Jeff's View: on Science and Scientists

Jeff's View: on Science and Scientists

Publisher: Elsevier Science
Number Of Pages: 128
Publication Date: 2005-12-02
Sales Rank: 1391764
ISBN / ASIN: 044452133X
EAN: 9780444521330
Binding: Hardcover
Manufacturer: Elsevier Science
Studio: Elsevier Science
Average Rating: 5

Jeffs Views provide witty, insightful, and thought-provoking looks into the life of a modern scientist. From starting off to letting go, Gottfried (Jeff) Schatz leads us through the trials and triumphs of scientific life. With his tongue firmly in his cheek, and his humour always intact, the Austrian essayist leads us through the confusing and seemingly insurmountable hill that is the career path of European scientists. In addition to giving useful insights into how to get funding, give seminars, and still find time to make that leading edge scientific discovery, Jeff explores the philosophical dimensions of recent biological breakthroughs such as the sequencing of the human genome, the evolution of sensory receptors, and cellular suicide.

Gottfried Schatz is one of the worlds leading scientists in the field of bioenergetics and mitochondria biology. Born in a small Austrian village, he started his scientific career at the University of Graz, and ended it as President of the Swiss Science and Technology Council. With stints as a violinist in Austrian opera houses, professorships in the USA and Switzerland, and numerous prestigious awards along the way, Jeff is a true European, whose unique, and often controversial, viewpoints are appreciated by scientists and politicians alike.

These essays look at science from a very personal angle often critical, sometimes sad, but always with excitement, wonder, and admiration. It is hoped that they will make you look at science with a slightly different view.

*Witty, insightful, and thought-provoking looks into life of a modern scientist
*Provides useful insights on how to get funding, give seminars, and still find time to make that scientific discovery
*Explores recent breakthroughs in science: genome sequencing, sensory receptor evolution, and cellular suicide

Review:

Short non scientific review

How refreshing....a collection of humorous essays for everyone to enjoy.. but, if you happen to be a scientist or a budding scientist, this litle gem should be mandatory reading

Review:

Mitochondria

Jeff's view comes in seventeen short chapters, which originally had appeared as columns in: Federation of European Biochemical Socie-ties Letter as. Seven chapters present a lively written and easy-to-read overview over the principal features of the chemistry inside cells. To this field Schatz contributed significantly, particularly to the elucida-tion of the inner workings of mitochondria, for which he is a world-renowned expert. The style appeals to the non-expert with serious interests in the life sciences. Unusual angles are opened up: for in-stance, do you know that the specific power, i. e. watts per kilogram bodymass, released by a human thanks to the mitochondria is 10,000 times higher than that of the sun? The other ten chapters deal critically with the organization, policies and politics of academia, especially with the relationships, mostly financial, between universities and research institutes on the one side and governments, including the supranational institutions of the European Union, on the other. With a life-long engagement in the academic world of the U.S.A. and Europe and as science advisor to governments he gained the experience and knowledge not only for analytically criticizing the present situation but also for offering suggestions for improvements. One can only wish that many persons in positions from where changes can be initiated will read the book. The subtitle of the book suggests that scientists are portrayed. Fortunately, only scientists as a breed are characterized with humor and a little bit of irony; names are not dropped nor anec-todes related. I read the book in two consecutive evenings, which fact attests to its quality.

Review:

What is science really like?

During the past few years Gottfried Schatz ("Jeff") has written a series of articles about science and scientists in FEBS Letters, a specialist publication for biochemists. These have been very popular, but have inevitably reached only a small part of their potential audience, as most of the articles are relevant to all kinds of scientists, not just biochemists. It would be optimistic to expect the book to be read by many non-scientists; nonetheless, it would be a good thing if it were, because it has much to say about how real science is practised by real scientists, as opposed to the caricatures that one can find in the popular press.

There is a small amount of scientific information in the book -- for example about colour vision or about how cells protect themselves from oxygen -- but in general it is more about how science is practised, and the political aspects of that, than about science as such. As a European, Schatz is particularly concerned about why European science has not been able to match the spectacular success of American science in the past half-century, despite large investment. There are many reasons for this, of course, but one of them is certainly the much greater degree of interference of non-scientists in deciding the directions that science should take, rewarding willingness to pursue the aims of politicians and managers rather than rewarding success. One of the results of this, as he points out, is that whereas Assistant Professors in the US know what they need to do in order to succeed in their careers, their European equivalents find themselves swimming in a bureaucratic sea with no clear directions to follow, and few rewards in sight for success. A symptom of this is the obsession of managers with the "impact factors" of the journals where people publish their work. Rather than assessing the actual quality of the work, they prefer to put their faith in a crude number that they delude themselves into thinking provides the same information.

Many of the points that Schatz makes are not particularly new, but he writes well in an engaging style. As a former President of the Swiss Science and Technology Council, among numerous other activities at a high level, including a very successful career as a research scientist, he also writes with considerable authority; he is someone who knows very well what he is talking about.

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