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Ramón y Cajal was one of the founders of modern neuroscience: he helped prove that the nervous system was composed of many cells and developed staining techniques that made it possible to study neurons, the axons and dendrites along which signals pass between neurons, and the star-shaped glial cells that support the neurons.

Choosing to be prolific, he contended, meant closing off the possibility of doing great work.Īlthough Advice for a Young Investigator was published in 1897, it is still worth reading. It created the appearance of profundity and feelings of productivity but did not lead to substantial discoveries. But this was a style of work, Ramón y Cajal argued, that led to asking only shallow, easily answered questions rather than hard, fundamental ones.

This was one reason they willingly accepted a world of faster science: they believed it would make their own science better. Second, most scientists assumed that long hours were necessary to produce great work and that “an avalanche of lectures, articles, and books” would loosen some profound insight. “Research is now frantic,” he warned, and this meant that fast, superficial science-and lots of it-won over slower, deeper, and more profound work. No longer could scientists afford to “concentrate for extended periods of time on one subject” or think deeply “in the silence of the study, confident that rivals would not disrupt their tranquil meditations.” One had to hurry to stay ahead of the competition. First, science had become a source of industrial and political power, and growth of the scientific community, as well as faster communication within the community through journals, conferences, and newspapers, had made science faster and more competitive. I N HIS 1897 BOOK Advice for a Young Investigator, the Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal warned aspiring young scientists that two major impediments would stand in their way as they tried to make new discoveries. Only in recent history has “working hard” signaled pride rather than shame.