Final Words at Bocca di Magra

Abstract

As I thought some time ago about what I was going to tell you, I realized that I would be obliged to say about myself more than what I should or what you may wish to hear. I must then ask you to forgive me if I reminisce a little about my initiation in fluorescence which was probably quite close to the initiation of the uses of fluorescence in Biochemistry. I went to Cambridge from the Argentine in 1943 with a British Council Fellowship and spent my first six months at the laboratory of Eric Riddeal learning Surface Chemistry. I convinced myself that it had no future in Biochemistry. You can see how wrong I was; I could have preceded relevant work on membranes by a long period but I really missed my chance. And it was not for lack of hints: At that time, Jim Danieli, in Cambridge itself, and Dawson were telling everybody that cell membranes were essentially lipid bilayers but nobody listened to them for quite a time. I was one of the non-listeners. I then decided that I would be better off to work in Biochemistry with Malcolm Dixon and went to talk to him about doing some work applying Physical Chemistry to Biochemistry. In those days Physical Chemistry was beginning to appear as important to Biochemistry, in relation to a subject that is still very much alive: the Physical Chemistry of Proteins. Since then we have made some progress in that area but as you know, it has not been spectacular. Malcolm Dixon suggested that I investigate the fluorescence of flavins and flavoproteins.