My memory is not as polished as it was at age 30. I can still recite entire speeches from Shakespeare, but I sometimes forget to pick up the dry cleaning. Though I have a large brain and many neurons to assist my powers of recall, I question how the immune system retains it’s memory. My immune system has been “primed” to recognize threats to my health, and also to keep my body in generally good shape over a lifetime. In order to properly fight infections, the immune system needs to distinguish between the invaders and the beneficial bacteria. Evolution is a random process, not always directed at benefits to both parties. One thought that has been occupying my mind is: What if a new pathogen was introduced into a well-balanced immune system, which then evolved to mimic a beneficial mycobacteria species, but with a sinister intent? Immune memory would be of no help at all.

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I suppose everything is real to the cat. I was watching our cat sleeping the other night, and he suddenly started twitching in his sleep. He appeared to be dreaming. Maybe our cat can distinguish between the reality of waking life and the world of the dream.  In all probability, he cannot grapple with abstract concepts. He probably doesn’t wonder at all about where the food on the plate came from prior to being placed in his bowl in the morning. For our cat, reality is very concrete. For a Crohn’s disease patient, reality is far from concrete. The reason they have become ill is not yet understood by the medical profession, and there are any number of theories that can be presented to the patient to explain the age old question, “Why me?”

Internationally, New Zealand seems to be a desired destination. We have a thriving tourist industry, tempting tourists with a multitude of ways to place their lives in danger. Unfortunately, there is not the same attraction for career scientists, partly because of funding and partly because of remoteness from the centres of international research excellence. The adventurous spirit seems to be implanted in our genes. As a Boy Scout, I had frequent expeditions into the wilderness, usually in a small team of others near my age. I learned the value of working in a team to achieve a goal. Like in Boy Scouts, the most cost-effective way to advance in research is to form teams. See how John Aitken’s exceptional team has been able to accomplish critical Crohn’s disease research despite encountering many obstacles.

Experiments have two primary outcomes, either confirmation or rejection. There is, however, a third outcome – The Unexpected. Luck never actually appears in publications as a contributing factor. The lucky observation is the catalyst. Some of the most significant discoveries made in microbiology were flukes of luck. Sometimes, trial and error leads to a point where the experiments narrow down. This can happen when you get lucky. I think it happened to me. Read on to find out how John Aitken first became interested in Crohn’s research and see how a little bit of luck has led to some of the most important scientific discoveries.

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Parents of children sometimes get strange requests for birthday or festive presents. My obsession at the age of ten was to have a microscope. (I wanted to look at a fly’s eye!) Even today, one of my questions to prospective job candidates is: “Did your parents ever give you a microscope as a present when you were a kid?” By following rational and scientific methodology in 1882, Robert Koch announced the discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to the world.

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