I by no means met Sir John Gaddum. He died in 1965, shortly after ill-health compelled his retirement, three years earlier than my arrival on the Institute of Animal Physiology at Babraham; Richard Keynes had succeeded him as Director. Many if the pharmacologists Gaddum had appointed had been nonetheless round and tales of his seven years on the Institute, in addition to earlier in Edinburgh, abounded. Most of them involved his indecisiveness, particularly in approving minor expenditure throughout a time of relative lots. I learn extra about Gaddum a few years in the past whereas writing a biographical memoir on Len Goodwin. Gaddum was a buyer (‘the untidy Dr Gaddum’) on the shoe store Len’s father managed and there have been interactions of the 2 pharmacologists later in life. William Feldberg (1900-1993) wrote Gaddum’s biographical memoir for the Royal Society; he included 26 notable quotations from Gaddum’s works. Many are involved with pharmacology and its ramifications however three are of explicit observe and I want I had seen them sooner after I was ready to deploy them with impact.
On analysis: Enthusiasm isn’t sufficient.
It’s normally a waste of time to accumulate a brand new analysis device after which go searching for issues to which it is likely to be utilized.
It should in all probability at all times be extra vital to attempt a factor out than to argue about it.
Not possible as it’s to supply recommendation to anyone setting out in science within the twenty first century by those that operated and survived within the twentieth, these three Gaddum quotations are tenets which are timeless.
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| from Report for 1964-1965, Institute of Animal Physiology, Babraham, Cambridge London: Agricultural Analysis Council |
Feldberg W.S. 1967. John Henry Gaddum 1900-1965. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 13, 57-77.