When the world of molecular biology was still a small one, the Fifth Floor of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund labs in Lincolns Inn Fields was the place in Europe to be. Drawn by the twin imperatives of living in London and hanging out with some of the best scientists in the world, a host of talented individuals passed through its cluttered labs and corridors on their way to fame and/or fortune. Ex-inhabitants recall with gusto the infighting, the indiscretions, and the eccentricities of some of the main players, but above all, the exhilaration of working in an environment where making new discoveries seemed commonplace.

In Chapter 2 of Blue Skies and Bench Space, I’ve tried to convey the excitement of the time, although considerations of propriety and libel laws have meant that the more unsavoury aspects of life on the Fifth Floor have been omitted. In any case, I thought that instead of writing more stuff about the science, I’d devote this post to some of the protagonists, and let you hear them in their own words. So, what follows are audio clips from my interviews with Lionel Crawford, Mike Fried, Bob Kamen, Adrian Hayday and Richard Treisman. I should perhaps use this opportunity to apologise for the awful woman that you can hear saying “mmm” a lot and laughing immoderately in some of these recordings.  I have a hard time shutting up and just listening, which is a real pain when trying to edit audio footage (and in real life).

Lionel Crawford, PhD student, 1956

First up is Lionel Crawford, who was responsible for setting up the fifth floor and recruiting many of its stars. In this first clip, he talks about his time as a postdoc at Caltech, and his first meeting with Max Delbrück.

And here’s Lionel discussing ICRF Director Sir Michael Stoker:

and finally, Lionel’s impressions of John Cairns and Cold Spring Harbor back in the day:

Mike Fried, 2002

Mike Fried started off his interview by telling me how he got interested in science. His older sister had worked with Joshua Lederberg, and she was a strong influence on him, possibly more so than his Mum, who wanted him to be a medic, and always hoped that when he’d finished his PhD he’d go back and become a proper doctor:

Mike’s demeanour in seminars was sometimes downright alarming. Here, he describes an attempted lesson in seminar etiquette from Geoff Clarke, who was particularly noted for his caring attitude towards younger scientists.

Bob Kamen spoke to me from New Hampshire on a snowy morning back in January 2012 about his introduction to molecular biology via Harriet Taylor-Ephrussi and her husband Boris Ephrussi:

Bruce Aidells, sausage supremo

Pretty much everyone went to The George IV pub after work, and it was a major point of fraternisation with folk from other floors, some of whom were not quite so focussed on their science:

Adrian Hayday, 2013

Adrian Hayday is a group leader at the LRI these days, but was once a PhD student with Mike Fried. He viewed his time on the Fifth Floor as excellent training for the even more superheated atmosphere of Susumu Tonegawa’s lab at MIT, his next destination:

Richard Treisman and Otto, possibly the best cat in the world

Richard Treisman started life at ICRF as Bob Kamen’s student, and after wandering off to both Cambridges for a bit, returned to the ICRF in 1989, where he’s been ever since. This is him with my cat Otto in the early 1990s. Otto was an enormous and very affectionate animal beloved of all who knew him, and he appears here for no reason other than that he was lovely!

Returning to science, here’s Richard discussing conditions on the Fifth Floor:

And finally, how not to do experiments and deal with one’s PhD supervisor

So now if you read the chapter, you can put a voice to some of the voices, so to speak.