Michael Edidin, in his Johns Hopkins office, surrounded by just a few of the many antique timepieces he owns.WILL KIRK / HOMEWOODPHOTO.JHU.EDU
“This is my trophy,” says biologist Michael Edidin, walking across his office at Johns Hopkins University to pick up two oversized clock hands, once part of the stately clock tower that still stands on the Baltimore campus. In his right-hand pocket is a faded silver pocket watch, dating from the 1920s. To the right of his computer is an eight-inch-wide clock, which he speculates was used in the boiler room of a ship that sailed in the late nineteenth century. On the wall above is a poster of some of the most prized antique timepieces in the world, from the collection of the Museum for Islamic Art in Israel, which Edidin has visited—twice.
Most biologists know of Edidin as a father of one of the ...
