Chapter 17: Breakup

Lederberg’s first five years at Stanford were intense as the young Nobel laureate was, as he put it, “transformed from a private person to a semi-public institution.” He was sought after for guest lectures at universities and international conferences, and he was on hiring committees for the new medical faculty, building up his small genetics department, and starting a new program of molecular genetics in his laboratory. He advised his young faculty on research directions, helped establish collaborations for them, and worked closely with the NASA laboratory to design instruments for detecting life on Mars. He suggested to engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory that rocket ships could be fueled by “crystalline plasma.” He also advised on boards of tech companies and he fired off ideas on computer applications for science…