A Serendipitous Path to Pharmacology

My path to research in neuropharmacology has been a coalescing of my training as a molecular biologist and my intense interest in an esoteric group of animals, the fish-hunting cone snails. Attempting to bridge these two disparate worlds has led me to an idiosyncratic career as a pharmacologist.

Sydney Brenner. 13 January 1927—5 April 2019

From modest beginnings Sydney became an extraordinarily influential and accomplished molecular biologist. His critical knowledge of, and insights into, key scientific problems were legendary. His irrepressible personality, acerbic wit and ebullient talks inspired a generation of young biologists. He made seminal discoveries in how genetic information is used for protein synthesis, and established Caenorhabditis elegans as one of the foremost model organisms for the study of development and neural function. He also pioneered techniques for genome analysis and was instrumental in establishing several outstanding centres of biological research around the world.

Post-Materialist Integral Ecology

This essay is an example of a post-materialist science in the work of molecular biologist Candace Pert. Post-materialist science supersedes materialist-reductionist science and integrates spirituality with materiality. This discussion is motivated by the author’s experience as an academic in a New England institution. Integral ecology is entangled with post-material science as in the work of cosmologist Brian Swimme, Thomas Berry and Mary-Evelyn Tucker. The last part discusses the author’s creation of a non-profit organization in the Peruvian Upper Amazon. The work of her center is a response to requests by the local indigenous leadership for an alternative to their slash and burn form of agriculture. The alternative is the regeneration of a pre-Columbian anthropogenic Amazonian soil known as Terra Preta do Indio (black earth of the Indians) in Brazil, which integrates materiality and spirituality and offers the possibility of food security and sovereignty as well as climate mitigation.