Coming Full Cycle

For Paul Nurse, a biologist who has spent his career unraveling the molecular underpinnings of cell-cycle control, few things have come easy - not even learning that he'd won the 2001 Nobel Prize. The day of the announcement, Nurse was meeting with Jim Watson and a passel of architects to discuss plans for renovating Mendel's monastery, when his office called to tell him to switch on his cell phone. On his voicemail was a message from Stockholm. "It was very garbled and very Swedish," laughs Nurse, who couldn't make out whether he'd been given the nod or was being asked for his opinion regarding someone else's worthiness. The uncertainty drove him to utter one of the silliest things he claims he's ever said. "I went back to the room and announced: 'I've got to leave now, because I think I've won a Nobel Prize.'"