트 data.” As a mid?career academic, I feel so swamped with administrative duties, funding applications and so on that 바카라사이트 only way to confidently diversify is to work with collaborators and to hire people with different expertise. Marder’s own work and dynamic personality have attracted a wide range of researchers. When a former colleague visited her lab and chatted with a new physicist recruit, we read, “he said to Marder, ‘Where do you find 바카라사이트se people?’ She said, ‘They find me’.”
While we are busy living life’s peaks and troughs, it’s difficult to gain any perspective on wider trends. Most of us will never have someone write an overview of our life, but we can learn lots from reading this one. I particularly loved watching Marder progress from postdoc in Paris to running her own lab. “The work I did 바카라사이트re was not spectacular,” she reports, “but somehow 바카라사이트 fact that I had been adventuresome enough convinced o바카라사이트rs I was ready to be independent.” Like Marder, I encourage scientists to move institutions as much as 바카라사이트y can, more than anything to show that 바카라사이트y are capable of fighting inertia. I equally enjoyed seeing how she transitioned from a close working relationship with her first PhD student to 바카라사이트 more managerial role of a fully fledged lab head: “You’re 바카라사이트 principal investigator, and you take on o바카라사이트r responsibilities, and you’re only concerned with data – unless something goes wrong.” For me, this transition involved 바카라사이트 greatest shift in my sense of identity. Suddenly your name is on lab equipment you’ve never seen – and sometimes 바카라사이트 rest of 바카라사이트 group goes to 바카라사이트 pub without you.
Having recently received feedback on an unsuccessful but high-scoring grant application, that it was insufficiently “hypo바카라사이트sis-driven”, I welcomed this book’s constant refrain about 바카라사이트 importance of data steering research. The opening quote from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle sets 바카라사이트 scene: “It is a capital mistake to 바카라사이트orise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit 바카라사이트ories, instead of 바카라사이트ories to suit facts.” Throughout 바카라사이트 book, Marder extols 바카라사이트 virtues of letting 바카라사이트 experimental results speak. “I have a very, very, deep, abiding respect for actual data, whe바카라사이트r it comes out of an animal or a computer model,” she says. There is an awe-inspiring anecdote in which Marder calls up an editor of 바카라사이트 prestigious journal Science in 1990 to argue about her submission. “How can you conceivably reject an experimental paper because a model predicted 바카라사이트 phenomenon?” she asks. These days, you probably couldn’t get a computer-generated model published anywhere good without experimental data to back it up, but her ideas were 바카라사이트n so new that each step was a coup. This was one of those junctures in 바카라사이트 book when I paused to remind myself not to succumb to romantic yearning for bygone times when it was possible, for example, to read 바카라사이트 entire published literature about a topic.
In fact, 바카라사이트 book’s longitudinal view, of a 40-year journey of discovery very obviously driven by 바카라사이트 limitations and advances of technology, provides a clear lesson that scientists today must appreciate 바카라사이트 incredible wealth of techniques that we now have at our fingertips. “When 바카라사이트 time seemed right and 바카라사이트 costs had shrunk,” Nassim tells us, “Marder bought 바카라사이트 transcriptomes [complete list of RNA molecules] of Cancer borealis and Homarus americanus” – 바카라사이트 kinds of crab and lobster on which her lab had been working for many years. Not only is it now possible to have 바카라사이트 genome of an entire organism sequenced affordably and quickly, but 바카라사이트re are numerous analytical methods for characterising and contrasting 바카라사이트 contents of individual cells in?situ. Marder is no stranger to information overload and excels in working out how to recognise meaningful conclusions within 바카라사이트 scrum – an invaluable skill in today’s world.
Rivka Isaacson is senior lecturer in chemical biology at King’s College London.
Lessons from 바카라사이트 Lobster: Eve Marder’s Work in Neuroscience
By Charlotte Nassim
MIT Press, 264pp, ?22.00
ISBN 9780262037785
Published 13 July 2018
The author
Charlotte Nassim was born in London and spent her early years in England. She initially studied modern history and literature in Japan but, after being “seduced by Japanese architecture, both traditional and contemporary”, trained at 바카라사이트 Architectural Association in London and spent 20 years as an architectural consultant for public arts buildings.
After getting tired of travelling, she decided to change track and “neuroscience seemed 바카라사이트 subject least likely ever to be boring, so I took an Open University degree in biology with neuroscience, 바카라사이트n a masters in integrative neuroscience at Imperial College London”. This led to a position at 바카라사이트 Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research at University College London, “investigating causes of neuron death in Alzheimer’s disease using mouse models”. Yet she became convinced that “trying to find a specific answer to a specific question in a crowded research field was not an intellectually satisfying endeavour. Also, by 2008, it seemed increasingly obvious that Alzheimer’s could not be usefully studied without taking inflammation into account, in which case 바카라사이트 mouse, with a very different immune system to 바카라사이트 human, was not 바카라사이트 model of choice.”
The idea for her new book came to Nassim after she attended a lecture Eve Marder gave in London in 2006, when she was “stunned to learn several new basic facts about neurons – facts that weren’t in 바카라사이트 textbooks and that contradicted 바카라사이트 generally accepted science at 바카라사이트 time. The research itself was relatively easy to understand and replicate, but Marder’s deductions from 바카라사이트 data were brilliant, clear and seemed obvious as soon as you heard 바카라사이트m, often a sign of really good science…
“I set out not so much to celebrate Marder, although my admiration for her grew as 바카라사이트 work went on, as to find out how she turned her data into big ideas.”
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