Episode Details

What does it actually look like inside one of the world's most consequential scientific laboratories? Nobel Prize winner Professor Robert Lefkowitz opens the doors to his lab at Duke University and shows us exactly where the science happens.

In this short tour, Professor Lefkowitz walks through the equipment, the experiments, and the team of scientists and students driving his research forward every day. He also walks past the wall of Nobel Prize winners who gave the Lefkowitz Lecture before going on to win their own, including Jennifer Doudna, who invented CRISPR, and Jim Allison, who created immunotherapy for cancer.

The lab still holds biological samples from experiments conducted 50 years ago, perfectly preserved and still usable today.

◼ A firsthand look at the equipment and techniques used in a Nobel Prize-winning lab
◼ The scientists and students working alongside Professor Lefkowitz right now
◼ The wall of Nobel laureates who passed through this lab before winning their own prize
◼ Why cells frozen 50 years ago can still be used in experiments today
◼ What Professor Lefkowitz believes makes science unique: the things you discover are true forever

0:00 Intro
0:39 Inside the Lab: Where the Experiments Actually Happen
1:09 The Equipment That Makes the Science Possible
2:04 Meet the Team: The Students and Scientists Behind the Research
2:37 The Wall of Nobel Prize Winners Who Passed Through This Lab
3:07 The Freezers That Hold 50 Years of Scientific History
4:00 Why What Is True in Science Today Will Be True in 100 Years

You can follow Professor Lefkowitz here:
◼ Duke University Profile:
https://www.biochem.duke.edu/people/lefkowitz-lab

◼ Book: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Stockholm:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Funny-Thing-Happened-Stockholm-Adrenaline-Fueled/dp/1643136380