Review: Under the Microscope

Professor Earl Owen is a truly inspirational Australian who lives up to his book’s description of “the story of an extraordinary man, his many life-changing inventions, and his exceptional life”.

Under the Microscope details the trials of Owen’s childhood that lead to his determination to be a different type of doctor – one who cared and saved the most vulnerable. He went on to pioneer microsurgery, often using tools of his own design. He, and the techniques he developed, have saved and improved countless lives. And in his spare time Owen designed the chairs in the Opera House.

Owen’s is a great story and has some real meat to it in the descriptions of his wrangling with the medical establishment and in the ethical dilemmas of using animals to perfect his techniques. At one level it validates how much is possible for Australia and Australians although there is a depressing undercurrent that the core of what Owen achieved happened overseas.

Under the Microscope is an entertaining memoir of the life of an extraordinary man.

I read a pre-publication review copy of Under the Microscope. The book is available from Amazon and local bookshops.