Scientist: Age 63, over 700 publications; cited over 58,000 times (ISI Web of Science).
Bio-rocker: 6 gigs per year, recorded 2 CDs and practices 30 minutes per day.
When Yale immunologist Richard Flavell stepped to the front of the packed room with his electric guitar during a New Year's Eve party in 1991, he had already made a name for himself in science. But his life as a rocker was only just beginning. There at the home of the famous virologist Ari Helenius, facing the audience of 50, Flavell was poised to strike the first chord with his guitar. With one foot on the drum machine, the tenured Flavell, then author of more than 125 publications and head of a lab of more than 20, led his "bio-rock" group The Cellmates in their very first performance. As a group, we "were unrealistically confident," Flavell recalls. The Cellmates was embraced by ...
