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Santiago Ramón y Cajal
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Advice for a Young Investigator (Mit Press) Paperback – February 27, 2004

by Santiago Ramon Y Cajal (Author), Neely Swanson (Translator), Larry W. Swanson (Translator)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 178 ratings
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An anecdotal guide for the perplexed new investigator as well as a refreshing resource for the old pro, covering everything from valuable personality traits for an investigator to social factors conducive to scientific work.

Santiago Ramón y Cajal was a mythic figure in science. Hailed as the father of modern anatomy and neurobiology, he was largely responsible for the modern conception of the brain. His groundbreaking works were New Ideas on the Structure of the Nervous System and Histology of the Nervous System in Man and Vertebrates. In addition to leaving a legacy of unparalleled scientific research, Cajal sought to educate the novice scientist about how science was done and how he thought it should be done. This recently rediscovered classic, first published in 1897, is an anecdotal guide for the perplexed new investigator as well as a refreshing resource for the old pro.

Cajal was a pragmatist, aware of the pitfalls of being too idealistic—and he had a sense of humor, particularly evident in his diagnoses of various stereotypes of eccentric scientists. The book covers everything from valuable personality traits for an investigator to social factors conducive to scientific work.

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  1. Print length
    150 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Bradford Books
  4. Publication date
    February 27, 2004
  5. Grade level
    12 and up
  6. Reading age
    18 years and up
  7. Dimensions
    7.9 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
  8. ISBN-10
    0262681501
  9. ISBN-13
    978-0262681506
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

""In my own view, some advice about what should be known, about what technical education should be acquired, about the intense motivation needed to succeed, and about the carelessness and inclination toward bias that must be avoided is far more useful than all the rules and warnings of theoretical logic."

About the Author

Neely Swanson is a scholar of romance languages.

Larry W. Swanson is Senior Member of the Salk Institute, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego, and Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bradford Books; 1st edition (February 27, 2004)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 150 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0262681501
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0262681506
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
  • Grade level ‏ : ‎ 12 and up
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.2 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 178 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
178 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Jonathan D. Lettvin
5.0 out of 5 stars Critically valuable for those overlooked by peer review
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2006
Verified Purchase
Modern scientific publishers unduly constrain modern observers. Much like the growing gulf between rich and poor, the gulf between the peer reviewed and the independent investigator is widening. Peers can usually accept incremental improvements on what is already accepted, and their role is to maintain those views. However, their own reputations may be at stake if a true paradigm shift is found that weakens the foundation on which their decades of work has been founded. So peers frequently block progress at great expense to the scientific community.

Some bridge this gulf by making their own money and then breaking the rules, like Jeff Hawkins or Mike Lazaridis. Such men can write books or start their own schools, using money to prevent the dismissal that they might otherwise suffer.

But others, with less money, must travel a perilous path with the potential of instant and permanent dismissal when they make wrong guesses, en-route to a breakthrough. For these observers, there is no clear path to "legitimacy", regardless of any talent they may have.

Cajal is a remarkable guide to those who labor alone. His "Advice" is precisely what is needed to avoid most of the mistakes that lead to dismissal. He is both respectful towards predecessors and insistent that the work of all predecessors is to be passed.

Although this book is often criticized for "quaintness" or being "Cajal-centric", I believe that it is more important now than when it was written, and, like Shakespeare, rewards those who can tolerate the differences of language and circumstances that must be accepted to understand it. It is nowhere near as distant as Shakespeare in this regard.

I thank the Swanson and Swanson team for their excellent light and explained editing of this book, and of Cajal's two volume "Histology", leaving Cajal's meaning as untouched by modern theory as possible.
30 people found this helpful
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Phillip Pearl
5.0 out of 5 stars Cajal was a master of research methodology, this book is written by the master.
Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2023
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Advice for all investigators, young and more seasoned, in all disciplines.
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Weihao L.
4.0 out of 5 stars not kind of advice that my advisor will give me
Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2005
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I am a graduate student (not in biology-ralated field) looking for general advice from this book. To my surprise much of Cajal's advice is still applicable not just today but in different disciplines. However, this is not a run-of-the-mill advice book for graduate students, and definitely not kind of advice my advisor will give me. Cajal is very passionate about doing science, and he doesn't hesitate to point out (sometimes very harshly) what he thinks the wrong ways of doing science.

It's expected that part of books are dated (remember it's first releasesd in 1897), but should not deter interested readers from reading it. Sometimes Cajal made comments upon which any readers today will frown, like "A woman [...] is in different to all work related to change and progress". But don't call Cajal a sexist, and don't interpret his work in the value system of the 21st century. Cajal is so enthusiastic about science that few other things matter to him. Anyone can easily feel and understand his commitment to science after reading few pages of the book.
26 people found this helpful
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TV
5.0 out of 5 stars A must for neuoscientist
Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2022
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Got this for my boyfriend. He is an advisor now, so a neuroscientist for a while. He had read this when he was a fresh student many years ago, but glad to have a new copy. If you're a new scientist or buying it for a new student. I would recommend it!
One person found this helpful
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AF
5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece
Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2019
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This is the second time I read the book after a few years and it still resonates ever so deeply. I think it is a must read for all researchers in the early phase of their careers.
6 people found this helpful
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cory katona
5.0 out of 5 stars good read for those pursuing graduate study
Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2013
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You will need to look past the dated situations and social norms which are discussed in this book because word for word they are not applicable. If you look more at the overarching concepts, mentality, and advice he gives you it will be very rewarding to you. This man is often known as the "Father of Neuroanatomy" and his advice is invaluable if you wish to pursue any investigative career.
3 people found this helpful
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A.J.
3.0 out of 5 stars Many good viewpoints on research, a bit dated
Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2013
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The perspective of the writing is that of viewing Spain as
clearly lagging nations like France, Germany, England and Italy
in education and scientific capability. The author has an
unforgiving view of Spaniards as lazy, calling laziness a
'religion rather than a vice.'

In the foreword, Cajal has an interesting description of his viewpoint
that almost anyone can succeed in science, that it's more about
passion, hard work and chance than intelligence. He uses the phrase
"to sculpt your own brain" to describe this flexibility, rather than having been born with a
particular mental ability. He backs up his claim by stating that almost all
of the top-of-the-game scholars he has met during his many
international travels were men and women of
quite average intelligence. He also notes that most of them are
"driven by an ardent longing for fame." This is an interesting observation
of the motivation of people in the scientific field almost 150 years ago.

Chapter 1

Cajul starts out by describing the mission of a scientist as describing HOW
and not WHY. He means this at a deep level; at the very end, we cannot hope
to explain any deep meaning with the universe, but can just observe how things
happen, classify them, and figure out systems to predict how things will play
out in other circumstances. There is another sense in which the word why can
be used, such as "why does the earth go around the sun?", which does have
an answer "because the force of gravity". In this use, the word "why" relates to
"how can I understand this in terms of fundamental physical law"? This we can
answer. What we cannot answer, is at the deepest level, "why is there gravity?"

Cajal celebrates Descarte's principle "Do not acknowledge as true anything that
is not obvious, divide a problem into as many parts as necessary to attack it
in the best way, and start an analysis by examining the simplest and most
easily understood parts before ascending gradually to an understanding of the
most complex."

CHAPTER 2 - BEGINNER's TRAPS

Cajul's views of error often commited by the beginner:

* Exaggerated awe and admiration for past "great minds" (often
driven by the superficial "elegance" of the papers rather than
the true science behind them). Cajul has a clear view that there
is no such thing as a "genius", scientists have moments of geniuous,
but each person is incomplete and has weak papers and moments as well.
I would strongly agree with this view..during the first few years as a
researcher one tries to sort out people into "good" and "bad" scientist
categories...over time it becomes clear that just as fiction writers or
musicians, the quality of almost everyone varies strongly from work to work.

* Exaggerated belief in one own's inadequacy

* Exaggerates modesty when new claims are finally made (undue modesty)

Cajul also states his (rather sad) observation that there has almost not been
any example in history where a scientist doesnt "prefer the lie invented by
himself to the truth discovered by someone else" - a warning about the ferociousness
that scientists will fight with to defend their theories from attack.

Cajal returns to his ideas that we can change our brains a lot by eduction, hard work,
and concentration. He even uses the modern word of "plasticity", warning that
"education must occurs at an early age, before the plasticity of the brain cells declines."

A good tip, which I find very useful myself, it to read and think about "masterpieces",
focusing not on the actual conclusions but on the methodology, guiding principles,
and style. From this one can cultivate a much improved sense of how to structure
and deal with a research problem, how to keep uncertainties under contant
surveillance and check, etc.

Cajul has a view that one must conserve and focus the mental energy on the research
problem, minimizing time and effort spent on politics, literature, music and gossip.

CHAPTER 3 Intellectual qualities

Cajul starts out by describing again how a first read through a scientific work is dominated
by the style, and one is often left believeing the work is better than it is. Repeated
readings tend to clarify shortcomings in logic and method. The scientifically inclined person
reads nothing out of worship, but always in a judging way.

Cajul decribes the value of thinking long and hard about the problem at hand, taking all
opportunities to focus on it in a prolonged period of concentration that can last
months or years. If one gets stuck, a change of environment or company can trigger
new ideas and get rid of stuck loops.

An interesting passage is his description of how research has gone from being some sort
of tranquil process of comtemplation to a frantic and competitive race (in 1898 already!)

Cajul warns against being put down by other researchers scooping us - his experience is
that one should keep working as normal. Indeed from my own experience it is almost
always the case that the fastest results are shallow or wrong, people's production rates
are not that different so quality is quite proportional to time spent working.

Cajul recommends the view of Payot : "A little each day is enough, as long as a little is
produced every day." This is another philosophy I agree strongly with. One should try to
move projects along a little bit every day, and be patient. The return per hour drops with the
number of hours spent per day, so the best strategy is to spread the work over many days
but never skipping any. This is a much better strategy than squeezing in 14 hour work days
with several days off in the week.

I also totally agree with Cajul's observation that the problem with distracting activities is not
the actual time they take, but in their disruption of the mental state one must get into to
be scientifically productive.

At the end of the chapter Cajul raises a rather interesting viewpoint that a successful scientist
MUST have a strong passion for establishing a reputation.

An interesting quite from Kepler "The die is cast, and with this I finish my book, caring little
whether its read today or by posterity. After all, did God not wait 6000 years to find in me
a beholder and interpreter of His works?"

Cajul then adresses patriotism. Tolstoj had a view of patriotism as a horrible and egocentric
relic that leads to endless warfare and is destined to vanish, to be replaced by universal
brotherhood. Cajul partly agrees with this, but also sees patriotism as an important
mechanism for promoting competition, which in turn advances the quality of everything
including scientific results. He predicts that patriotism will remain in people's psyche no
matter how "cosmopolitan the world may become", because its roots are too deep.
P.J. Thomas writes in his book that "the idea of country, like the idea of family, is
necessary, as are the feelings involved in both."

CHAPTER 4 - WHAT NEWCOMERS TO BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH SHOULD NOW

It is useful to study fields adjascent to one's own, to better grasp guiding principles
and methods of attack. Laplace said "To discover is to join together two ideas that
were previously unlinked." Cajul describes discovery as 1) Fitting a piece of data to
a law 2) Wrapping it in a broader theoretical framework or 3) Classifying it.
He summarizes "To discover is to name something correctly."
Cajul sees training in philosophy as important, particularly in its foundations of
establishing truth and critical judgement.

Some people have strong intellects but personalities characterized by restlessness, indiscipline and
inability to concentrate for long periods. These people will be great encyclopedic knowers, writers, conversationalists, and orators, but rarely good in discovering things.
Cajul warns against trying to master a too wide field. A lifetime is barely enough to master
completely one or two small subfields within any of the sciences. Any other hopes
are illusions that will lead to frustration and disappointment. One can easily get mislead by
the giants of history, but much less was known about the world a few hundred years ago
and it took much less time to aquire all the previous knowledge. Strong specialization is
needed due to the extraordinary amount of time required by the testing and mastery
of new techniques reported almost daily, the growing volume of the literature and
by the many scholars working simultaneously on each topic.

The investigators library must contain the important books of the field. The focus should be
on methodology/technique, as well as unsolved research problem. Broad/populistic
reviews are less useful.

Another activity highly recommended is to keep observing nature first hand, rather than
consuming everything through books and second hand descriptions. This has an important
invigorating effect on the psyche.

Again Cajal emphasisez the value of mastering a research method, either inventing a new
one or completely mastering an old one. This is the key to new discovery. Simply applying
methods of similar accuracy as old ones to old data cannot yield new insights.
(such a reanalyzing an old data set with your own 'favorite' model assumptions within
the same model framework.)
The new techniques need, intrinsically, to be difficult. Simple ones will already have been
exploited, and will leave you in intense competition with countless others who can
apply them easily.

An interesting discussion of the role of chance highlights the fact that 'chance favors those
who are prepared'. Only if you grasp an opportunity when it comes along can you
harvest the potential of chance. (Or vice verse, if you are ill prepared for negative
chance events they can cause unnecessary damage). Thus, while it may often seem
on the surface that people have been lucky or unlucky, the underlying mechanism
for grasping or losing out on the chance encounters are less visible, as are the actual
number of trials attempted.

Phenomenonphile - likes to observe nature and its charms but only for the splendid phenomena themselves, does not care much for the underlying physics.

Bibliophile - overly string focus on reading the literature and other's theorems.

Megalomaniacs - these people are in it for the fame and glory. To this end, they become
quite proficient in their science. But they aim to produce revolutionary masterpieces
from the start. They are therefore fevershly active in twisting and turning schemes to come
up with the magic solutions. But the years go by and little of value comes out. Eventually
scooped by others, the megalomaniac turns to another subject with the same feverish
entusiasm, only to fail again. The mistake of the megalomaniac is to tackle too large problems,
to fantasize of explaining or revolutionizing a whole field, rather than doing small problems
one at a time. This path does not lead to any particular fame, but to relevant science and
the respect of peers.

Instrument addicts - these people love the technical aspects, the telescope, the computer
or the microscope

Misfits - some people just end up in the wrong job for whatever reason. There is no cure
here but to find the energy to break out and change course.

Theorists - people that usually dislike the actual observing part of science, favor books
over articles and dissertations. The essential thing is beauty of concept and framework
rather than concrete and reliable results. The theorist is usually a lazy person
masquerading as a diligent one. "He unconciously obeys the law of minimum effort
because it is easier to fashion a theory than to discover a phenomenon." Leibzig
adviced "Dont make hypothesis. They will bring the enmity of the wise upon you.
Be concerned with the discovery of new facts." I would subscribe to this view : as long
as one stays focussed on trying to estimate basic quantities, good science comes out.
If one tries to motivate and validate some grand hypothesis, failure usually follows.
Cajal stringly advices to start by becoming a useful workman, deriving some bread
and butter numbers, and perhaps later in the career attempting architecture on a
grander scale.
23 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Enrique
1.0 out of 5 stars This printout is of an unacceptable bad quality
Reviewed in the Netherlands on May 19, 2022
Verified Purchase
Unacceptably bad quality. I returned it due to the bad printout where the margins were all displaced and wrongly cut. I ordered it again and received again a defective book with all margins misaligned and wrongly cut pages. Very poor manufacturing, anybody can make a better job with their own printer at home. These books should be removed from stock.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book
Reviewed in Mexico on March 15, 2019
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Solid advice from one of the big names in neuroscience. His advice is valuable because he talks from his experiences as an investigator
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Ruth
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding book...
Reviewed in Canada on March 16, 2018
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I wish I had read this in my childhood, this is a book with immense value for any person, specially early in life. Will definitely recommend it...
One person found this helpful
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kiyoaki Disha
5.0 out of 5 stars Le Don et le Partage de réflexions d'un homme d'exception
Reviewed in France on May 17, 2018
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Santiago Ramon Y Cajal est une des personnalités les plus fascinantes de la science; chercheur et pionner-inventeur en histologie cérébrale, écrivain, véritable artiste et enseignant de la fin XIXième-début XXième.... C'est lui qui a montré que le Système Nerveux Central (SNC) est constitué de neurones individuelles qui communiquent en eux avec des caractéristiques précises via des synapses ... Mais son œuvre est vraiment polymorphe, ses centres d'intérêt multiples, à la fois précurseur des polymathes modernes, pédagogue humble, constructif, il est de ces hommes su peu nombreux auquel le monde moderne doit tant, dont l'idéalisme humaniste est inséparable de la lucidité sur ses propres limites ou la nécessité de partager....
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Nick
5.0 out of 5 stars FANTASTIC BOOK
Reviewed in Italy on June 7, 2016
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The first time I heard about this book was during an International Meeting. Several main points of Prof Cajal are already my main mantra in my life.
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