As my father would say, "they don't make them like that any more". He delights in telling me the irony that the University made him chair of the safety committee. It is an absolute treasure, especially the postscript in which he describes his self-confessed "mad" boyhood attempt to make a 30,000v induction coil and an x-ray machine. If you can persevere with his handwriting, it is well worth a read. In my years post-graduation, I exchanged several important correspondences with Prof McCarthy, and one letter in particular epitomizes the man, in terms of his impish humour, his inventiveness, and his generosity. Both of them played a pivotal role in my scientific development, were widely published, highly respected, and both made major contributions to the field of infectious disease. Tony took over as Head of Department following Prof McCarthy's retirement, in which capacity he served until his untimely death in September of 2007 aged 59. Prof McCarthy retired in 1986, the year I left the lab, and although I was his last graduate student, he continued with his research for another 10 years after his "retirement'. At the time I was there, Prof McCarthy was Head of Department, a position that he had assumed from Prof. The first 2 of these giants, Kevin McCarthy and Tony Hart were my mentors when I was a graduate student in Liverpool England. In any event, any accomplishments of the Leib Laboratory owe a great deal to 3 giants, all now sadly passed on. If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." You have added much several ways, and especially in taking the colours of thin plates into philosophical consideration. Isaac Newton also wrote in a letter to his rival Robert Hooke: We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours." "We are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. The 12th century theologian and author John of Salisbury used a version of the phrase: That is, we use the understanding gained by major thinkers who have gone before us in order to make intellectual progress. All of us in science, to a greater or lesser extent, stand on the shoulders of giants.
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