Lewis Wolpert was raised in South Africa where he trained to become a civil engineer specializing in soil mechanics, which he abandoned for cell biology in 1955. “A friend told me that soil mechanics wasn’t very sexy and that some of my work could be relevant to the study of cell mechanics,” he says. After obtaining a PhD from University of London, King’s College, Wolpert focused on morphogenesis with a special interest in the pattern of limb formation. The author of many books, his latest include a new edition of the textbook Principles of Development (with Cheryll Tickle) and You’re Looking Well: The Surprising Nature of Getting Old. In a Thought Experiment he offers some experimental approaches to elucidate the many unknowns about how our limbs come to be so reliably similar in size.
Glenn Tillotson (left), senior vice president of medical affairs at Optimer Pharmaceuticals in San Diego, California, ...
