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book reviews The enfant terrible of

My in by BioMed Central Ltd • 2001 Hardback £14.99/$21.00 John White

t a recent post-symposium reception, I work in the Cavendish Laboratories of the C. elegans enterprise was self-sustaining, was talking to one of the participants Medical Research Council with Francis Brenner moved away from the field, hav- Awhen the conversation drifted towards Crick. These two giants of science seemed ing become fascinated with the newly dis- our scientific pedigrees, as so often hap- to have developed a strong mutual respect covered potential of cloning in the pens. When I revealed the identity of my for each other from the beginning and mid 1970s. This interest evolved into a fas- graduate advisor, the response was immedi- went on to share an office for twenty cination with whole . ate and spontaneous: “Ah, Sydney Brenner, years. In characteristic style he selected an the greatest scientist who never won the Brenner’s early career in Cambridge organism that he considered optimal for ”. This was not an isolated inci- produced some truly classic science. In studying vertebrate sequences — the fugu dent. Brenner is very much a scientist’s sci- collaboration with François Jacob and fish; an organism that probably has entist, long recognized by many as one of Matt Meselson, messenger RNA was pos- around the same number of as any the truly outstanding scientists of our age. tulated and then demonstrated to exist. In other vertebrate but has eightfold less In the course of my scientific career I have collaboration with Francis Crick and DNA. encountered many distinguished people. Lesley Barnett, the codon (Brenner’s word) I was delighted to hear that Brenner Most did not live up to their reputations. was shown to be three bases in length. had written an autobiography. After Brenner was different, he seemed larger In the early 1960s, after the receiving it, however, I was a little disap- than life: an extraordinary combination of was solved, many of the luminaries of pointed to find that this book was a tran- energy, wit, charisma, mischief and fun. molecular turned their attention to script of a 15-hour interview by Lewis Many, including myself, were seduced by questions of , developmental or neuro- Wolpert that was liberally peppered with this unique combination into radically biology. Brenner, with characteristic exclamation marks. But my disappoint- changing the direction of our careers, often panache and courage decided to mount an ment was short lived. Reading it, I was to our considerable satisfaction. assault on all these fields. He reasoned that immediately transported back thirty years Brenner was born in Germiston, a small the lessons learned from using genetics on to the 10 o’clock show in the coffee room town near Johannesburg. Although his simple model to study funda- of the MRC where Brenner would delight, father, a cobbler, was illiterate, he may have mental questions of entertain and inform us with his inim- been the source of Brenner’s vitality as he could be applied to the study of cell, devel- itable monologues. Brenner loves talking plied his craft into his 80’s. Brenner opmental and neurobiology most effective- and feeds on an audience. He claims that learned to read at the age of four from ly if an appropriate model organism could many of his ideas arise in the course of newspapers used as a tablecloth in a room be found. He sought an organism with a conversations where they become honed where a friend of his mother lived. Brenner short lifespan that would be amenable to and refined by scientific discourse. He is a advanced rapidly in school and went to genetic analysis and small enough so that gifted impersonator with a mischievous medical school in Johannesburg when he its anatomy and development could stud- sense of humour. Much of his humour was 14 years old. It was here that his inter- ied at the level of individual, identified and personality come across in this book est in biology was really ignited by such cells. The organism he chose was, of course, in a way that would be stifled in a more classic works as Needham’s the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.I conventionally presented autobiography. and Morphogenesis (Cambridge), which he often hear Brenner’s justification for The editors have done a good job of flesh- read out loud during lunch breaks with his choosing C. elegans repeated almost as a ing out Brenner’s “stream of unconscious- mentor, Joseph Gillman. litany when listening to a seminar from one ness” with some historical fillers. Overall Brenner moved on to Cyril of the 1000 or so scientists currently study- this delightful book is highly entertaining Hinchelwood’s laboratory in Oxford after ing this organism. Brenner succeeded in and informative, and gives a unique medical school. It was here that he started launching studies of C. elegans into what insight into the mind and personality of working on bacteriophages. While in has come to be a major world enterprise by one of the most influential and colourful , Brenner became aware of the the strength of his vision, his extraordinary scientists of our time during a period of dawning of the new age of molecular biol- charisma, and sheer hard work. Brenner’s scientific revolution that radically ogy heralded by Watson and Crick’s enthusiasm was highly infectious; postdocs changed the world. model of the structure of DNA and its came to Cambridge and left to set up their John White is in the laboratory of Molecular profound implications. After finishing his own C. elegans labs all over the world. Biology, University of Wisconsin, 1975 PhD and returning to South Africa, Brenner’s restless energy kept him Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706, USA Brenner soon returned to England to moving on. After it was clear that the e-mail: [email protected]

E36 CELL BIOLOGY VOL 4 FEBRUARY 2002 http://cellbio.nature.com

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