Quick-fire questions! Tea or coffee? Tea except in the morning! Last Halloween costume? I dressed up as a circus ringmaster for a Halloween gig with the Metabollix Favourite movie? Jaws The Godfather or Star Wars? The Godfather Sea swim or warm bath? Warm bath Favourite meal? Prawn Madras What are you reading now? Vaxxers by Sarah Gilbert and Catherine Green. It’s about their discovery of the Oxford vaccine against COVID-19 Favourite scientific word? MyD88 Adapter Like If you could travel back in time, what period would you go to? 1960s – to see the Beatles live Place you want to visit when the pandemic ends? Mars What do you enjoy most about live radio? When I get a good idea as to what I might talk about – that’s always nice. And then having a good chat with the interviewer – we have so many great ones in Irish broadcasting – I’d list Pat Kenny obviously enough but also Claire Byrne and Brendan O’Connor but many others are great – we’re blessed in Ireland with some great journalists. If you weren’t an immunologist, what would you like to do? One ambition I have is to sail around the world and visit places of great importance to science like the Galapagos Islands where Darwin made important observations that helped him come up with his great theory of Evolution – possibly the most important scientific insight ever made. But to share the experience – maybe do broadcasts! Where do you get your energy to do it all (scientist, author, broadcaster, musician, sailor)? Drugs…joke! Well almost – caffeine is a great personal friend in the morning. I only need around six hours or so sleep (although I have the occasional power nap). The secret of course is to do what you love and f**k the rest, in the inimitable words of Little Miss Sunshine. Tell us why you decided to jump into the sea in your school uniform? It was just a crazy idea me and a classmate had – Hugh Roche – who also went to Trinity and did engineering. It was after our last exam of the dreaded Leaving Cert and we just had a sense of euphoria and also knew we’d never have to wear that damn uniform again… Who is your hero (alive or dead) and why? My heroes overall are people who just try to make a positive difference to others so there are so many – this is true of academics which I think is one reason I was drawn to academia – a great bunch of people. As for a dead hero I’d say Francis Crick – co-discoverer of the structure of DNA. I read his autobiography, What Mad Pursuit , and he struck me as someone with huge intellect and scientific rigour. What’s your favourite part of Irish history? I’m intrigued by the period that gave rise to Newgrange – I wonder who those people were and what life was like back then? It was fascinating when Dan Bradley and his team from the School of Genetics and Microbiology reported on the evidence for inbreeding among the royalty at the time – just like ancient Egypt.
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