Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Molecular biologist who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for mapping the atomic structure of the ribosome and became President of the Royal Society.
On the island
Eight records
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:53How did you find out that you'd actually won [the Nobel Prize]?
I came into work that day. I was actually late because I'd had a puncture on my bicycle. And I was somewhat irate, and I got this phone call, and this woman said, This is a very important phone call from the Swedish Academy of Sciences and I immediately suspected an elaborate prank, because I have some friends who would play exactly that sort of prank. And so when the fellow came on and said he was the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy and he wanted to congratulate me, I didn't quite believe him. And then in response to my comments, I heard laughter at the other end, and I realized I was on a speaker phone at the other end. And so gradually it sank in.
Presenter asks
5:52What sort of pressure were you under [at the time of the race to map the ribosome]?
In my case it was there was even more pressure because I'd moved to this institution. By telling them, you know, I'm going to come here and solve the ribosome. And if I didn't do it, you know, I'd have no credibility at all. Competition is very good for science because it made all of us work really hard, pull out all the stops, and just think very hard and obsess about the problem. So everything went much faster when multiple groups started competing. But it's really terrible for the scientists. It's huge stress and pressure.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
The Feynman Lectures on Physics
Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton, Matthew Sands
Well, I mentioned that both I and my son are failed physicists, so I thought I'd give myself a second chance. And so my book would be the Feynman Lectures on Physics. ... So that should help me take my mind off my isolation.
The luxury
I thought I would take my wife's grand piano. She might be willing to sort of let go of it out of a sense of pity, and that might help me keep up my piano playing.
What kind of student were you at school as a young boy?
I became a bit of a rebel. I would read all sorts of things that interested me, but I didn't pay much attention to my school work. I lost interest in my studies and slipped from the top of my class to the bottom third. I think my parents were so worried and eventually I have a feeling they sort of gave up on me for a while. There was a very good science and mathematics teacher in our school who reignited my interest in studies. So finally I got back on track. But in between there were times when I would cut classes and, you know, play hooky. I wasn't exactly a model student. And even in university, if I found classes boring, they would take attendance in our classes, even in university. And so we would sit next to a window, my friend and I, and as soon as attendance was taken and the lecturer turned his back to us to write something on the blackboard, we would just jump out of the window and run off and, you know, go and have a cup of coffee or something.
Presenter asks
16:22How much of a culture shock was it arriving in the America of 1971 as a teenage boy?
Well, it was a huge culture shock because India is a fairly staid and conservative country in terms of our personal attire and lives. In fact, many students still lived with their parents as undergraduates. And suddenly I was thrust into the early 70s, which is really a continuation of the 60s in America. What you might describe as sex, drugs, and rock and roll in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Just seeing people and the way they dressed, you know, with their tattered jeans and long hair. Women in quite scantily clad attire was a rather big culture shock.
Presenter asks
30:32How widespread do you think [the problem of bullying in scientific and academic environments] is?
I don't know because a lot of these incidents are anecdotal. The problem, I think, is an enormous power differential. And the power differential comes from the fact that often the supervisor controls the funding of the student or the postdoc research fellow, and they're often paid from the supervisor's grant. So, that's one source of power. The other source of power is more subtle, which is that if the apprentice, whether it's a student or postdoc, wants to get on with their career, they always need a recommendation from the supervisor. And even the lukewarm recommendation is often enough to sink the prospects of the research fellow. And so, this creates a very large power differential. But the Royal Society is trying to lead the way. We have an active program on the research culture: what is wrong with it, what's right with it, and what needs to be changed. And bullying, of course, will be part of that work.
“It must be how explorers felt when they came across a completely new landscape.”
“The excitement of building a structure cannot be exaggerated. Until that point, the molecule is a black box. You know it exists and what it does, not a lot more. Now suddenly, you see the molecule in its full glory.”
“I couldn't get hold of her. She actually learned it from a friend of mine. And when we finally spoke, she said, I thought you had to be really smart to win one of those.”
“Underneath that thin veneer of rationality, we're all highly emotional beings.”
“I realized here I was married with a young stepdaughter and I better get my act together.”
“Being able to occupy yourself and not going crazy could be quite difficult, could be a challenge.”