A Professor's Canister of Worms: A Day with Syd
Location: Dept of Biochemistry, University of California, Riverside
Year: 1981-82
We were informed ahead of class that someone great was coming to our class. I waited anxiously to see who was this 'great person'.
I was very late for my Biochemistry Colloquium class as the previous class also finished late. I ran to my next class, panting as I reached my seat in the back of the class. I sat and waited till a little old man walked in. I didn't know who he was or whether he was supposed to be this 'great person' we were supposed to have for that session.
He was that 'great person'! What?! An old man? Yes, an old man with long green old jacket. His hair was white and he was frail with a husky voice. He spoke in a low tone and taught us, almost inaudible. He pulled out a canister of white grubs in solution and asked us what it was for. We didn't answer as nobody knew what he was aiming at.
That canister was passed around in class and I had a good look at the contents, and almost threw up! How could he pull a joke in class like that?! Why the preserved grubs? What are they for?
I wasn't paying attention in his class and he came right up to me to have a good look direct into my eyes! At once I knew I had offended him! I must have made him angry by not paying attention in class. How could I? I didn't understand much of what he said in the first place! How was I to appreciate his work with the canister of worms?
That is as much I can recall about that one and only class I had with a Nobel Prize Winner in Medicine & Physiology, Dr Sydney Brenner.
Read more about Dr Sydney Brenner at Wikipedia and MRC
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