Intuition - book review

I think it's a rare novel that can take on the dual tasks of character and relationship development while at the same time describing and critiquing a societal institution. But in Intuition, Allegra Goodman has managed to pull it all off. The only thing I didn't like about the book is the title. It could certainly be made to fit the story but then almost any random word would work the same. I think a much better title would be Naked Rats or R7 Virus. But that's beside the point. It's named what it is, counter intuitive though it may be.

The scene will be familiar to anyone who has worked in a research lab, especially one that is funded by federal grants (and who isn't now?) There is a mixture of Directors, post-docs (students who have earned their PhD sstudies but want to complete one to 5 years of good research before taking a faculty or other position where research may not be full-time), graduate students, and technicians. There might even be an undergraduate or two if the grant is generous or the lab forward-thinking. There are also several projects being worked on, each with it's own funding source and the status of the project proportional to the current funding or the number of papers that it has produced because funding and papers are what it's all about.

Cliff, a post-doc who has strained the patience of the lab directors by not coming up with useful data suddenly starts getting results that are almost too good to be true. Rather than be suspicious or skeptical, the directors immediately divert resources to the now "golden boy" rehabilitated post-doc. No one seems to notice that many of his results are obtained when he works alone which is often. His results are praised but his methods not reviewed. Only an ex-girlfriend Robin finds what appears to be Cliff's picking and choosing his data so that his results look promising. This is a time-honored practice of scam artists who can prove anything by selectively discarding data. But it is not science.

Goodman has Robin and the lab directors each following protocol and chain of command in the whistle blowing process. Thus we are treated to an analysis of the structures which attempt to ensure that good science is practiced and rewarded while bad science is de-funded and scorned. But of course these are man-made structures which often have unintended consequences. Robin ends up the pariah rather than a heroine.

There are few cliff-hanging moments in the book but there are some surprises and humor. Again, those of us who have worked in a research environment will recognize the characters in Intuition that must have been modeled after people in our labs.

Definitely worth reading.