Frank Catchpool: Linus started talking one day about sickle cell anemia. And I knew a little bit about
it, but not nearly as much as I should do, and now in retrospect, knew I was dealing
with it everyday but not really recognizing it. We had no means of diagnosing sickle
cell anemia at that time in the jungle; we had no lab equipment and so on. But he
offered to speak to the doctors and staff at the hospital. I accepted on my behalf,
and persuaded, and a couple of the other doctors readily accepted to talk to him.
And I remember one evening we sat down at the dinner table and he gave a very neat
three-quarter hour lecture on sickle cell anemia - how it could be diagnosed, what
the nature of the disorder was - and I realized then that this was mostly his own
work. And I have realized then, of course since, that this work alone, as you have
probably found out talking to other people, was a very seminal piece of work in the
field. In fact he invented this term "a molecular disease." It was the first disease
of mankind that had ever been described right down to its last molecular detail. I
expect Linus has spoken about that. He gave us a short talk about it, and I began
to realize that to make the diagnosis we needed electrophoretic equipment, which involved
stabilized electrical current and so on, which we did not have at the hospital - we
had intermittent supplies of current and so on - but that it could be done.
Later talking with Linus, I said that if you postulate that all genetic mutations,
bad genetic mutations, or all diseases such as leukemia - which, you see, might have
been caused by radiation or some background effect which affects us - and you then
increase the background radiation, you could calculate very easily the number of cases
of leukemia that could be attributed to each megaton of atomic weapons exploded. And
he looked at me and said "yes, you can indeed," and he said ah, he told me the number
immediately, I don’t remember what it was. Because of his phenomenal memory. He makes
rapid calculations.
That’s where I first met him. And then about two years later I was on leave in the
United States, and I suddenly remembered that Linus had offered me a job as a post-doctorate
research fellow at Caltech.
