Author: medkth

Whilst attending the unveiling of a new memorial in Duthie Park, Aberdeen to the scientists who in 1922 developed the first medically useable insulin, I got my chance to say thank you to one of them – native of Aberdeen and later, Professor of Physiology at the University of Toronto, John James Rickard Macleod. (Incidentally, that’s my insulin pen in my hand, not a vape I’m offering him.)

The following day on a return visit to the park, a sudden bout of hypoglycaemia in close proximity to Macleod’s statue resulted in a letter about his work in the Financial Times…ah well, as they say, every cloud….

At the start of September, I was honoured to be invited to a ceremony attended by delegates from Toronto, the Canadian Consul for Scotland, dignitaries from the City of Aberdeen, and representatives from the Nobel Foundation at which a new memorial was unveiled in Duthie Park, Aberdeen which is truly a world first. It is the first and only memorial to date which names all four members of the team of Toronto-based scientists who, in 1922, developed the first medically useable insulin.

One of these was John James Rickard Macleod who was a native of Aberdeen but had become Professor of Physiology at the University of Toronto where, in 1923, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with his colleague Fred Banting for their work on insulin. But following the award of the prize, what had already been a strained and often acrimonious relationship with Banting deteriorated even further with the result that in 1928, Macleod returned to his home city of Aberdeen where in 2023 the John Macleod Memorial Statue Society commemorate his vital contribution to medicine by unveiling a statue by local sculptor John McKenna in Duthie Park.

I was saddened to hear of the death of Bill Astbury, whose ceaseless support & enthusiasm for my research into his grandfather, the textile physicist and pioneer of molecular biology William T Astbury was always such an inspiration. Our paths first crossed when Bill was working as a children’s storyteller at Headingley Library in Leeds, displaying a talent and passion which was apparent in the memories of his grandfather that he kindly shared with me over the years when I was writing my book ‘The Man in the Monkeynut Coat.’ Thanks so much for all you did, Bill – I couldn’t have written it without you. You’ll be missed.

It may just look like a lead box with a few sides missing, but don’t be fooled – this is a piece of science history. It’s actually a camera – but one that uses X-rays instead of visible light, and on Sat 13th July I explained to visitors from the Clothworkers Company how, using this equipment, physicist William Astbury made X-ray studies of the molecular structure of wool fibres that led him and his colleage Florence Bell to take the first X-ray images of DNA fibres.

The visit celebrated the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Yorkshire College of Science in 1874, which eventually became the University of Leeds. First founded nearly 500 years ago, the Clothworkers Company provided invaluable financial support for both the establishment of the Yorkshire College of Science, and later for Astbury’s post as Lecturer in Textile Physics. I’d like to thank them for their enthusiasm & interest in learning how, with their funding and support, wool helped weave a path to double helix and resulted in today’s Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology! (Accompanied by visual aids of bead necklace from Headingley charity shop to illustrate molecular structure of proteins!)