Nobel Prize Winner Chalfie Speaks At Clarkson On Research, Touch

POTSDAM - For the eighth time in 16 years, a Nobel Prize winner has come to Clarkson University to speak to students.

Martin L. Chalfie, who was one of three to win the 2008 Prize in chemistry, came to Potsdam as part of the university's Shipley Lecture Series, which brings one scientist to campus every year to lecture.

"We just, with this guest, we have reached 50 percent of our scholars with Nobel laureates," said Egon Matijevic, professor of colloid and surface science and the series organizer. "Even Harvard cannot do better."

Mr. Chalfie, a biology professor at Columbia University, earlier this week talked to students about the importance of "basic" research, which is scientific work and experiments that investigate simple problems or questions like how molecules interact with each other.

For example, rather than trying to cure cancer, basic, or non-translatable, research seeks to find out how cancer cells spread and then try different experiments to see how that growth may be impeded.

And that is where the Green Florescent Protein for which Mr. Chalfie got his Nobel prize comes in.

The protein, which is found in jellyfish, emits light. By inserting it into certain cells, it is possible to see how cells spread and where they go, he said.

"What you're doing is, you're handing the cell a lantern so you can see where it's going," Mr. Chalfie said. "When you say to someone, 'This is a flashlight,' they can understand this."

Mr. Chalfie gave two talks while at Clarkson, one about the importance of basic research and another, more technical, lecture about how molecules interact in the sense of touch.

Though his topics were advanced and technical, his purpose in coming to Clarkson was more about the importance of experimentation and the need for scientists to work on these more fundamental questions.

"I think we often try to convince people that scientists are different kinds of people," he said. "When I was in high school, we were under the impression that experiments worked all the time; scientists work alone; they worked according to this thing called the scientific method and never discovered anything by accident and finally, except for Marie Curie, they were all white men. Every one of these things is completely untrue and completely wrong."