Brainstorming Solomon Snyder Summary

Solomon Snyder, a researcher in the biochemistry department at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, depicts throughout his book Brainstorming the narrative describing of one of the most influential discoveries of the twentieth century in the field of narcotics research. This book highlights the key events and people who were involved in the discovery of opium receptors in the brain. Although it is not often that scientists use stories to convey the importance of their research, Snyder’s book is a unique combination of narrative and science that provides readers with a rich understanding of the nature of biochemical research as well as the effects that research has on the scientific community. The narrative format provides the reader insight into the exciting journey that the scientists embarked upon as they undertook this research topic, a story that would have been impossible to convey if it been written in a traditional scientific format such as a textbook or journal article.
The book opens with a discussion of the opium addiction crisis that became prominent in the U.S. political arena during the …show more content…
Given the scientific topic of the book, I was surprised to find that Snyder had set up his book in a narrative format. This book is unique in the way that it is built upon the narrative of the discovery of opium receptors while at the same time explaining scientific information as it relates to that narrative. The story captivates the reader, making it feel as if the reader is in the room with the scientists as they perform their experiments. The narrative allows the reader to triumph with the scientists when they succeed in their work and to analyze along with the researchers what went wrong when the experiments fail. Through the use of the narrative, Snyder allows his audience to get a glimpse into what it is like to solve problems and interpret results in a scientific research