Mydecision to become a biochemist has its roots in youthful indecision. I grew up on a dairy farm in northwestern Illinois surrounded by domestic and wild animal and plant life and came to love the world of biology. This interest was strongly encouraged by my mother, who had been an excellent student of biology in college but was thwarted by the Great Depression and her family’s poverty from pu...

At the close of the 20th century, fundamental discoveries changed broadly the worlds of physics, biology and medicine. The rapid advancements achieved during recent years, mainly due to revolutionary methodological improvements, have led to an unparalleled explosion of information; often appear to overshadow the earlier works. However as more basic discoveries are made these separate scientific...