:
   By PHILIP GILLON,      .'
: P%Z%?c*," tEtc%-zo2::
, atdtutea ' of Health, Bethada, was made
aa Honorary MOQ of the WekmlaDn
: lhewllte this wee& *`h..rec~uon," es
: his scroll put it, `bf his D
`. contrlbutlons to `molecular blology, parti-
cularly in the 3dd of protein etructure
) and ftmotbn." He. arzdved CLt: i t.hh I@,itite
three weeks ago, tog&her with his iv&;
`, he ha to spend sevti mimthu heze ivark-
ing with Professor Michael St% ' '
Molecular biol& we& `very much in
fashion a year ,or two ago, I say, when
we expected it to provide w with a~lu-
tlona to many pblemu, `Y +&ding the
`secret of. we,
Tall and so&spoken, with his height
and looks indioatlng his Norwegk~~ origin.
although he was born in America, Pro-
fmsor An&teen looks dubious. "Molecular
biology co- a lot of other disciplines:
I csll myself a biochemist trained fn
aspecte of ~chemistry and biology. Some
-people zoom to .tlzlslf, t.&+t_tbe- most im-
portant discov+es have already beeri
mede im molec~, biology, that the
double. habx wrapped it up, but I think
that it just opned up an enormous flsld
for us." . ".,C.,`
' What is his parttcular interest?
a  "I'm concerned with pr&dn stucture.
I The aim is to understand ,how macro-
~ molecules work : m , terms of three-dimen-
: siowl stmature. The genetic code d&r-
mines what the linear code wffl be;
this ls translated into three dimensions,
Since the development of X-Ray crystsl-
lography and oomputers, we have been
able to study this threedlmenalonal &UC-
ture.

"A very excltlng development wea the
discovery of ways to synthesise- macro-
molecules. Now we are engaged in what
you may call molecular englneerlng. We
look at the struct-re of an enzyme, for
,lnstan~, and if we see a loop in the
chain t.h& doesn't seem to be doing any-
thing, we see what happens if we chop it
off. We say, let's syntheslso this without

. . '

,
I

aurn% of frlmds here. Micah Sela
oame to work with ue in Rethesda In
lQS6, and I enjoy workiw with him very

         mu3h. Perhaps one
             of the main attrac-
            tions Israel' has for
            me 1s because of
          my Norwegian origin
         - I, still ,have many
         `Me6 with `Norway,
       although I wae born
          and brought up In
             America. Uke Is-
           rael, Norway is a
          small country, but
          `en enengetlc one;
          even the language
            sounds
PBOF'. ANFINSEN       some thlng
             like. Hebrew.'

"Of course a major attraction ls the
quality of the work a$ the Weizmann;
lt is one of the four, flve or six places

in the world &er6 dne naturally thinks
of spending a Sabbatical. It L really a
phenomenon, as well equipped as most
American &9tltutlons - everything I have
at N.I.H. is here, in some respects the
Welzmann may even be better off than
many American lustltutos. The computers
are phonomensl."

Science-based indust~rles have become
the vogue in Israel, and some people are
alleging that the Welzmann people should
coma out of their ivory towers down
into the marketplace.       :
"Applied science has to come from

basic science - you have to have some
science to apply. The ide*al is to have
both. And' to keep them separate."

Science-based ~ndustriea do not a&act
Israeli eclentistz in the, same ", way as
basic research; there is a sort of snob-
bery.

"1 have heard that Israelis want to re-
main in academic' llfe. In the U.S. people
tend t,o move about more than they do
here, they go ,from `the acsdemlc life
to industry and back agalu. Of .' course,
: there are more opportunltles in. America4
I think that applied science 19 perhaps
bettor for a man whd ia getting a llttle
older, who is losing, the drive and PUS11
needed to tackle new problems; The going
gets tougher aud tougher as the yearS
iPwJ' `, J 1
1 But, ft!Mamsatally `you do net' think
#that the Welzmann~ IxMdM.e should
~change the c(xcrse it has taken for the
blast 25 years, ehodld," becoins more prac-
g7al?

"Why  change  something  that has
brought so m,uch prestige to' 1~~1, that
puts a small country among the `world's
leaders in science ?"