Becker the Researcher

The story told here by Robert O. Becker's most accomplished student is a thrilling intellectual adventure and a tragedy in the classic sense. Becker's great strengths were his independence and courage, his visionary scientific insights, his single-mindedness, his devotion to his patients, and his contempt for the ignorance and time-serving that he felt had poisoned biology and medicine. These qualities warred with his flaws and led to humiliating defeats that prevented recognition of his wo...