As the young American Dick Fosbury lined up to take his first highjump in the heat of the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, he had reason to feel nervous.
He hopes to jump-start the efforts of a coterie of tiny biotech firms developing high-speed gene-scanners, in the same way that his work at Celera Genomics forced the government's Genome Project to accelerate its efforts.
He also still has the pace and athletic ability that made him a junior sprint and highjump champion on the Cote d'Azur and now, after two years playing regularly in France, he has regained his confidence too.