The seven deadly curs’d sins … Ire
نویسنده
چکیده
After your call I thought I should write to try to persuade you not to take any of the drastic steps you were contemplating yesterday. Anger has only scalar properties; it has magnitude but no particular direction. I know you are furious about having your papers turned down, but threatening the editor with public horse-whipping or sending him a letter bomb, although clearly attractive, are a bit ludicrous, and unlikely to give you any real satisfaction. I am not saying that you should swallow your anger and forget about the episode completely. What you will find is that the wheel of fortune can often turn uncannily in your favour, and wrath contained and remembered can often yield pleasant revenge. I am now going to tell you a story you must promise not to repeat to anybody at all, which is why this letter has " Burn, then read " written on it, although I assume you ignored that. It concerns the editor of an important biological journal who had submitted work for a PhD in biochemistry. I had been appointed the external examiner. We read the submitted material, and then there was an oral examination during which I asked a few eccentric questions. I then retired to a room, and drafted a report along the following lines: " This thesis deals with the subject of gene expression and especially with the expression of genes in mammalian cells. Parts of it are very speculative and not supported by any direct experimental evidence. These sections could form the contents of another thesis for submission to a different faculty in the university, perhaps Moral Sciences or Divinity. The remainder of the work is quasi-repetitive, repeating on humans experiments that have already been extensively carried out on tardigrades and kangaroos. This might well be submitted for a PhD in biochemistry at the University of Bishop's Stortford, where it will find the audience it so richly deserves. I am unable to recommend the award of the degree as it is not up to our standard, but I hope that the candidate can be encouraged to submit again when his work has reached a more definitive stage. " He got his PhD because I threw the draft away and instead produced a standard report. This was not because I knew that the internal examiner, who behaved in a polite — some might say fawning — way, …
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عنوان ژورنال:
- Current Biology
دوره 7 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 1997