Perez Velazquez has written a little gem that I advise reading to anyone persuing a scientific
career as well as for the general public interested in the sociological aspects of science. It
alerts the reader about the rise of a new type of scientist buried in bureaucracy and
financial issues. In contrast to past generations this new scientist is sadly left with
minimal time to dedicate to creative work. It studies the consequences of this state of affairs
the problems associated with peer reviewing the dilemma of funding innovative research the
nature of corporate academic culture and the trivialization of scientific achievement by grant
agencies and universities. It also provides possible solutions for these problems. All this is
magnificently exemplified and documented including personal experiences from the author and a
touch of humor illustrated in the accompanying cartoons. Despite the humor it is a serious
piece of work that would also be useful for the conscientious academic worried about the
difficulties of the current research scene. Marina Frantseva MD PhD Jose Luis Perez Velazquez
is a Spanish biochemist biophysicist. He has a degree in Biochemistry and a PhD in Molecular
Physiology & Biophysics. His research activities are mainly in the fields of the
brain-behaviour relation at a high level of description seeking principles of biological
organisation. He worked as a senior scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and
was Professor at the University of Toronto where he taught a graduate course on consciousness
and self-awareness which derived in part from his book The Brain-Behaviour Continuum (World
Scientific). He also edited the book Coordinated Activity in the Brain (Springer) and edited
special issues for The Journal of Biological Physics Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience and
Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience. Currently he is a Research Scholar at the Ronin
Institute where he continues to investigate a possible global principle a scheme that
combines theoretical studies and experimental observations aimed at conceptualizing how
consciousness arises from the organization of matter.
