The winners of this year's Canada Gairdner International Award, Canada's largest celebration of science (celebrating its 50th anniversary), are Lucy Shapiro and Richard Losick, for the discovery of mechanisms that define cell polarity and asymmetric cell division, processes key in cell differentiation and in the generation of cell diversity.
WHO Lucy Shapiro is a professor in the department of developmental biology at Stanford University School of Medicine, where she holds the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Chair in Cancer Research.
WHAT The Indian Clerk, by David Leavitt
WHY Although I am an avid reader of books in many genres, a recent book that has had a deep impact on my thinking, and my view of the academic world and its place in society, is The Indian Clerk, by David Leavitt.
This book explores the relationship between G.H. Hardy, a great British mathematician working at Cambridge University in the early part of the 20th century, and the legendary Indian mathematical genius Srinivasa Iyengar Ramanujan, whom Hardy persuades to work in Cambridge.
The book weaves the exploration of a unique personal relationship, founded on intellectual discovery, with the world view of Victorian England. It is accessible to the general reader, but can be appreciated on many levels, from a layman's understanding of math to a glimpse into the lives of ordinary people with extraordinary minds.
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WHO Richard Losick is the Maria Moors Cabot Professor of Biology, a Harvard College professor and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute professor in the faculty of arts and sciences at Harvard University.
WHAT Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent, by Harvey A. Silverglate
WHY As a scientist, I am fascinated by how truth is established in the judicial system, which prompted me to read the newly released non-fiction book Three Felonies a Day by noted defence lawyer Harvey Silverglate.
Silverglate argues that, over the past 20 years, federal prosecutors in the United States have greatly expanded the interpretation of federal criminal statutes beyond the language of the law. Also, prosecutors are increasingly using the threat of harsh prison sentences, together with creative interpretations of statutes, to coerce false testimony against other, higher-profile targets of their investigations, often for political purposes.
The book is eminently readable and offers counterintuitive interpretations of well-known criminal cases, such as those of Kenneth Lay (Enron) and Martha Stewart, and others in which Silverglate litigated, such as the efforts of prosecutor Bill Weld (later to become governor of Massachusetts) to convict former Boston mayor and then rising star Kevin White.
A provocative and thought-provoking book.
