The Obsession
There are two classes of scientists that always amaze me in a “how the hell do they do that?” way.
The first are scientists that do fifty different things in ten different fields, excelling in all of them and contributing fundamental new discoveries in each of them. George Whitesides is a classic example of this. He’s been studying physical organic chemistry, microfluidics, surface chemistry, biochemistry, materials chemistry, nanotechnology, and even dabbling in a little origins-of-life speculation. The guy knows his stuff, that’s for sure.
The other side of the coin are those scientists that pick one topic and stick with it for their entire career, often for decades; the only thing that changes is their technique. Paul Schimmel is one guy like that; he has been studying tRNAs and tRNA synthetases for over 30 years, from before the advent of DNA sequencing through the modern genomic era. It’s incredible; I can’t imagine doing this. First, how do you find so many questions to ask about one topic? Second, don’t you ever get tired of this? And yet, even now, he’s still churning out Nature and Science papers on his obsession — there’s really no other way to put it.
