The 2007 Nobel Prize in Medicine was shared between three scientists, Mario Capecchi, Sir Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies, for, as the Nobel site describes, "their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells". Dr Capecchi's contribution, in the words of The Economist (Oct 13-19 issue), was to "work out how to define and excise particular pieces of DNA from a cell while leaving the rest intact".
But what interests me here is not so much is the science behind his work, but the struggles of his childhood.
Mario Capecchi was born in 1937 in Verona, Italy. During the Second World War his airman father was killed in Libya, while his mother was sent to the Dachau concentration camp for belonging to an anti-Fascist group. And at the age of four and a half years, he was on his own on the streets of Northern Italy. For four years he lived in orphanages and moved around with groups of homeless children, nearly dying of malnutrition. His mother, after being freed from Dachau, located him in a hospital after a yearlong search. He had a fever, and was surviving on just chicory coffee and bread crust.
He moved with his mother to America in 1946, after an uncle sent them money. In 1961 he received his BS degree in chemistry and physics and in 1967 completed his Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard.
From a homeless street child to a Nobel Laureate; a difficult journey indeed. In fact much more difficult than any of us is ever likely to face. So if you think that your own struggles are too difficult, and you are almost ready to give in, do recall once more the life of this great man.
2 comments:
Struggle is something which is the steping stone for success.
Untill and unless we wont struggle we wont know how precious and valuable the success is.
Below mentioned is a small struggle we all humans face
We have only 2 things to worry about,either we are sick or we are healthy,if we are healthy, we have nothing to worry about,but if we are sick we have 2 things to worry about,we will get well,or we will die,if we get well,we have nothing to worry about,but if we die,we will have 2 things to worry about,we will go up,or we will go down,if we go up,there is nothing to worry about,but if we go down,we will be be waiting for our beloved ones.
"STRUGGLE ALWAYS WITH A POSITIVE APPROACH AND SUCCESS FOLLOWS"
STRUGGLE
Struggle often is required for us to survive. Charles Darwin gave us the Theory of Evolution of life which stated that evolution was a byproduct of struggle (Survival of the fittest – and the fittest are the ones which have survived the most struggles). Without struggle there simply would be no point in life. Rather than getting life served on a platter, it better would be to struggle for life, because the strongest are the ones who have survived the harshest struggles.
Simple example of struggle is that of a Butterfly.
A small story would make us think the importance of struggle.
A curious toddler was observing two eggs metamorphosing into Butterflies. He was amazed at the wonder of first egg morphing into a Larva, the Larva into Pupa and finally the struggle of an adult Butterfly emerging out of Pupa. Although he was happy to see the adult butterfly, he was saddened to see the struggle of Butterfly coming out of Pupa. Hence he decided he will intervene and help out the second Larva to come out of Pupa. Once the second Butterfly started emerging out of Pupa, the curios child helped remove the outer protective shell. But alas he was saddened to see the second Butterfly die which he had helped and the first Butterfly which had struggled to come out, survive. He then realized hadn’t he helped the second Pupa; it too would have struggled and survived. The struggle of Pupa was necessary to develop strength to survive in future life.
Often we curse our situation where we face so many struggles, but we fail to understand that it is these struggles which have helped us in making what we are today. Even the strongest steel goes through the fiercest fires. We daily pray God give us strength and courgare..and God certainly answers our prayers by putting us through tough times and struggles thereby making us more stronger..
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