Halifax, West Yorkshire
Mill town in West Yorkshire, England. In Range it is where the young Oliver Smithies watched starch set, a memory that later led to gel electrophoresis.
At a glance
| Source | Author | Role | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World | David Epstein | backdrop | As a boy, Smithies noticed hot starch congealing into a jelly while helping his mother starch shirts, a memory that decades later solved… |
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Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World — David Epstein (2019)
Source: Range · Original · Readwise highlight
Smithies grew up in the town of Halifax in England, and would watch his mother starch his father’s work shirts to make the collars firm.
- Role: backdrop
- In the book: As a boy, Smithies noticed hot starch congealing into a jelly while helping his mother starch shirts, a memory that decades later solved the gel problem.
- Why it matters: Source of the childhood memory behind the lateral-thinking story; the town is named only in passing.