书籍介绍
Advice to a young scientist by Peter Medawar (Basic Books). The titan of 20th century molecular medicine gives well-meaning and funny (in the British sense) advice on (from the chapter headings): How do I tell if I am cut out to be a scientific research worker? - What shall I do research on? - How can I equip myself to be a scientist or a better one? - Women in science - Aspects of scientific life and manners - Of younger and older scientists - Presentations - Experiment and discovery - Prizes and rewards - The scientific process. Some details of the 25-year old book feel out of date now but it still is an excellent companion up to your first faculty position. See the following quote: "A novice must stick it out until he discovers whether the rewards and compensations of the scientific life are for him comensurate with the disappointments and the toil; but if once a scientist experiences the exhilaration of discovery [...] then he is hooked, and no other kind of life will do."
AI导读
核心看点
- 诺奖得主梅达沃以幽默笔触，分享科研生涯的真诚建议与深刻洞察。
- 强调研究重要问题，警惕对假设的盲目热爱，倡导批判性思维与实验设计。
- 探讨科学家身份认同、学术礼仪及科研过程中的心理调适与职业成长。
适合谁读
- 初入科研领域的青年学者、博士生及博士后，寻求职业指导与心态建设。
- 对科学方法论、学术写作及科研伦理感兴趣的人文社科或理科学生。
- 从事探索性活动，渴望提升问题解决能力与批判性思维的终身学习者。
读前提醒
- 部分社会背景描述可能过时，但关于科研本质与思维方式的洞见历久弥新。
- 作者文笔优雅且充满英式幽默，建议细读品味其语言魅力与哲学思考。
- 书中观点基于传统实验科学，计算机或数学领域读者需结合学科特性辩证看待。
读者共识
- 文笔极佳，兼具智慧与温情，被读者誉为科研人的精神伴侣与枕边书。
- 观点犀利直率，打破科研神秘感，帮助新手建立正确的科学家形象认知。
- 虽出版多年，其关于选择重要问题及保持好奇心的建议仍具极高参考价值。
本导读基于书籍简介、目录、原文摘录、短评和书评生成，不等同于全文精读。
精彩摘录
- "……因而先学习后工作的心理学政策无论如何是错误的。……掌握某种新技能、学习某门新学科，最大的动力在于急切地需要应用。"
- "For all who are engaged in exploratory activities."
- "in a competitive and often hostile world the best hope of security and advancement lies in the learned professions."
- "Scientists who fall deeply in love with their hypotheses are proportionately unwilling to take no as an experimental answer."
- "Many experiments attempt to refute a null hypothesis."
- "A love affair with a pet hypothesis can waste years of precious time."
- "Any scientists of any age who wants to make important discoveries must study important problems.....The problem must be such that it matters what the answer is—whether to science generally or to a mankind."
- "Anyone can try by patient experiment what happens if this or that substance be mixed in this or that proportion with some other under this or that condition."
用户评论
好书，虽然作者喜欢丢大词及各种语言，部分观点我也不完全赞同，但这些都无法抹杀其好书的本质
“Any scientist of any age who wants to make important discoveries must study important problems. Dull or piffling problems yield dull or piffling answers. It is not enough that a problem should be 'interesting', almost any problem is interesting if it is studied in sufficient depth.” 现实中大部分人还是在做dirty, shallow work啊。
Never dismayed or depressed by the subtlety of nature, the secret recesses of truth, the obscurity of things, the difficulty of experiment, the implication of causes and the infirmity of man's discerning power, being men no longer excited, either out of desire or hope to penetrate farther.
科研科研科研！
文笔极好！豆瓣用户“sterdam"提供了非常好的summary,可当作读书笔记复习。感谢！
科学家是一项终身职业
适合基础自然科学家 不大适合CS和数学
Find an important question, then make it soluble with concentration and preservation.
读PhD前一周第一次读 纪念一下 明年再读一次会不会理解更多
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