Lives of a Biologist: Adventures in a Century of Extraordinary Science

John Tyler Bonner's career as a biologist spans an incredible era of ever-accelerating advances and complexity in science. Divided into chapters covering two decades each, his account mixes personal memoir with the story of his research. He specialized in slime molds, although his interest roamed throughout all biological disciplines. Young scientists reading Bonner's book will both smile and grimace. His account of his reports fifty years ago to the NSF regarding his grant will surely produce both reactions at the same time: "Things have not worked out well. I have tried this, that, and the other, and nothing has really worked." The reply was, "Don't worry about it---this is the way research goes sometimes. Maybe next year you will have better luck." My husband, a cloud physicist for over twenty-five years, is utterly astonished at such an exchange. Bonner writes clearly and sometimes jokily, in true scientific fashion, without much color and brio to hold a reader's interest. Nevertheless he has lived in a fascinating time, has seen the germination and flowering of many ideas that have revolutionized biology, and for this reason alone his book is worth reading.

John Tyler Bonner's lifelong passion with slime molds makes for more interesting and delightful reading than one would at first expect in Lives of a Biologist (Adventures in a Century of Extraordinary Science). His life story includes many wonderful anecdotes that go beyond the world of science and include such a unusual assembly of characters as Trotsky, Harpo Marx and Evelyn Waugh. The joy of this book, though, is the biological experiences and this will be a pleasure regardless of one's level of biological background. The excitement of discovery and learning comes through clearly in these pages and the amazing transitions in this field over the past century are presented in a readable and fascinating manner. This is a light, friendly read and a gentle glimpse into the sometimes cloudy world of biological research.