For as long as I can remember, I have been curious about how things work. As a child, I often took household items apart, like the family phone and my parent’s stereo. I must admit that they did not always go back together exactly as I found them. When I thought about studying medicine, it occurred to me that the human brain may not have the power to disentangle the complexity and beauty of the human body. My brain has not been up to this task, but I’m getting ahead of my story.
I met my first mentor, Dr. Steve George, during my undergraduate education at Amherst College. Dr. George was a biophysicist, now emeritus. His distinguished visage (Google “Steve George Amherst College”) hasn’t changed. Dr. George studied ion channel opening in giant squid axons. I didn’t (and still don’t) understand all of the details, especially those that later led...