Inspiring Books for Young Scientists #1 | Letters to a Young Scientist

"Inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, Edward O. Wilson has distilled sixty years of teaching into a book for students, young and old. Reflecting on his coming-of-age in the South as a Boy Scout and a lover of ants and butterflies, Wilson threads these twenty-one letters, each richly illustrated, with autobiographical anecdotes that illuminate his career--both his successes and his failures--and his motivations for becoming a biologist. At a time in human history when our survival is more than ever linked to our understanding of science, Wilson insists that success in the sciences does not depend on mathematical skill, but rather a passion for finding a problem and solving it. From the collapse of stars to the exploration of rain forests and the oceans' depths, Wilson instills a love of the innate creativity of science and a respect for the human being's modest place in the planet's ecosystem in his readers"

There's something really comforting about science. At least I think so. The fact that we can know the world we live in with depth is something awesome. I've always loved that feeling that comes with looking at the things that surround you and knowing them to the chore. Quite literally. Seeing the world in waves, in heat exchange, in molecules and atoms and stardust has a poetic, novel-like side. That's why I decide to become a doctor. Because I want to know what makes people up, and I want to fix them when they have health problems. 

I got my hands on this books just in the right moment. And I loved it to bits. These 21 letters are written by Edward O. Wilson, one of the most famous entomologist of the scientific world. He started as a child, chasing bugs with a butterfly net in his backyard and filled with child determination. And one day he became really interested in ants. Yep, ants. I wasn't very sure at first, because I didn't know what I was going to find inside this book. It turned out to be surprisingly fascinating. Wilson tells us all about his career, right from the beginning. He uses some of his discoveries as examples, and he doesn't hesitate to talk about his failures too. 

What really stuck with me of all the things he exposes in this book, is the fact that to be successful in your scientific career, you need determination and hard work. That's all. You don't need to be the new Einstein to get where you want to get. If you work with a fierce desire of being good at what you do, you'll be good. No, let me fix that. You'll be great. You can not let yourself be intimidated by the knowledge your peers have, because you have knowledge too. The fact that other people succeed doesn't mean you can't do it too. 

Another valuable advice is to get yourself surrounded by hard-working, passionate people. You'll see how others work, their creativity will enhance yours, and it will always be more fun and it will make the scientific experience 100% wrath it. But now I want to say that I'm not talking just about scientists, this is applicable to any field: art, literature, architecture, law, business... I don't know, name the profession and the only sure thing that I can tell you is that passion gets you anywhere. 

I'm really thankful for this book, because it made me remember that illusion I felt the first time I put on a white coat, the first time I got my hands on a human body (like, a cadaver) (yeah, yeah, this might sound strange for non-medical people but, what can I do, these things interest me!) or that memorable time we dissected a pig's heart in the high school's lab and I was like a child with a new toy while Al was trying not to throw up in the corner. 

This book is obviously directed to young students of biology, but it can be a little conductor of light for those moments in which spending hours glued to your chair doesn't feel worth it. So I urge every young biologist, chemist, physicist, doctor, nurse, geologist, pathologist... to go to the nearest bookshop, buy this book, and read it. And you'll learn incredible things about ants! 

I'm aware this is not a book for everyone. It talks a lot about the biochemistry of ant's organisms, and some people might find that boring. I thought I wouldn't enjoy it very much for this same reason, but in the end I found myself being really amused by the way ant's world works. Trust me, it's more fascinating than it seems. I swear. 

My first steps in the scientific world haven't been easy. But I'm sure they are leading me in the right way, and I'm starting to walk on with more strength every day. 

P.S: 5 points for those who spot the Sherlock reference. 

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What about you? Have you ever found one of those 

books who just made you see everything under a new light? 

Book Review: Intoxicated by my Illness | Anatole Broyard

  “The space between life and death is the parade ground of Romanticism. The threat of illness itself seems to sound a Romantic note- I’ve been feeling exalted since I heard the diagnosis. (…) All your life you think you have to hold back your craziness, but when you’re sick you can let it out in all its garish colors.” Anatole Broyard, Intoxicated by my Illness.

When I first heard a passage from this book, I felt completely drawn in. It had power. Our Communication in Medicine teacher classified it as “too good to be recommended”, and therefore as soon as I arrived home, I ordered it. And when I finally got my hands on it and I started devouring it, it shocked me. It was so tiny, and had such a powerful cover (I like the spanish cover better). But the thing is that what was awaiting me inside was huge and magical.

I started to read it with vivid passion. Nevertheless, I was enjoying it so much that I started to slow down, to turn back pages to re-read some passages (it seems like I do this a lot). It was amazing how many incredible ideas were to be found in those words.

I also realized that it was not an easy book. Not in the slightest. It talks about death and sickness with such sincerity, with nude honesty, that sometimes you want to cry. It’s hard. Really hard. It punches you in the solar plexus and takes all the air in your lungs. 

The author was a well-known literary critic and editor of The New York Times. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer, something of which he tells us about in here. And let me tell you, it’s terrific. He’s witty, charming, stylish, groundbreaking, critical, canny, sharp, sardonic. He’s on edge and he knows it. He feels expanded, he feels sick, he feels alive, he feels intoxicated by his situation and makes the most of it. He accomplishes that thing that every human wants to accomplish: "to be alive when they die". He races to the finish line with the whole weight of his life and sickness, of all the love and friendship he has, with his hate and his passion and his bargains and fears and forces and knowledge on his shoulders, and he breaks the finish line with vigour.

This book also contains one of his better-known short stories, What the cystoscope said, as well as other writings about how sickness is (or isn’t) treated in literature, how he thinks people should behave towards his illness, how he himself acts towards it, about which kind of doctor a patient wants, needs. And every word is brilliant. Absolutely radiant.

I won’t reveal much more, because this is one of those things that needs to be treasured, one of those books that the reader must own. But I would sincerely recommend this book to everyone, even thought as I said, is not an easy or safe reading. It’s like a fight. And it’s worth every single bruise.

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5 stars out of 5 

☆☆☆☆☆

And you? Have you read this book? 
Have you read something similar? What do you think? 

Book Review: Parle-leur de batailles, de rois et d'éléphants | Mathias Enard

It was some years ago that I found out about this book, thanks to a literature blog. I started reading it as soon as it was in my possession, but I left it aside just as quickly. Too complex, too strange, too poetic. That's what my teenage brain thought the first time I started reading this book.

Stupid brain. 

I was way too young when I came across this Michelangelo Buonarotti piece of biography, which takes a real fact as the starting point, and from there unravels what could have happened in a mysterious travel. It was the first time I got my hands on such a book, and I thought it would be boring. I wasn't educated enough by that time, I still have many things to learn, and therefore I found it exactly that: boring. 

Little I knew, just a year ago, that it would become one of my favorite books. Period. I decided to give it another go, and this time I just couldn't put it down. With 17 years, I had received classes on literature and I had learnt how to appreciate novels and books of any type in a more critic way than when I was a child. My taste was evolving and I was starting to get interested in Classics and more "serious" novels. I'm no Literature student, nor critic or expert, not per se (my degree has certainly nothing to do with literature, but that's something that should really change; that's a topic for another post, though), but I've been reading books since I acquired such a marvelous ability, and I haven't stopped since. I think this gives me at least a bit of knowledge and credit in this area. 

This story has stuck with me even thought it has less than 200 pages, but there's a jewel in each one. Every sentence is a treasure, I would say. 

It speaks about the travel Michelangelo did to Constantinople in answer to Sultan Beyazid's request in 1506. He leaves aside the construction of the tomb of Pope Julius II, known as "The Warrior Pope", because he's not paying Michelangelo for his work. He accepts the petition of building a bridge, the same petition his nemesis, DaVinci, couldn't accomplish. It is the perfect solution: defeating his worst enemy at the same time he says a big fuck you to Julius II. Trying to make this project into his life's masterpiece is just the icing on the cake. 

This book, even thought it's a piece of biography, even thought is a novel, is as beautiful as a book of poems. You can feel the dust of Constantinople in your clothes, you can feel the same rage that builds up in Michelangelo's chest when he gets frustrated with the progression of his work, you can feel all the love that is reflected in these pages, not just romantic love (which was something I didn't expect in this book, but didn't disappoint me because of its nature) but love for the act of creation. Michelangelo's an artist, an architect, a Renaissance man. He sees the world with different eyes and feels it with a brain that could explode with the beautifulness living inside it.  Behold not just Michelangelo's portrait, but Mesihi's too, one of the "most original among the early Ottoman poets". Certainly one of those characters you never want to let go. 

I read this book in a sitting. I couldn't get my eyes off it, and I turned pages back again and again to read every passage again and again. It was simply marvelous. It was art made into tiny black symbols on white paper, talking about art carved in stone and the man who made what was in his brain into such a thing. Enard has got my heart. 

I don't want to spoil much more, because this is one of those books that needs to be treasured. It has certainly wormed its way into my brain, and I still find myself with the urge of re-reading it once more every time my eyes land on its spine when I walk past my bookshelves... 

And maybe I always oblige my urges. 

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5 starts out of 5 

☆☆☆☆☆

And you? Have you read this book? 

Have you read something similar? What do you think?