I'm not saying I could be the person to do what he does, or that any one person could do it alone. But it needs to be done, and I'd like to help in some way in the future. Palmer may get the chance to meet Gould this summer. She recently accepted a summer intern position in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology at Harvard. Right now it looks as if developmental embryology is where I might be working.
Embryology is a study of how cells in the embryo of various organisms decide their fates.
That needs to be differentiated at some point, and we need to understand what controls the process. It's important because those controls are what commonly go wrong in cells linked to cancer and cancer-causing mechanisms. I used some of the most advanced biotechnology available to manipulate DNA, analyze pollen chemistry and identify the exact location of the genetic mutations. Palmer elicits rave reviews from her academic advisors at Whitman. I have no question she has intellectual qualities of the highest order.