In an article on education in The Lennox dated 23 March I am described as a boffin.

I regard this as an attack on the good name and character of boffins world wide.

I do not aspire to such a lofty title which is a slang expression used in the UK, Australia and New Zealand to describe a technical genius.

Boffin was originally used as an affectionate term to describe the people who invented radar, digital computers and the atomic bomb.

I was just a kid at the time and had nothing to do with the invention of any of them and I don't think Scotland needs Trident.

More recent use of boffin has more humorous intentions as in:-
"Boffins strain for answers - BOFFINS are launching a £660,000 study into constipation, it was announced today. The Sun, 25 September 2005."

I am pleased to report successful bowel motions yesterday and today so it should be clear that the term has no application to me whatsoever.

I didn't invent radar, digital computers or the atomic bomb and I am under no strain.

It is important to set the record straight. You know how rumours start.

The Lennox piece was about the trailblazing literacy project of West Dunbartonshire Council which has all but wiped out illiteracy in local primary schools.

This programme under the direction of Dr Tommy MacKay has been under way for the past eight years and focuses teaching resources and methods on children in the three to five year age group throughout West Dunbartonshire.

Very impressive gains in student literacy have been achieved at this critical stage in child development. These gains will be reflected in the educational achievements of the children as they grow older and will also have a direct impact on the social problems in the deprived areas that are a characteristic of West Dunbartonshire.

Child literacy is an issue throughout Scotland and this programme should be used as a model for the rest of the country. It targets children at the correct time in their lives and resources applied here will have a much wider social impact.

This is a long term solution to a major Scottish problem which doesn't fit with the short term political vision of the major parties.

While I am not a boffin, I would like to believe that I have achieved a measure of competence at most of the things I have attempted in life.

I was educated in Scottish public schools and Glasgow University before being set loose on the world.

I am a trained thinker.

Do I have any qualification in politics?

My first real job was mucking the byres on Davy Christie's Hill of Camstradden Farm at Luss, Loch Lomond. While I make no claim to world class status, I am qualified to shovel shit(e). Surely, the basic political aspiration.

After graduation from the Uni, I worked in the lab of Dr Gordon H Dixon at the University of British Columbia.

I determined the amino acid sequence of the alpha chains of human haptoglobin. Haptoglobin is a protein found in blood which binds hemoglobin after red cells break down and has an important role in retaining iron in the body. Human haptoglobins show the effects of a partial gene duplication and are of genetic interest.

This work was published in Nature in 1968.

Gordon Dixon's lab was in the basement of the Biochemistry building on the UBC Campus. Mike Smith had the lab next door.

Mike was from Manchester and had numerous theories on pouring beer into beer glasses. We collaborated on experimental proof on a number of occasions but the results were never published.

His work on mutagenesis was published and recognised with the award of the Nobel Prize in 1993.

While I was at UBC, I wrote to Fred Sanger at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. I was interested in the application of computers to amino acid sequence determination.

My timing was off. Fred was changing from his work on amino acid sequences for which he won the Nobel Prize in 1958 to work on nucleic acid sequencing for which he won the Nobel Prize in 1980. His lab was being rebuilt at the time and they were short of space.

I moved to the University of Oregon Medical School, Portland, Oregon instead to work in the lab of Dr Richard Jones.

Dick's lab was a reference lab for hemoglobinopathies detected throughout the world. These are rare genetic conditions where a mutation in the DNA results in an amino acid substitution on a part of the hemoglobin molecule. The clinical effect of this substitution depends on the position of the particular amino acid in the three dimensional structure of the protein. Some are relatively benign while others can have serious clinical consequences.

The study of rare genetic conditions provides insight into the properties and behaviour of the normal molecule.

I was on the Faculty of the Medical School until 1985 when I resigned my position as Professor of Biochemistry and Medical Genetics.

In Portland, I taught medical students, graduate students and nursing students and had a research lab working on protein sequences and enzymology. This work resulted in over 50 papers in the scientific literature.

I would characterise my scientific work as competent but not in the boffin class.

While I am not particularily comfortable in front of large groups of people, I gave lectures which got the necessary information across to the students. The lectures were well attended though I never got to the point of being able to sell tickets at the door.

I was in charge of the Seminar Program of the Biochemistry Department for a number of years and responsible for entertaining scientists visiting Portland. Visitors included Max Perutz who received the Nobel Prize in 1962 for his X-ray crystallography work on the hemoglobin molecule.

I do have some background and practical experience in teaching and medicine and the scientific approach to problems.

I had a motor bike while I was at the Uni and took it on the boat from Greenock to Montreal when I moved to UBC.

Just outside Vancouver, there was a beautiful racing circuit in the mountains called Westwood.

The bike interest took me there and I met Geoff and Peter Kellond. The brothers were Canadian and Geoff had spent some time working and racing in England. Geoff had one of the original 250 Yamaha production racers while Peter had a 500 Manx Norton, the classic British racing bike.

We got paly and I started racing on Geoff's Yamaha. I moved up through the licence ranking in the Canadian system from Junior to Expert wining the 250 Canadian Junior title along the way.

The friendship with Geoff and Pete endured after I moved to Portland and bought my own bikes. With their support and encouragement, I raced at the TT on the Isle of Man in 1969 and 1970.

In 1969, on a 250 Yamaha, I made it to Quarry Bends on the first lap before the bike seized, a common malady in racing two strokes.

I learned a valuable lesson. Always put a pound note in your boot. I found myself stuck out on the circuit for the rest of the race, in a pub with no money.

The goddess of fortune was kinder in 1970. The expansion chamber on the 350 Yamaha split at the highest point on the circuit on the last lap and I was fortunate to make it to the finish.

An average speed of 86.11 mph, including a couple of pit stops for fuel, was good for a silver replica and 32nd place in the field of 99 riders in the World Championship event.

The race was won by Giacomo Agostini. The nature of the 38 mile TT Mountain Circuit means that it is a timed race rather than a massed start. The only time I saw Ago was in an early morning practice session when he passed me on Sulby Straight with a 60 mph speed advantage from his MV Agusta.

Earlier in 1970 I beat Mike Hailwood in the Daytona 200 in Daytona Beach, Florida. At least that is what the result sheet suggests. He was riding a 750cc BSA three cylinder on a win or break strategy. The bike broke, hence the unreal result. 1970 was the last year the full oval was used for qualifying at Daytona. I qualified 52nd in a field of 101 riders at a speed of 134.288mph. Hailwood was third and 20 mph faster.

Since this piece is about shameless name dropping, the results sheet shows that I almost beat Barry Sheene in a 200 mile race at Ontario Motor Speedway, just outside Los Angeles in 1971.

The race was run in two 100 mile heats. I was riding a 750 Honda Four, Barry was riding a 350 Yamaha entered by Fred Deeley, the Canadian Importer. His bike had some problems in the second heat. He was 25th, I finished 27th.

To be average in world class company is no disgrace. To rise from the ordinary to the pinacle of success takes dedication, commitment and talent.

Of the various bikes I have raced, the Manx Norton stands out.

It stands out because of its balance. The balance between power and road handling.

Road racing isn't about going fast in a straight line. A good racing bike has to be the best compromise between acceleration, top speed, braking and handling in the corners. The Manx Norton had that. The famous featherbed frame was perfectly matched with the power of the 500cc single cylinder engine.

The Yamahas had better power but the frames flexed and the handling didn't inspire the same confidence. When the machine starts wiggling around in the middle of the corner it plays games with the riders mind.

Although I was technically a professional racing motorcyclist, the prize money paid for a couple of beers after the event. I supported my racing from my salary at the Medical School. Promotion there meant that I could almost afford it. Naturally, the only thing to do was to find something more expensive.

I had a go at car racing!

If you are going to try something you know nothing about, its a good idea to go back to school. At the time, Bob Bondurant was running a week long race car driving school at Ontario Motor Speedway, a few miles east of Los Angeles. Bob was a sports car and Formula 1 driver in the 1960s and hit on the idea of passing his experience along to others by opening a school.

Bondurant and Graham Hill saved Jackie Stewart when he crashed in the wet during the 1966 Belgian Grand Prix. Jackie was trapped in his BRM, soaked in petrol and Bondurant had to borrow a spanner from a spectator to get him out of the car. In the next race, Jackie had a spanner taped to the steering wheel and started his crusade for better driver safety in Formula 1.

After graduating from the Bondurant Driving School, I bought a Titan MK6 Formula Ford. This is a single seater, open wheel car powered by a 1600 cc Ford engine.

Both the car and the driving were serious challenges.

A Formula Ford must be the ultimate adult toy. The car has all of the adjustable features of a Formula 1 car and only lacks the wings and aerodynamic packages. Setting the car up is a case of continually chasing your own tail. Adjusting one thing, means that something else is no longer just quite right.

The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) has a graduated license system. You have to finish a series of Regional events before you are allowed to go play with the big boys in National races.

By dint of being sensible and staying shinny side up on the black stuff, I graduated to a National license after a year.

Preparing and racing your own Formula Ford is a serious challenge. Mike Heyer from Portland had been helping with the preparation of the bikes and the pair of us made the switch to four wheels. We had an educational but unsuccessful look for the unfair advantage.

At the time, in the mid seventies, there were more entries than grid slots in some of the races. An overnight 600 mile drive from Portland to Monterey in California is not the best preparation for learning a new track and attempting to qualify for the race the next day. By some stroke of fortune, I made it into the race, 28th on the grid of 32 cars and the long journey wasn't wasted. Fourteen cars did not qualify.

Not only was the competition to get into the race fierce, but the standard of driving was also high. In this particular race at Laguna Seca, Mike Hiss was in the field. He had started the 1974 Indy 500 from the front row so he knew his way around a race track.

Marty Loft was also in the field. He was the current Formula Ford ace and moved up to Formula Atlantic where he beat Gilles Villeneuve on his way to his first Formula Atlantic race win. Marty never managed the jump to the next rung in the ladder while Gilles Villeneuve made the most of a testing opportunity with McLaren and was signed by Ferrari.

I didn't have the level of commitment that it takes to progress in the sport but I did have the interest to think through the driving challenge and learned how to set up a race car.

The secret to going fast in a race car is knowing where to go slow.

It seems illogical, but its true. I can explain the conundrum but it will cost you lots of money.

A car such as a Formula Ford has to be set up for the most important corner on the race track. The rest is a compromise.

After the basic set up is in place, its a case of getting the right balance between the front and rear of the car. Too much grip at the front and the car oversteers or is loose, too much grip at the rear and the car understeers or pushes.

With bikes and cars, its about balance, balance, balance.

In life and society, its about balance, balance, balance.

The right balance between the rights of the employer and the rights of the worker. The right balance between work and leisure. The right balance between the rights of the individual and the rights of society.

In Scotland today, we don't have the right balance in many areas of life. We need to think through what we want as a society then put the measures in place to achieve our goals.