Richard Gliddon was keen to tell us something of his view of the importance of Biology research. We travelled from Charles Darwin to DNA, meeting three Old Cliftonians and an Oxford Bishop en route. We also encountered Alexander Fleming and penicillin and somehow references to farming as well as Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill were woven into the story ! The talk ended with his illustrated account of the research he carried out at University sixty years ago. He spent three years studying a small single celled animal (which was only one thousanth of a millimetre long) by high speed cinephotography through the microscope as well as using a new acquisition at Bristol University: an Electron microscope! Richard admitted that he may have achieved very little but he had enjoyed every moment and it was invaluable in launching him on career teaching Biology.