Tim Hoen, you would think, just jumps out of a crowd. But the fact is I might have missed him over there in Biophys except for a couple of research scientists who pointed him out. I was preparing a press release about the scientists' recent breaks in their own 15-to-20-year quest to make plantibodies.

And they wanted to talk about Tim Hoen.

The story pretty well tells you what he's like. What you don't get are zillion tales about his adventures with reptiles, from childhood to adulthood. That's his book, though.

After the story was done, a draft somehow started circulating around the labs. One of the scientists called me and said I missed one of the great stories about Tim: "He does a lot of Karaoke around town. You should see at Bobby B's in the Elton John costume."

Figures. (I got directions, though.)

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