No one knew more about a cob of corn than Barbara McClintock. Each spring this scientist rose very early in the morning to plant corn on Long Island Sound, carefully fertilizing each stock throughout the summer, then harvesting them at the end of the season. She spend the long, quiet winter months analyzing her harvest. Unlike most scientists she worked completely alone, so much so that if a visitor showed up in the afternoon she often had to speak softly, saying she hadn't yet used her vocal cords that day. Her work led to greater understanding of human diseases. For example, how jumping genes can pass on resistance to antibiotics, or how they let African sleeping sickness evade the defenses of the human immune system. Her work was so far ahead of its time that only 40 years after she did her ground breaking research did she receive a Nobel Prize. At age 81 all she had to say was "Oh Dear" - and then she walked out in to the brisk air of Long Island Sound and spent all morning picking walnuts.

No one knew more about a cob of corn than Barbara McClintock. Each spring this scientist rose very early in the morning to plant corn on Long Island Sound, carefully fertilizing each stock throughout the summer, then harvesting them at the end of the season. She spend the long, quiet winter months analyzing her harvest. Unlike most scientists she worked completely alone, so much so that if a visitor showed up in the afternoon she often had to speak softly, saying she hadn't yet used her vocal cords that day. Her work led to greater understanding of human diseases. For example, how jumping genes can pass on resistance to antibiotics, or how they let African sleeping sickness evade the defenses of the human immune system. Her work was so far ahead of its time that only 40 years after she did her ground breaking research did she receive a Nobel Prize. At age 81 all she had to say was "Oh Dear" - and then she walked out in to the brisk air of Long Island Sound and spent all morning picking walnuts.