|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thomas Starzl
Father of Modern Transplantation
There was a doctor named Wendell Downing whose son became a doctor and practiced -- probably still does -- in Des Moines, Iowa. But the older Dr. Downing, recognizing that I was interested in medicine and in surgery, invited me to come and watch operations, which I did, and observed operations that today are rarely done, like radical mastectomy for cancer of the breast and other operations. He taught me some details of anatomy that always stuck. It was always easy to remember the long thoracic nerve of Bell, because that was a nerve which one tried hard to preserve doing a radical mastectomy. So I spent quite a bit of time in the operating room, just watching surgery. I remember at first they were quite concerned that I might keel over and faint at the first sight of blood, but it didn't bother me.
View Interview with Thomas Starzl
View Biography of Thomas Starzl
View Profile of Thomas Starzl
View Photo Gallery of Thomas Starzl
|
|
|
Thomas Starzl
Father of Modern Transplantation
Thomas Starzl: By elucidating the mechanisms of engraftment, the tools have been handed on now that are going to make it possible to get people off (immunosuppressant) drugs more frequently or to use low doses of drugs more frequently. By understanding mechanism also, it may be possible to move into xenotransplant objectives, the use of animal organs. Or there is an interface, a powerful one, between transplantation and stem cell biology that might be exploitable. So I don't think that the lid is on transplantation. But with something new, the skyrocket goes here, and then it gets into a plateau which may be sustained on an upward trajectory, but it will never be straight up like it was at that time. With all its vicissitudes, I like the straight shot. It's a little bit like flying to the moon. That was a tremendous achievement in 1969, but it's slowly lost power, lost power, and in fact, even our participation -- at least moon exploration -- is coming to an end. We're turning it all over to the Russians. But there are planets out there beyond that, so there's room for more. But probably nothing will ever have the thrill of having some guy walking around on the moon.
View Interview with Thomas Starzl
View Biography of Thomas Starzl
View Profile of Thomas Starzl
View Photo Gallery of Thomas Starzl
|
|
|
Martha Stewart
Multi-Media Lifestyle Entrepreneur
In college I discovered the world of chemistry, which I loved. I discovered the world of architectural history. I discovered so many different things that I decided that maybe I would forgo the teaching career for a while. The first thing that really caught me was the stock market. I became a stockbroker, immediately out of college, forgoing architecture school. My dream now, in retrospect then, was to be an eclectic knowledge-gathering person, in order to be able to learn and then to teach. And I'm still doing that, so I think I am a teacher.
View Interview with Martha Stewart
View Biography of Martha Stewart
View Profile of Martha Stewart
View Photo Gallery of Martha Stewart
|
|
|
Robert Strauss
Presidential Medal of Freedom
Robert Strauss: Oh yes, I loved to read, but I didn't read very many worthwhile things. People now are too young to remember Tom Swift, or to remember Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Those are the kinds of things that I read growing up. I couldn't get enough of them, and I can remember the marvelous stories that were in The Saturday Evening Post. I couldn't wait for it to come every week, so we could read the fiction story that was in there or the novel that was in there. Sometimes it was continued from week to week, other times it was in one issue. So I read, and I read newspapers. When I was 12, 13, 14 years old, I read the paper regularly. Today, I guess I read four papers a day, maybe five or six. That comes from a habit of my early youth of enjoying reading current stories. I never was as interested in history as many of my friends, but I was always more interested in the current than they were. So you can have chocolate or vanilla; I chose one flavor.
View Interview with Robert Strauss
View Biography of Robert Strauss
View Profile of Robert Strauss
View Photo Gallery of Robert Strauss
|
| |
