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Woodward on how to travel incognito
Friday, May 4, 2012 12:22
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Searching aimlessly for material on R. B. Woodward online, I came across an amusing source: “Droll Science” by Robert Weber. In it I found the following droll anecdote:
At the Munich (1955) meeting of the Gesellschaft deutscher Chemiker, Woodward attracted attention as he roamed the halls carrying a big notebook in a blue silk cover on which was embroidered the structural formula of strychnine. The next day he appeared bearing a cover innocent of any embroidery. Asked a friend, “Why no structural formula?” Quipped Woodward, “Oh, I’m traveling incognito today.”
The anecdote probably says more about the man than it intends to: Woodward’s identity was inextricably linked to the objects of his creation, and without them, he could indeed pronounce himself incognito.
At the Munich (1955) meeting of the Gesellschaft deutscher Chemiker, Woodward attracted attention as he roamed the halls carrying a big notebook in a blue silk cover on which was embroidered the structural formula of strychnine. The next day he appeared bearing a cover innocent of any embroidery. Asked a friend, “Why no structural formula?” Quipped Woodward, “Oh, I’m traveling incognito today.”
The anecdote probably says more about the man than it intends to: Woodward’s identity was inextricably linked to the objects of his creation, and without them, he could indeed pronounce himself incognito.
Read more at The Curious Wavefunction
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