“In the fall of 1940, with red-and-black flags bearing swastikas hoisted on all government
buildings, and German troops announcing nightly curfews on loudspeakers along the ChampsÉlysées,Paris, Jacques Monod was working on E. coli in an overheated, under lit attic of the Sorbonne. Paris was declared an “open city”—spared from bombs and ruin, but fully accessible to Nazi troops. The children were evacuated, the museums emptied of paintings, the storefronts shuttered. That winter, with his lab now nearly frozen by the chill—Monod had to wait penitently until noon, listening to Nazi propaganda on the streets while waiting for some of the acetic acid to thaw—Monod repeated the bacterial growth experiment, but with a strategic twist. This time, he added both glucose and lactose—two different sugars—to the culture” {The GeneSiddhartha Mukherjee}
Jacques Lucien Monod (February 9, 1910 – May 31, 1976) a French biochemist would go on to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1965 for his ground breaking work.
In life sometimes we all have to be like Jacques Monod, working in a hostile environment, but true to our goal; Carrying on with our work amid distractions and disruptions. This is a quality found in the greatest of achievers of all time. It is called perseverance.
Be like Jacques Monod. Be true to your work, focus on your goals and don’t give up. This is the “Mantra” to success. Maybe someday it might be your name on the Noble Prize.
Sabyasachi Dasgupta
H.O.D.
Department of Biology,
Future Campus School, Sonarpur