Professor Alan Handyside
In 2011, Professor Jim Al-Khalili, one of my favourite science communicators, started a series of programmes 'The Life Scientific' on Radio 4 in the UK, which continues today, interviewing prominent scientists about their scientific careers, the background to how their achievements had come about and the significance of their discoveries. I am not in that league! But I have been privileged to have a research career in mammalian embryology and genetics, which spans over 40 years. Over this period, there have been many important discoveries and achievements that I have been able to contribute to, or observe at close quarters, including the parental imprinting of genes, the derivation of embryonic stem cells, cloning of mammals and the sequencing of the human genome.
This is ‘My Life Scientific’ in a series of short essays which I will add to in the coming months, which retraces my steps from the beach on the coast of Northumberland where my love of the natural world was born to the present day. I hope it will inspire the younger generation to become involved in the lifesciences. There are many more discoveries to be made!