Why this weekend is called BigHook

BigHook2000 is named for a story that the late Albert Szent-Gyorgyi told. Szent-Gyorgyi was a Woods Hole scientist. Before he came to Woods Hole he won the Nobel Prize for discovering Vitamin C. When he came to Woods Hole, he found out a lot about muscle contraction, that is, how biology turns carbon and oxygen into physical force. Then he worked on cancer, that is, how cells decide when to divide.

Szent-Gyorgyi was a fisherman too. He said that if he was going to fish at all, he was going to use a big hook. He didn't want to be bothered with little fish -- or little ideas -- that couldn't get their mouths around his hook. Besides, he said, imagining catching a really big one was vastly more exciting than the reality of catching little ones.

This weekend, let's fish with a big hook.

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Date page last modified: October 16, 2001