Names from the past

 I just saw a name in the news that brought back some very old memories.  It seems that a prominent scientist, Leonard Hayflick has died at the ripe old age of 98.  As a very young graduate student back in 1987, one of my faculty advisors gave me a scientific paper to read that Hayflick had written.  It was already a classic paper that was part of the basic knowledge all bioscientists must learn.  Hayflick had found that individual cells can be grown in the lab, in artificial conditions, but without any special modifications they had a strictly limited lifespan.  A given cell would divide to give two cells, and those divide, and so forth.  But no matter how well they were cared for in the lab conditions, they would only divide a certain number of times.  My faculty advisor, Dr. Jerry Thompson, introduced me to this basic tissue culture principle at the very beginning of my career in science.  I'd spend a little over five years as a graduate student.  Another four or so as a postdoctoral fellow, and then another 25 as a working scientist.  But I still remember Dr. Thompson, Dr. Hayflick's paper, and the principles of biology I learned by reading that paper (and it was actually a printed piece of paper, in the days before .pdf or indeed, the internet.)  What hadn't occurred to me was that Dr. Hayflick was still alive.  Or was until very recently.  (Dr. Thompson died suddenly many years ago.)  Such a blast from the past.  Here's to you, Dr. Hayflick.