IF ANYONE still believes that a career in academia is a passport to indolence
at the taxpayer鈥檚 expense, then here鈥檚 a book to set the record straight. Or at
least, half a book. For Jonathan Slack鈥檚 Egg and Ego (Springer-Verlag,
$24.95, ISBN 0387985603) reads like two quite separate books joined at
the hip.
Book one skips through the fascinating, complex and increasingly trendy world
of developmental biology (the egg of the title). This is Slack鈥檚 own research
field, and his obvious enthusiasm shines through. Sadly, so does the jargon.
No matter. Remove the scrambled egg, and you are left with a lucid account of
the day-to-day nature of academic science. Tellingly, science itself takes
something of a back seat to academe. Slack highlights bureaucracy and politics,
snobbery and egomania, and the hopes and disappointments that characterise life
in university science.
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Although Slack writes engagingly about his own career, and those of his
colleagues, more flesh on the bones of his motivations and opinions might have
made this book great rather than good. For a book about egos, it is
disappointing to find the author unforthcoming about his own. But to be fair,
the book鈥檚 aim is to inform young and aspiring scientists about the nitty-gritty
that lies ahead. In this respect, it does an admirable job.
So if you want to learn about developmental biology, look elsewhere. But if
you want to pursue a career in academic research, read, digest and be prepared.