Day of a Scientist 165 



for the head of one of the great foundations which was 

 considering a substantial grant to the University for the 

 development of African Studies. Bill and Nick had been 

 asked more or less out of courtesy since their interests were 

 rather remote from those of the foundation man. Seated 

 together some distance from the head table, they fell to 

 exchanging regrets about the way their growing adminis- 

 trative duties had taken them "away from the bench." Both 

 of them had made their reputations by using their hands 

 as well as their heads, and they missed the sense of involve- 

 ment with actual experimental work now that they were 

 turning over so many of their ideas to technicians and grad- 

 uate students to work out. 



Nick had raised a more serious point when he said, 

 "What worries me the most. Bill, is that, to be frank about 

 it, the stuff coming out of our two labs doesn't have the 

 same originality or what the Germans call 'Geisf that it did 

 when we were both assistant professors." 



"I know what you mean, Nick. It's good solid stuff. Your 

 recent review on the chemistry of the action potential was 

 swell. You don't have to be embarrassed about comparing 

 yourselves with any group in the country. But sometimes I 

 wonder if a guy like Ferrari with his little lab off in the 

 hills of Italy with almost no money, but time to think, isn't 

 really better off when it comes to making one of the real 

 leaps forward." 



"And then there is B. R. M. Cooper in that dinky lab 

 on the coast of England. I've visited his place, and I wonder 

 how he gets anything done at all with that odd equipment 

 of his, most of which he made himself. But did you notice 

 his letter to the editor in Nature the other day on impedence 

 changes in the head ganghon during learning in the octo- 

 pus? That could be a real breakthrough — God how sick 

 I am of hearing that word." 



