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John Bonner - Joining the inhabitants of ‘Mount Olympus’ (13/59)

84 views · Published 3 July 2017 · 2:33 · Indexed 28 October 2026

Channel: Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People · 2017 · Science & Technology

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To hear more of John Bonner’s stories, go to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoKbjMVfBA0&list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzJx77ir9rbTxVC9EnCyfHD

Born in 1920, John Bonner is one of the world's leading experts on cellular slime molds. His prime interests are in evolution and developmental biology and he uses cellular slime molds as a tool to understand both disciplines. [Listener: Christopher Sykes; date recorded: 2007]

TRANSCRIPT: What happened was that I was so enamoured with Professor William H Weston and his biology, and the way he did biology, and what he did in biology that I decided I want to work for him. But I wanted to do some things right away and so I said, 'Is there anything I can do during the summer which would go towards educating me?' And he said, 'Yes', he said, 'my old friend, William Randolph Taylor, teaches a course in Woods Hole on algae'.  And he said, 'Now, I will write to him and ask him if he can take you on'. And he came back and he said, he wrote back and said that only graduate students are allowed. He said, 'Let me work on him a bit, and see what I can do'. And I got admitted.

So here I was, very young, I had just finished my freshman year, and was surrounded by really… Woods Hole in those days was sort of like Mount Olympus. It had all these people who were really great, like Morgan, who had done something like put genetics on track. And so it was a big experience for me and I had a great time. I learned a lot about algae, not all of which I remember today, but it was really very nice.

But then I did meet there Dr [Edwin Grant] Conklin, who I got to know very well later on, who is a famous embryologist and many others like him and like Morgan. It was really quite a collection of stars or inhabitants of Mount Olympus, as I should say. And of course, I just loved it. I loved to go to the lectures and so forth. My father finally came down to check up on me and it was great. We got along very well and it was very, very nice.

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