Every now and then, some or the other book hits the market, providing a fresh treat to the book lovers. However, ‘Short of Science’, which is the latest addition to the book market, may perhaps be different as it has been authored by a scientist who is providing a peep into the research laboratories of the country.
Shubha Vij, who is PhD in Plant Molecular Biology and Genomics, has made her debut as an author by writing the book in the form of fiction. The author uses a science lab in the heart of the country’s capital as the backdrop to trace the PhD journey of the fictional main character Sanyukta, a bright 21-year-old. The main protagonist, Sanyukta, is offered and subsequently accepts 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 shine the spotlight on authorship issues. 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 res
