PBS’s ‘NOVA’ features gay synthetic biologist Jay Keasling [video]
This week on PBS you can catch “NOVA Science Now” which profiles Jay Keasling, an accomplished synthetic biologist in California.
On the show, Keasling talks briefly about the difficulty of being gay and not having any one to talk to since he grew up on a rural pig farm:
”Being gay in small town Nebraska is difficult. People who were, if there were any, were certainly not out. And so you had no examples at all.”
He says his mother died tragically while he was still young. And he hadn’t told his father, Max, about being gay until he was established at Berkeley. His father told NOVA he was fine with the revelation, “We just accepted it. He’s my son, you know.” Keasling says ethnicity and “sexual preference” doesn’t matter now because it’s all about the work.
PBS’ profile of Keasling reads:
Jay Keasling grew up isolated from the world of science on his family’s farm in Nebraska. But perseverance, a love of the outdoors, and a passion for engineering all helped him become a pioneer in the cutting-edge field of synthetic biology. Now he’s developing “designer” microbes — synthesizing a key anti-malaria drug at a fraction of the current cost, and hoping to create new microbes that produce clean-burning fuels.
Watch the full episode. See more NOVA scienceNOW.
In this past video, Discover Magazine explains why he was chosen as their 2006 Scientist of the Year:
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