Saccadic suppression

always to give rigorous quantitative expression to qualitative concepts. This was encapsulated in his famous review in 1948 of the properties of haem proteins. A notable paper by Wyman and D.W. Allen in 1951 could be said to prefigure what later became known as the allosteric hypothesis. After his return to (more or less) full-time science Wyman developed the theoretical basis of the scheme of Monod and Jacob, which postulated an equilibrium between two conformational states, one of high, the other of lower oxygen (or more generally ligand) affinity; this became the MWC model for ligand-controlled activity of subunit proteins. The theory of linked functions ('A Second Look') occupied another widely cited review in 1964. Later papers enlarged on the thermodynamics of ligand interactions and linked functions. On occasion a certain self-indulgence, which would be harder to sustain today, revealed itself. A paper in the Journal of Molecular Biology in 1965, in which Wyman outlined his concept of binding potentials, began: 'In the course of reading over the other day, at a window by the sea, the page proof of an article on linkage I was suddenly struck …' The extent to which protein chemists have found uses for the binding potential and some of the other later elaborations of the theory of linked functions is uncertain. There remain Wyman's two books, the first with John Edsall, relevant and enlightening to this day, and the second, published 32 years later, with S.J. Gill on Binding and Linkage, also still widely used. One is left at the end of the story with the impression that the solitary thread which ran unbroken through Wyman's peculiar and varied life was an intense scientific curiosity. In 1902 the Oxford physicist, Nevil Story Maskelyne, nearing the end of his life, was forced to submit to an operation, from which he was not expected to recover (although in the event he did). His last words before the anaesthetic took effect were: 'I must live: I want to know more about radium'. Wyman did better than Maskelyne, for he had the satisfaction of seeing his equations made manifest in the beautiful structures that Max Perutz brought to light. muscles and control mechanisms to move those photoreceptors around. Constantly moving the eyes, however, does create problems of how the visual input should be interpreted. What are saccades and what is suppressed? Saccades are the rapid eye movements that …