In Search of Memory

In Search of Memory
The Emergence of a New Science of Mind
By Eric Kandel
2006
W.W. Norton & Company
510 pages
ISBN: 978-0-393-32937-7

Eric Kandel entered the field of Neuroscience research in 1955 as part of  medical school elective. In 2000, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for "discoveries relating to signal transduction in the nervous system." Basically, his work was the first to establish how memory works at the cellular level, through alterations in the strength of individual connections between neurons. Today, at 82 years old, he maintains an active research lab at the Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons. He's kind of a big deal.

And on October 3, he came to the University of Cincinnati to give a talk. So I read this book, which I already owned, but moved up the "to read" list in honor of the occasion.

The cool thing about this book is that Kandel's career as a neuroscientist parallels the development of the field. He began do research when Neuroscience was just beginning as a science separate from biology/physiology, and has continued to work in the field as it has developed over the last 60ish years. Kandel does a wonderful job in this autobiography of weaving in his personal story with the emergence and progress of the field as a whole.

But you don't need to be working on a PhD in Neuroscience to understand and enjoy this book.  Kandel's writing style is approachable, and he does a rather elegant job of explaining some very complicated experiments in clear and accessible language.  Anyone with the most basic biology background should be able to follow his descriptions and learn about some of the very cool discoveries that are the foundations of cellular and molecular neuroscience.

I however, am working on a PhD in Neuroscience, so the part of the book that were most interesting to me involved Kandel delving into his personal career development and describing his scientific thinking. Everyone beginning a career in biological science should probably read this book.  Although there are some things that maybe don't apply any more (Kandel did not have to worry at all about funding), there's a lot of rich material here. I was especially struck by his decision to leave clinical practice and focus exclusively on research (something I personally do not plan to do, but it was good to read his rationale). I also found inspiring his willingness to learn new techniques and dive into new subfields as his career progressed, and the moments he describes when thinking about research in other areas of science led to inspiration and progress in his own work. I know that I am not the only graduate student who tends toward laser beam focus on her one little area (at least at this stage of my career), but some stories in this book served as a powerful reminder of the reasons that I want to stay aware of creative and groundbreaking work in other areas of science. And of the joy of thinking about science, which I admit sometimes gets lost in the nitty gritty of trying to make it from student to scientist.

Because I'm in the Neuroscience Graduate Program, I had the opportunity to attend a special question and answer session, just for the students and faculty in the department. Kandel in real life is awesome. He's sharp, thoughtful, honest, and incredibly excited about science. This sounds condescending, but with the combination of his clear joy talking about neuroscience and his bow tie, he's completely adorable.I really enjoyed the conversation that morning and his interesting talk on the potential for the use of his more cellular and molecular approaches to research in psychiatry. We have a long way to go, but if I learned anything from reading this book, it's how far our field can move in a relatively short time. If the next 50 years or neuroscience are as exciting as the last 50 years, I have an amazing career to look forward to.