This biographical novel portrays the development and career of neuroscientist Marty Dennis. After tracing some family history, the story focuses on Marty's progression through graduate school, postdoctoral training, being junior faculty, senior faculty, and finally department chairperson. Along the way, the story reveals a number of twists and turns, including finding the love of his life, enduring a long episode of chronic fatigue syndrome (before it was so named), discovering the subjective realities of the NIH grant review process, and adapting to the demands and vicissitudes of academic life. Although the story is fictional, it is largely based on the author's personal experience. Indeed, a fair amount of real neuroscience is explained, albeit in story book fashion. The formula (N= 1) described by the title gradually becomes a theme in several places, referring to the fact that people often draw premature conclusions from too few numbers (N) of experimental subjects, with N=1 being the extreme example. The human fallacy of this tendency appears in full force at the end, with the final plot being surprising as well as reassuring. N Equals One is both entertaining and informative. The life experiences described, sometimes comical and other times serious, could well be real, as they closely resemble real events. Descriptions of the scientific process, of academic life, and of science itself are all in fact true. The reader acquires an intimate understanding of how scientists behave and function. In perhaps different ways, N Equals One will be interesting, and sometimes fascinating, to both scientists and non-scientists.
About the Author: Stanley D. Glick, Ph.D., M.D. (Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1969, 1971) From 2000-2014, until his recent retirement, Dr. Glick was the Director of the Center for Neuropharmacology & Neuroscience (CNN) at Albany Medical College. Before then he was Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Neuroscience (1995-2000) and Chair of the Department of Pharmacolgoy and Toxicology (1984-95). Dr. Glick has personally trained nineteen doctoral students and ten postdoctoral fellows as well as numerous medical students. Prior to joining Albany Medical College, Dr. Glick was a professor of pharmacology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine (1971-1984). Dr. Glick's major research interest focuses on the neurobiology of drug addiction. His research was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) from 1972-2012. Dr. Glick is a co-inventor of a novel group of agents for treating drug addiction. 18-MC (18-methoxycoronaridine), the lead agent of this group of compounds, is likely to be useful in treating multiple forms of drug abuse (including opioid and stimulant dependence, alcoholism and smoking). Other studies indicate that it may also be useful in treating obesity. Dr. Glick has performed a variety of administrative and service functions for the Albany Medical College and the Albany Medical Center. He was the chairman of two search committees, successfully recruiting new chairs for the Departments of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Pathology & Laboratory Medicine; he also served on search committees for new chairs of Anesthesiology, Pediatrics, Neurology, and Psychiatry, and for a previous dean. He has served on numerous governance committees, the human subjects research committee, many graduate program committees, the student promotions committee, and strategic planning steering committees. For four years (1993-97), Dr. Glick was a member of the Board of Directors of the medical center (which is also the Board of Trustees of the medical college and the Board of Governors of the hospital). From 2000-2013, he was chair of the Scientific Advisory Board, which advises the dean on all matters related to research. Dr. Glick has authored or co-authored over 480 experimental papers, reviews and abstracts. He has served as Editor of a scientific journal and of a professional newsletter, in addition to serving on editorial boards and National Institutes of Health (NIH) advisory committees.