My life in science: Brenner, Sydney

Sydney Brenner on the Genetics of Caenorhabditis elegans.

Sydney Brenner decided on his lifelong scientific goals on one cold day in April 1953.Hewas a 26-year-old graduate student in Oxford at the time. “What I remember inOxford is being hungry all the time, and cold,” he told me. Crick and Watson had just built the double helix model, and Brenner and a few others took a road trip to Cambridge to see it before it was announced to the rest of the worl...

Brain, Nerves, Muscles, and Electricity: My Life in Science

The book is very comprehensive, covering virtually every aspect of neurosurgery in thirty-two chapters. The first two chapters are on general care and neurology, respectively. I found this to be quite a good set up for the rest of the book, and also serves to make the book a more complete handbook for the neurosurgical resident who will also be managing patients on the floor. The remainder of t...

A Preliminary Report on My Life in Science

I describe my wanderings from the United States to East Germany and back. I hope this gives a glimpse of science in East Germany and encourages people who do science under less than favorable conditions. Although elements of my story are unique, the main points are general: don't be afraid to start something new; it pays to be persistent; and science is a passion--if it feels like fun, you've p...

RNA interference in nematodes and the chance that favored Sydney Brenner

The efficiency of RNA interference varies between different organisms, even among nematodes. A recent report of successful RNA interference in the nematode Panagrolaimus superbus in BMC Molecular Biology has implications for the comparative study of the functional genomics of nematode species, and prompts reflections on the choice of Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism.

My Life