My failure as a 'real' scientist

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My missing book on myoclonus

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My failure as a 'real' scientist

Oliver Sacks Scientist

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When I first came to New York, I had a year in neuropathology and neurochemistry which was disastrous. I screwed the oil immersion objective of the microscope through several priceless slides. I... I lost a sample which I’d spent 10 months preparing, a sample of myelin from nerve sheaths, and, finally, I got some food in the ultracentrifuge. I was... this is a very expensive thing, and it ruined it, and basically they threw me out. They said, 'Sacks, you are a menace. Why don’t you go and see patients – you’ll do less harm’. And this was sort of the ignoble beginning of a clinical career.

Oliver Sacks (1933-2015) was born in England. Having obtained his medical degree at Oxford University, he moved to the USA. There he worked as a consultant neurologist at Beth Abraham Hospital where in 1966, he encountered a group of survivors of the global sleepy sickness of 1916-1927. Sacks treated these patients with the then-experimental drug L-Dopa producing astounding results which he described in his book Awakenings. Further cases of neurological disorders were described by Sacks with exceptional sympathy in another major book entitled The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat which became an instant best seller on its publication in 1985. His other books drew on his rich experiences as a neurologist gleaned over almost five decades of professional practice. Sacks's work was recognized by prestigious institutions which awarded him numerous honours and prizes. These included the Lewis Thomas Prize given by Rockefeller University, which recognizes the scientist as poet. He was an honorary fellow of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and held honorary degrees from many universities, including Oxford, the Karolinska Institute, Georgetown, Bard, Gallaudet, Tufts, and the Catholic University of Peru.

Title: My failure as a 'real' scientist

Listeners: Kate Edgar

Kate Edgar, previously Managing Editor at the Summit Books division of Simon and Schuster, began working with Oliver Sacks in 1983. She has served as editor and researcher on all of his books, and has been closely involved with various films and adaptations based on his work. As friend, assistant, and collaborator, she has accompanied Dr Sacks on many adventures around the world, clinical and otherwise.

Tags: neuropathology, neurochemistry, ultracentrifuge, myelin

Duration: 48 seconds

Date story recorded: September 2011

Date story went live: 02 October 2012