ABSTRACT
I relate how I wanted to escape New Zealand and do the type of impactful science that was not possible in my home country. I was attracted by the Z-DNA hype. I joined the lab at MIT to work on the problem. However, between the time I was accepted, completed my PhD, and obtained funding, the relevance of the initial hope that Z-DNA would lead to new biology was quite openly being questioned. The field was now deep in the doldrums with nowhere to go. I looked for and found another opportunity at MIT. As David Baltimore told me, I went from the frying pan into the fire. This chapter describes those events and my time working with Susumu Tonegawa, an immunologist who discovered antibody gene rearrangement, and who avoids “accidents” by anticipating them before they happen.
