Intuition: A Novel

This novel is an intellectual thriller, an extremely readable, can't-put-down book about the uses and abuses of pure science.The novel takes place in a laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts that is peopled by post-docs, all working on finding a cure for cancer. The lab is run by two people, very different in their styles and approach to research methodology. Sandy Glass is an oncologist, the 'voice' of the lab, the jovial fund-raiser who can shmooze anyone and never miss a beat in a conversation. He's looking for a quick winner in the research department. Marion is the chief research scientist. She is shy in public and leaves most of the public relations to Sandy. She understands that research is a long process and there are no quick winners in this game.The post-docs are varied in personality and commitment. They each have their own projects which they obsess about to varying degrees. Success in their projects means funding and job security. No results means job insecurity and the chance of being let go.All of a sudden, one of the post-docs gets some quick and amazing results. Sandy wants to milk this for all it's worth. Marion wants to proceed more slowly and be sure that the outcomes can be replicated. The question is: Are the results too good to be true?The novel goes into the personal lives, motivations and backgrounds of all the key characters. The reader is privy to fascinating character studies along with an anthropological view of the inner workings of a research lab.The book makes for fascinating reading. It brings up questions about ethics, what constitutes real science, what is a scientist's obligation to truth, and what is truth.Allegra Goodman weaves a stunning tale of a research laboratory wrought with intrigue and a fascinating cast of characters.

I liked the idea behind "Intuition", because it was the first novel I have ever encountered, which was so close to my own life and profession. Allegra Goodman managed to find the underappreciated niche and filled it with a remarkable book. The world of academic life sciences is rendered with precision in "Intuition"; it is obvious that the author took her time to really get into the work in the lab in a prestigious institute.Marion Mendelssohn and Sandy Glass are two co-principal investigators of the lab where several dedicated postdocs and technicians work like crazy to get the groundbreaking results. The novel starts when one of the postdocs, Cliff, is reprimanded for pursuing the experiments with R-7 virus strain, which do not seem to work. Cliff is ordered to work with another postdoc, Robin (who is also his girlfriend), on her project (which also does not work although she has been trying for five years). Behind his back, Sandy and Marion discuss letting Cliff go.Everything changes when suddenly Cliff's experiments start working and his model mice, which are injected with cancer cells and have developed tumors, after being treated with the virus, go into remission. Everyone is happy and excited, everyone has to help Cliff finish the experiments, Cliff becomes the star of the lab, gives interviews, his results are published in Nature... But Robin suspects that something might be wrong and decides to conduct her own small investigation...I liked very much the characters in this novel - there are probably all the personality types one can see in the world of science, from the child prodigy, through the meticulous worker, the ironic pessimist, the pursuer of success, to the fame-devouring narcissist. They are from different countries and social backgrounds, which also reflects the real situation.All the feelings the scientist might feel during the work - frustration, jealousy, tiredness, but also relief, pride and happiness after achieving the goal are also there. The work and living conditions of all levels of scientists are perfectly depicted. The non-so-scientific side of doing science is also introduced: the National Institutes of Health bureaucracy, grant writing, media attention, and, most importantly, scientific integrity, which is the main issue in this novel. There are only two things I am wondering about: how universal this story is, how many people will read it with interest equal to mine, how important the questions discussed really are to the general public; and how soon it will get obsolete - the progress in life sciences is enormously fast so in a few years this book may read like a fossilized record of past endeavors. Anyway, fortunately now postdocs earn more than seventeen thousand dollars a year...There was enough suspense to keep the reader engrossed, and Goodman made sure that there is enough background to get even to the people who have no clue about science. The ending is very realistic though - I do not want to include a spoiler, but I just have to say that it is very much like life and not much like a novel, which I think is a good thing, but not everyone would probably agree with me.

Hated every character and wished them their just desserts . They get their just deserts and this makes the book tolerable, but not enjoyable.

Love this book. And I hate science.But this book is about people. What I enjoyed was Allegra Goodman's empathy, her constant care for her characters, so no one was a villain, and there were no heroes or clear villains.I didn't agree with all of Robin Decker's maneuvers, but I did empathize with her. She was not an unkind person, and she had always played by the rules. I understand her frustration, and her determination, but I couldn't always endorse the direction that she was heading although sometimes that is the only way.Of all the characters, I empathized most with Marion Mendelssohn, who was a true scientist. She didn't have a perfect marriage though her husband adored her, and wanted nothing more than for her to succeed. Marion's lab partner, Sandy Glass, also wanted her to succeed. Marion was brilliant enough to cause others to usurp her work, though she could be at times difficult. But she was a true scientist with so much integrity. She couldn't fathom anyone deceiving her, and she couldn't forgive those who felt conflicted about telling her the truth.This is a great book. Beautifully written. So interesting and written with such care for the characters. A fabulous read. From start to finish.

"Too good to be true...." is a theme that runs throughout this excellent book that opens up the [often] closed world of the scientific research, and of humanising the [often] complex and complicated impersonal pursuit of scientific truth. "Too good to be true", in the book, refers to the manipulation of results and interpretation of experimental data so that they support desired conclusions. BUT "Too good to be true..." can equally be applied to this excellent book in the topic, storytelling, atmosphere, characters, subjectivity v objectivity of research and inter-relationships of the various researchers, colleagues, families and friends. 'Intuition' is compelling fiction, is at once intricate mystery carefully and creditably interwoven with rich human drama. It has an absorbing scientific plot, but its real strength lies in the clever and convincing portrayal and dissection of human motives and characters.'Intuition' is set in the closed world of a research institute in Boston in the 1980s. A brash publicity-seeking oncologist, an exacting scientist driven by love of her research, and an ambitious young postdoctoral fellow are among the characters that populate this outstanding novel."The Lab" is awaken from years of unrewarding research when Cliff - a post-doc - 'discovers' a genetically modified virus that he has prepared that is positive and active in attacking cancer cells. A research paper is quickly published, major grant applications obtained, and publicity and promotion of this astonishing breakthrough is presented to the world.All the laboratory and the Institute are excited and overwhelmed by this discovery - except for Cliff's ex-girlfriend and fellow researcher Robin. She becomes increasing suspicious when her attempts to duplicate his results end in failure......This is the start of a complex and intriguing story of human motives, desires and relationships together with interesting insights into scientific method and behaviour. Human and scientific objectivity and subjectivity become so mixed up that the ultimate truth about the research and its true interpretation can not be distinguished amongst the human behaviour, motives and ambition. The 'truth' about the research leaves the lab and becomes embroiled in assessment and evaluation by senior research institutes and finally at US Senate Committee where there are political as well as scientific questions to be resolved.The author - who was new to me - has written an excellent narrative, with significant characters, an enterprising and interesting story-line, and an atmospheric expression of research laboratory/institute life - which many readers will experience for the first time.The book succeeds in bringing together both the 'scientific ethos and intensity of the laboratory' in its search for success, recognition and grants with it's highly focused pursuit of knowledge and ultimately a recognition of its fallibility. The storyline is very strong on the inconvenience of human attitude and character that can undermine this idealism in the search for power and influence.The book is an excellent read; first-class storytelling; contains outstanding characters and the author has the skill and the gift as an excellent observer of personalities.Do read the book - scientist or not - you are in for a treat. "It is too good to be true..."

At first, I was excited to read this book, but finally I feel that it promised a lot more than it delivered. In a sense I felt that the author had painted herself into a corner and was unsure of how to wrap it all up. Which leads to another criticism: the book ended by a lot of wrapping up -- there were lots of minor characters who were not fully drawn but whose fates were more or less described at the end of the book. The cheating post doc, who in my mind was the main character or one of the main characters, was never fully revealed. I would have preferred for this book to have had fewer minor characters and more in-depth treatment of our cheater. Who, I have to add, should not have been allowed to escape punishment.

This is extremely well-written with an interesting mix of characters. You are spared no grisly detail of the lab experimentation with mice and it seems very realistically detailed from a scientific point of view. You can really only form your own opinions at the end because there isn't a particularly conclusive outcome but it's a good read if you're not too squeamish.

'Intuition' is undeniably well- written and well-researched. What it isn't though is unputdownable! Far from it in fact, it is quite often slightly boring and however much information it contains it never engages the reader's sympathy. Like other readers and reviewers I couldn't care less about the different characters. Too much science, analyses too cold and clinical and no feeling of empathy towards any of the protagonists.And yet the author really grasps how people connect and relate to each other. Their behaviour during the investigation, for instance, is very well done. The way each party feels partly threatened, partly deceived, partly controlled and humiliated and wronged of course is cleverly done. The way they all try to protect themselves rings true. But still the reader is left feeling next to nothing and the overwhelming sense is that something really good might have emerged but failed to.

Many, if not all, novels I've read about science fall into the trap of exaggeration - most typically the scientists themselves are deranged or the discoveries they (attempt to) make are earth-shattering (sometimes literally! Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg being one example). Rarely is the reality presented in as realistic and yet compelling manner as is done in this excellent novel. Science, in this case cancer biology research, is laid out in all its boring, frustrating detail, in which three years' effort can result in an incremental advance - if you are lucky.Cliff and Robin, two postdocs (postdoctoral researchers) in a small institute on the doorstep of the infinitely more prestigious and rich Harvard University, work insanely long hours at their repetitive tasks as well as having a relationship. Robin is the senior, and is jealous when Cliff's experiments injecting cancerous mice with a virus result in the disappearance of the tumours. Robin is moved off her fruitless project by Marion, the lab chief, and told to assist Cliff. She discovers what she believes to be evidence that Cliff has not recorded all his data in his lab notebook; in other words, his results (now to be published in the prestigious journal Nature) are selective, and hence don't stand up. Robin attempts to engage Marion and her co-chief, the charismatic medical doctor Sandy, in her concern but although a private internal enquiry is held, Robin's worries are dismissed and she herself feels unable to continue working in the lab.As well as the story of what happens next, and how a simple concern can get blown out of all proportion and misused by those with very different agendas, Intuition is a portrait of Marion's and Sandy's families; how their spouses and children live with such committed and driven people, and how the events set in chain by Robin affect them all. The novel also describes the mundane yet intensely competitive daily lab routine of the postdocs and technicians, drawing the reader in to the personal lives of these individuals as well as observing how they react to the climate of suspicion that prevails in the aftermath of Cliff's apparent breakthrough.Intuition is an utterly authentic book: several of the cases and personalities described in it are real (though names have been changed), and are depicted with confidence. By providing the perspectives of most of the main characters, most particularly Robin, Cliff and Marion, as well as Sandy's daughter Kate, we can see that there are no obvious villains or heroes - nobody is too sympathetic, and nobody is too black. Just like real life, in fact. I highly recommend this book both as a compelling depiction of life at the cutting edge of modern biology research, and as an absorbing, well-constructed novel.