Finding out how and why cells die is a key puzzle for cancer researchers over many decades.
Professor of pathology at Aberdeen University, Sir Alastair Currie meets John Kerr in Brisbane and invites him to Scotland to work with PhD student Andrew Wyllie.
The trio describe the process whereby cells, rather than dying by chance, appear to have a genetic instruction to kill themselves. They go to James Cormack, professor of Greek, who comes up with the word apoptosis – like leaves, falling off trees.
Their paper in the British Journal of Cancer takes more than a decade to stimulate wider scientific interest. But that process now underpins international research into many diseases.