Life in Science: Stories, Opinions and Advice for a New Generation of Scientists

326 Pages·2023·5.253 MB·English

by  Diego Breviario, Jack A. Tuszynski

Diego Breviario
Jack A. Tuszynski Editors
Life in
Science
Stories, Opinions
and Advice for
a New Generation
of Scientists
Life in Science
·
Diego Breviario Jack A. Tuszynski
Editors
Life in Science
Stories, Opinions and Advice for a New
Generation of Scientists
Editors
Diego Breviario Jack A. Tuszynski
CNR—Institute of Agricultural Biology Department of Physics
and Biotechnology University of Alberta
Milan, Italy Edmonton, AB, Canada
Politecnico di Torino
Turin, Italy
ISBN 978-3-031-23716-4 ISBN 978-3-031-23717-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23717-1
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2023
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Preface
This book is intended to serve as an honest and clear manifesto in support of the
profession of scientist. Being a scientist is one of the most stimulating, gratifying
and important positions in modern society. Today, this is clear more than ever because
our societies depend for their survival and prosperity on scientific knowledge and
related technical developments. Almost any aspect of our present-day life: health,
travel, communication, energy supply, etc. is based on scientific achievements and
technological innovation. Scientists are actively acquiring new knowledge and trans-
forming it into new applications for the benefit of humankind, the maintainance of
high standards of living and the protection of our environment from degradation.
New major challenges have recently emerged, such as the depletion of natural and
genetic resources, the damage produced by pollution and climate change, the need
for an adequate food supply across the planet and the development of new sources
of energy from renewable resources.
All of these challenges call for a new generation of scientist to engage both their
minds and hearts in order to take seriously the privilege and the responsibility of
finding new creative solutions for the future. We believe that it will be helpful in this
quest to follow in the footsteps of senior scientists. In fact, knowledge and experience
must be passed down from generation to generation to ensure continued progress and
to avoid repeating old mistakes. This, in fact, is the primary purpose of the book.
Twenty-two experienced and accomplished scientists who have worked success-
fully in a variety of fields have accepted the invitation to share their personal
stories. They write about their lives in science and provide thoughts and reflections
replete with sage advice for their younger colleagues. They have made many candid
comments on their scientific interests, their vocation and enthusiasm for knowledge
creation. As evidenced in the book, science is a vast and bountiful undertaking that
can be explored and experienced from many different vantage points, from a theo-
retical level to the management of technical facilities. Accordingly, all authors used
their personal styles, from the autobiographical to the philosophical, to describe
their experiences and reflections. Although largely aimed at future and early-career
scientists, the book also contains fascinating details about individual scientists and
v
vi Preface
the scientific environment that will be of interest to the general public, high school
students and scholars alike.
We increasingly felt a need for this type of book within the vast scientific literature
and thought it was about time to produce it. This is especially true now that, due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, science has forcibly entered into all households through the
media. However, science has not always been presented properly or understandably
to the general public, leading to false interpretations and even conspiracy myths. In
contrast, each essay in this book is a message of hope and commitment to a revitalized
world confidently relying on continuing advances in science and their translation into
beneficial technological innovations.
Milan, Italy Diego Breviario
Edmonton, Canada/Turin, Italy Jack A. Tuszynski
Contents
My Life Under the Star of Biology .................................. 1
Yaroslav Blume
What Really Matters is not just Knowing “What”, “Where”
and “When” but also Knowing “How” ............................... 19
Gloria Bordogna
Science is an Extraordinary Opportunity for Personal Growth ......... 33
Diego Breviario
A Greased Pizza Paper Changed My Life ............................ 49
Piergiuseppe De Berardinis
Gene-Rations ..................................................... 59
Roberto Defez
A Scientist Dreams, Ambitions and Realities ......................... 75
Khidir W. Hilu
Uncommon Science and Common Sense: Shall the Twain Ever
Meet? ............................................................ 89
Ajay Kohli
Finding My Purpose in Life: Science as a Path for Self-discovery ....... 111
Eric Lam
A Biologist by Chance and Necessity ................................ 129
Patrizia Lavia
An Unexpected Journey: From Experimentalist to the Human
Developmental Biology Resource .................................... 143
Susan Lindsay
A Scientific Path to Global Citizenship .............................. 157
Fiorella Lo Schiavo
vii
viii Contents
Chemistry or Biology: That Is the Question .......................... 167
Enzo Martegani
Living is Searching ................................................ 177
Peter Nick
More is Better Than One: The Strength of Interdisciplinarity .......... 223
Alfonsina Ramundo Orlando
Wondering Why: Limitless Curiosity ................................ 233
Sara Patterson
From Molecular Biology to Science Diplomacy: A Long
and Winding Road ................................................ 243
Giuditta Perozzi
The Funny Story of an Unpredictable Molecular Biologist ............. 253
Paolo Plevani
Finding My Path, Trusting My Voice ................................ 263
Natasha Raikhel
A Kaleidoscope of Colours and an Unexpected Journey ............... 277
Giuliana Rubbia
Biased Random Walks on the Scientific Landscape ................... 287
Jack A. Tuszynski
Finding My Way Through the Nuclear Landscape .................... 297
Enrico Vigezzi
The Curious Job of Trying to Look at Things as They Are ............. 311
Alessandro Vitale
Editors and Contributors
About the Editors
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 scien-
tific leaders of more than 30 projects, with more than
100 international publications to his name. He has
been on the editorial board of the journals: GENES,
Transgenic Research and PLOS ONE. He has 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 Euro-
pean. He has served as an advisor for the EU and for
national and international universities. Major expertise:
genetics, genomics, cell biology. Major area of interest:
agrifood.
ix
x EditorsandContributors
Jack A. Tuszynski is Professor of biophysics at the
Department of Physics, University of Alberta, and
Professore Ordinario in biomedical engineering at the
Politecnico di Torino in 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 Newfound-
land in St. John’s. Between 2005 and 2020, he held
the prestigious Allard Chair in Oncology at the Cross
Cancer Institute. He held the 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 Biolog-
ical Physics. He is Associate Editor of The Frontiers
Collection, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg.
Contributors
Yaroslav Blume Institute of Food Biotechnology and Genomics, National
Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine
Gloria Bordogna Institute for the Electromagnetic sensing of the Environment,
CNR IREA, Milano, Italy
Diego Breviario lstituto Biologia e Biotecnologia Agraria, IBBA-CNR, Milano,
Italy
Piergiuseppe De Berardinis Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Napoli,
Italy
Roberto Defez Italian National Academy of Agriculture, Napoli, Italy
Khidir W. Hilu Department of Biological Sciences; Inter-department of Genetics,
Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University, Blacksburg, VA, USA
Ajay Kohli International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Los Baños, Philippines
Eric Lam Department of Plant Biology, Rutgers, the State University of New
Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
Patrizia Lavia Institute of Molecular Biology and Pathology, CNR National
Research Council of Italy, Rome, Italy
Susan Lindsay Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
Fiorella Lo Schiavo Department of Biology, University of Padua, Padova, Italy