Is There a Path to Being a Scientist?

The author grew up in Toronto until he was 18, then went to McGill University. He didn't know what biochemistry was at all but knew it was hard to get into the program. "I don't think I took a proper back chemistry class," he says of his early education. In 1990 is cool because Eastern Europe has opened up. The Berlin Wall has fallen. And I graduate, and I have a girlfriend who I'd been living with for a year, or two even. She's from New York. I'm from Toronto. We both need to work."