His illness has forced him to retire as its director, but the work goes on. Be it pulling a coastal taipan out of the freezer to study its venom, or learning about the poison of redback spiders recently discovered in Japan, the Sutherland legacy endures. He's very particular about his science, has a phenomenal memory. I've paid my gas bill. Everything's in order.
Life is excellent.
Struan tires easily. He can no longer hand write his own notes. His tongue, he says feels like concrete and there's obvious frustration at the ever-widening gulf between a head full of ideas and the ability to express them. So the work continues. His dining room table is covered with chapters on three books he is coauthoring and while the clock ticks on, Struan Sutherland is preparing answers to questions doctors and researchers will need to ask when he's no longer here.