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heydebigale's review
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
5+ stars—highly recommend!!!
CW: verbal abuse, threatening of deportation
This book. Whew. Katalin Karikó was treated terribly by academia and she still was able to give us the gift of nucleoside-modified mRNA that ultimately enabled the COVID vaccine.
Karikó was subjected to verbal abuse, threatens of deportation, dismissals… and yet she kept working. She had such a singular vision on the utility of mRNA. She is a very unique Nobel winner because she did almost all of the bench work herself as a non-tenure track researcher.
While most people at Penn did not respect her, Karikó has such a lovely and supportive husband. Béla is such an amazing example for other men.
This book illustrates so many parts of academia that are broken—the grant system, the peer review/publishing process, etc.
If anyone wants a glimpse into the reality of working as a scientist in academia—read this book.
CW: verbal abuse, threatening of deportation
This book. Whew. Katalin Karikó was treated terribly by academia and she still was able to give us the gift of nucleoside-modified mRNA that ultimately enabled the COVID vaccine.
Karikó was subjected to verbal abuse, threatens of deportation, dismissals… and yet she kept working. She had such a singular vision on the utility of mRNA. She is a very unique Nobel winner because she did almost all of the bench work herself as a non-tenure track researcher.
While most people at Penn did not respect her, Karikó has such a lovely and supportive husband. Béla is such an amazing example for other men.
This book illustrates so many parts of academia that are broken—the grant system, the peer review/publishing process, etc.
If anyone wants a glimpse into the reality of working as a scientist in academia—read this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse
Moderate: Deportation
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