Beauty Won Me Over

Few people know any scientist(s) or what scientists do. Beauty Won Me Over: A Scientist’s Life is a deep dive into the life of Carl McDaniel, a developmental biologist. He became an academic scientist because his best friend in college recognised the scientist in him even before he himself did. Being severely cross-eyed and blind at birth meant he had no depth perception. Running became his sport and the ‘race’ a metaphor for existence. Running taught him that the real essence of living life well and to its fullest was giving body and soul to all one does. Working as a postdoctoral fellow in Ian Sussex’s lab at Yale University, he chanced upon the observation that Nicotiana tabacum plants counted nodes (the location of a leaf) as the means for deciding when to flower. Twenty-five years of research elucidated the fundamental elements of this process. Beyond doing science, academic scientists teach, provide service to the scientific community and the general public, as well as bring their perspectives of science to them.