It Has Been A Privilege To Pursue

My Parents Were Born In Norfolk And Spent Their Early Years Working In The Big Houses Of That Rural English County, My Mother As A Cook And My Father As A Handyman And Chauffeur.

My Main Efforts Focussed On Trying To Identify The Rate Controlling Steps During The Cell Cycle. Crucial For This Analysis Were Wee Mutants That Were Advanced Prematurely Through The Cell Cycle And So Divided At A Reduced Cell Size.

Like Many Students, I Found The Drudgery Of Real Experiments And The Slowness Of Progress A Complete Shock, And At My Low Points I Contemplated Other Alternative Careers Including Study Of The Philosophy Or Sociology Of Science.

Scientific Understanding Is Often Beautiful, A Profoundly Aesthetic Experience Which Gives Pleasure Not Unlike The Reading Of A Great Poem.

It Was During My Time At Secondary School That I Abandoned Religion.