Carl Zimmer on memory researcher Andre Fenton, comeback researcher of the year.
In an age when we get a lot of our medical news in click-baity headlines and hasty tweets, it’s easy to believe that scientific research is constantly barreling forward like a jet. The saga of PKMzeta shows just how contorted the true path of science can be. Fenton and Sacktor have worked together with what some of their colleagues consider a near-obsession for 14 years on PKMzeta. And after all that work, and years of setbacks, they feel like only now are they just able to start figuring out what this molecule does to let us form memories.
“Now we know it’s important,” Fenton said in a recent interview. “But what is it actually doing? I can tell you it’s crucial biochemically, but you shouldn’t feel satisfied that you understand memory any better. Because you don’t. We still don’t know what it means for memory.”
Get the rest at Stat: Memory researchers were rebuffed by science, and came roaring back, by Carl Zimmer.
