Life in Science

This book is a collection of stories, reflections and advice written by proficient scientists. They address the question of what doing science means to them, and describe attitudes and working practices that have proved effective and rewarding. The book is aimed in particular at young people who are attracted by science or already undertaking undergraduate studies, and who are considering making science their long-term profession. It will also be helpful and revealing to early-career scientists who are searching for their own best route to success. The book serves as a platform for experienced scientists to describe their original inclination, how that subjective disposition found its expression in their way of doing science, whether their expectations were met, and what achievements they can claim. But it is not restricted to success: contributors also share details of the limitations and failures they have encountered. Last but not least they describe how they see science now, howthey think it will be in the near future, and what advice they would give to the their much younger colleagues. Readers will appreciate the diversity of the individual paths shaped by different education, motivation, ambition, inclination, intuition, feeling, belief and eligibility. At the same time the stories confirm that science relies on a translation of this subjective level into an objective level, one that is shared and accepted by the international scientific community, and whose results are produced with a commonly accepted and fully rational scientific method of investigation.

Diego Breviario worked for 40 years in the field of molecular genetics applied to yeast, humans and plants. His work took him to the National Institute of Health USA; North Carolina State University USA, and the Italian National Research Council. He has been scientific leaders of more than 30 projects, with more than 100 international  publications to his name. He has been one the editorial board of  the  journals : GENES, Transgenic Research, and PLOS ONE. Received awards from Ciba-Geigy, Academia dei Lincei-Rotary, National Institutes of Health USA. He has also authored three novels on science, published in Italian. Diego has also prepared texts for educational videos in the English and Italian language. As an inventor he appears on three released patent applications, one national and two European. He has served as advisor for the EU and for national and international Universities. Major expertise : genetics, genomics, cell biology. Major area of interest : agrifood.

Jack Tuszynski is Professor of biophysics at the Department of Physics, University of Alberta and Professore Ordinario in biomedical engineering at the Politecnico di Torinoin Turin, Italy. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Calgary. From 1983 to 1987 he was a faculty member at the Department of Physics of the Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s. Between 2005 and 2020 he held the prestigious Allard Chair in Oncology at the Cross Cancer Institute. He held visiting professorship in China, Germany, France, Israel, Denmark, Belgium and Switzerland. He is on the editorial board of almost 30 international journals including the Journal of Biological Physics. He is an Associate Editor of The Frontiers Collection, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg.