In November 1972 at a scientific meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, I reported on our new found ability to clone plasmid DNA. Later that day I listened with excitement as Herb Boyer described newly obtained data from his lab and elsewhere showing that a restriction endonuclease named Eco R1 generates in one step complimentary projecting ends such as these that can be linked together with DNA ligases.
That evening Herb and I joined by several other friends and colleagues had a late night snack at a delicatessen across from Waikiki Beach. An account of the events of the evening by Stanley Falkow, a microbiologist who was one of those snacking with us at the deli, later found its way into contemporary histories of recombinant DNA and eventually on to the program of this symposium as the title for my talk.
Over hot pastrami and corned beef sandwiches I proposed a collaboration with Herb, and the two of us began to plan the experiments we would carry out. The episode was captured pictorially some years later in this cartoon which accompanied an article in a Honolulu newspaper, the Advertiser. I think this fuzzy faced person about to bite into a large sandwich is me. I think the other is Herb, either insisting that Jim Watson is right -- that DNA really does have two strands -- or possibly ordering a couple of additional beers.
  
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Winding Your Way Through DNA Resource Book Index
