There Is Life After the Nobel Prize
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
One day in 1996, the neuroscientist Eric R. Kandel took a call from his program officer at the National Institute of Mental Health, who informed him that he had been awarded a key grant. Also, the officer said, he and his colleagues thought Kandel would win the Nobel Prize. “I hope not soon,” Kandel’s wife, Denise, said when she heard this. Sociologists had found that Nobel Prize winners often did not contribute much more to science, she explained.
In this book, Kandel recounts his remarkable career since receiving the Nobel in 2000—or his experience of proving to his wife that he was not yet “completely dead intellectually.” He takes readers through his lab’s scientific advances, including research into how long-term memory is stored in the brain, the nature of age-related memory loss, and the neuroscience of drug addiction and schizophrenia. Kandel relates how the Nobel Prize gave him the opportunity to reach a far larger audience, which in turn allowed him to discover and pursue new directions. He describes his efforts to promote public understanding of science and to put brain science and art into conversation with each other. Kandel also discusses his return to Austria, which he had fled as a child, and observes Austria’s coming to terms with the Nazi period. Showcasing Kandel’s accomplishments, erudition, and wit, There Is Life After the Nobel Prize is a candid account of the working life of an acclaimed scientist.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Winning the Nobel Prize does not presage one's intellectual demise," writes neurobiologist Kandel (In Search of Memory) in this remarkable recap of his post-prize career. Kandel won the Nobel in physiology or medicine in 2000 for his work discovering "how short- and long-term memory are initially formed in the brain." But before he got the news, Kandel's wife told him that she hoped he didn't win "soon," since research shows that after winning the award, recipients don't "contribute much more to science." With his tongue slightly in his cheek, Kandel explains how he aimed to prove her wrong. He achieves his goal magnificently by highlighting his extensive research, public outreach, and work bridging science and art over the past 20 years. He relates his research on how memories are stored, his efforts to unravel the biological basis of schizophrenia, and his exploration of ways to ameliorate age-related memory loss. He also recounts his writing of a "scientific autobiography" as well as books that integrated brain science and art to better understand the creative process, and cohosting a PBS television series about the workings of the brain. Kandel's intellect and passion are present on every page. Readers will be awed by the depth and breadth of Kandel's work.