Advice to a Young Scientist

Medawar, P. B.

How should a scientist think about motives, collaboration, truth and criticism in a life of exploratory research?

At a glance

You will learn to tell a mistake of interpretation, which is forgivable, from a mistake of fact, which costs you sleep
You will question the idea that curiosity alone drives a scientist, and ask what really draws people into research
You will understand how discoveries often begin as hidden guesses, not as simple uncoverings of what was always there