An amazing story behind this year's Nobel Prize

Behind this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine is a remarkable story of Mario R. Capecchi, who was born in Italy, survived the fascist regime to immigrate to the US, studied political science before moving to MIT and Harvard, and worked with the man who discovered the double helical structure of the DNA, James Watson. For academics, perhaps the most interesting part of Capecchi's story is that he left his faculty position at Harvard for the University of Utah, reportedly because of disagreements and infighting at Harvard and the atmosphere in Utah that allowed for more long-term projects instead of demanding immediate results. The article about Capecchi and the other two Nobel Prize winners in Medicine for 2007 is available from The New York Times. Here is an excerpt:

When young Mario was not yet 4, the Gestapo came to their home in Tyrol, in the Italian Alps, to take his mother to the Dachau concentration camp — an event he said he remembered vividly.

Because she knew her time of freedom was limited, she had sold all her possessions and given the proceeds to an Italian farming family, with whom Mario lived for about a year. When the money ran out, the family sent him on his way. He said he wandered south, moving from town to town as his cover was exposed. He wandered, usually alone, but sometimes in small gangs, begging and stealing, sleeping in the streets, occasionally in an orphanage.