New Delhi: For book lovers, especially those having fetish for fiction, a fresh treat has been introduced in the market.
It is ‘Short of Science’ — a book authored by a scientist who provides an insight about the struggles faced by a research scholar, particularly if it happens to be a woman.
Shubha Vij, who did her PhD in Plant Molecular Biology and Genomics in Delhi and moved on to Singapore, has made her debut as an author by writing the book in the form of fiction.
The backdrop of the story is a science lab in the heart of Delhi where the fictional central character Sanyukta carries out her PhD studies.
It tells us about how Sanyukta, a bright 21-year-old, is offered a PhD position in the lab of a lazy and laid-back Professor.
She joins the lab at a point where the professor, through sheer luck lands a multi-million grant to develop improved, high-yielding rice varieties through cutting edge genetic engineering and genomic technologies.
Prof. Kapoor’s initial skepticism over the promised grant deliverables slowly evaporates as realization dawns that this may well be his opportunity for obtaining scientific stardom with minimal effort.
Sanyukta soon realizes that a steep learning curve awaits ahead with no guidance from her ‘guide’ and a treacherous path of lab politics with in-fighting, favouritism and email battles.
The narrative also dwells into pertinent issues specific to women scientists across the globe such as the omnipresent gender bias in the field of scientific research along with the dent of decisions such as marriage and kids along the career graph.
The author also uses humour to ensure that the reading does not become boring.
This has huge stakes in the scientific world but surprisingly there are no clear rules
which often leads to angst amongst the researchers.
The most affected are those doing their PhD as they are typically at the bottom of the scientific food chain.
Shubha is a well-known scientist and some of her key achievements in the field of genomics includes being part of the team which produced the gold standard version of the rice genome and also published the first, chromosomal-level assembly of a fish genome.
She has published more than 30 research papers which have been cited more than 30 times, several of them in journals of international repute such as Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA and PLOS Genetics.
She leverages this insider’s knowledge to convincingly portray the scientific world.
What comes as a pleasant surprise is the deep understanding of human relationships she displays in equal measure.
So, even though it is Shubha’s debut novel, she succeeds in spinning a tight plot
interweaving the scientific and non-scientific side of a researcher.
