MagazineR941

Q & A

Roger CarpenterRoger Carpenter is Reader inOculomotor Physiology at theUniversity of Cambridge. His mainresearch interest is eyemovements, and especially theneural decision mechanisms thatdetermine where you look. He isthe author of Movements of theEyes as well as of the highlysuccessful textbookNeurophysiology. In 2000 he wasone of the inaugural winners of anational teaching prize.

What turned you on to your areaof science in the first place? Atschool, chemistry seemed theexciting thing — in those wonderfuldays before ‘health and safety’ weall loved the miniature explosions,the vivid colours and smells, thesense of dicing with death as wesucked concentrated sulphuricacid into our pipettes. Because thescholarship exam for Cambridgewas in December, after school Ihad the luxury of eight months todo what I liked in. I spent themworking as a stageaire at the Nestlélabs in Switzerland, helping to findout just which chemicals in coffeemake it smell good. Browsing intheir superb library during the longlunch breaks, I stumbled acrossAdrian’s Physical Background ofPerception and other books aboutthe brain — and got inextricablyhooked. So despite knowing noreal biology at all, when I got toCambridge I promptly droppedchemistry and combinedphysiology with physics and mathsand psychology — a headymixture, especially in a lab whereHodgkin and Huxley were solvingnerve, William Rushton wasworking out the mechanisms ofretinal adaptation, and eccentricssuch as Giles Brindley and FergusCampbell forced one to questioneverything one thought one knew.

Do you have a favourite paper?For over 30 years, oculomotorneurophysiology was dominated byDavid Robinson at Johns Hopkins.By training an engineer, with anapparently infinite store of novel

and compelling ideas, he set out towork steadily through the neuralcircuitry that moves the eyes,identifying its quantitative functionsstage by stage. It really all startedin 1964 with The mechanics ofhuman saccadic eye movements(J. Physiol 174, 245-264), in whichhe demonstrated just how ill-suitedthe oculomotor ‘plant’ is for what ithas to do, and the correspondingsophistication of the neuralcommand signals that enable itnevertheless to functionadequately. From this beginning,he was able to work systematicallybackwards: first the motor neurons,then the brainstem circuits thatdrive them … the rest is history.

Do you enjoy conferences? Loaththem: all that angst and pushynetworking. But very smallsymposia amongst colleagues whoare in speculative rather thancompetitive mode, such as theones hosted by Novartis in London… that’s a different matter.

Do you have a scientific hero?We’re all dazzled by the brilliantinsights of the Einsteins andNewtons, the Beethovens andWagners of science. But I have tosay that personally I’m moreimpressed by the quieter profundity(and thorough professionalism) ofHermann von Helmholtz, thescientific equivalent of J.S.Bach.He started as a medical student,but already by the age of 27 hisscientific work, notably on theconservation of energy, had gainedhim the Chair of Physiology atKönigsberg. There he made far-reaching contributions to the studyof nerve and physiological optics— including the invention of theophthalmoscope — and later thefunction of the ear, culminating inthose two monumental works, theHandbuch der physiologischenOptik and Die Lehre von denTonempfindungen. Gradually hisinterests began to become morepurely physical, and he contributedin fundamental ways to dynamics,optics, electromagnetism … therange of his achievement wassimply astonishing. It tells yousomething about his scientificstature that he is claimed as aphysiologist by physiologists andas a physicist by physicists.

How does the future for biologyin universities look? Not good. Ageneral shortage of money hasgone hand-in-hand with the mostcrazily bean-counting ways ofallocating it, which paradoxicallyencourage waste and inefficiency.Faculty appointments are nowmore determined by how muchmoney a candidate is likely toattract than how good theirresearch is (and certainly not by thequality of their teaching, an activityincreasingly regarded as ashameful waste of resources). Sothere is pressure to set up factory-like labs with serried ranks of post-docs and graduate students, doingregimented routines at the benchas they get trained up for non-existent jobs. It’s not a life to attractthe most spirited or intelligent ofour students, who tend to look tothe City if they want to use theirbrains. Nor does it make mucheconomic sense. Large labspublish less per capita than smallones, and because — notoriously— research grants never covertheir costs, faculties get evendeeper into financial difficulties,and impose yet further cuts instudent teaching. One day, whenthe Government eventually realiseswhat is going on, it will all end intears; but even if they don’t, thepresent system is unsustainableand intrinsically unstable.

If you were starting over again,would you still pursue the samecareer path? My ambition at theage of 10 was to be a madscientist, working in an attic filledwith Frankensteinish equipment —and I have succeeded beyond mywildest dreams! So yes.The Physiological Laboratory, Universityof Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EG, UK.