Kary Mullis won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1993 for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) . PCR is a remarkably simply yet revolutionary method of selectively multiplying and mass-producing specific DNA segments in just hours.
Like so many great scientific discoveries, the ideas for PCR came suddenly, as if by direct transmission from another realm. It was during a late-night drive in 1984.
"I was just driving and thinking about ideas and suddenly I saw it," Mullis recalls. "I saw the polymerase chain reaction as clear as if it were up on a blackboard in my head, so I pulled over and started scribbling."
Mullis kept scribbling calculations, right there in the car, until the formula for DNA amplification was complete. The calculation was based on the concept of "reiterative exponential growth processes," which Mullis had picked up from working with computer programs.
After much table-pounding, he convinced the small California biotech company he was working for, Cetus, that he was to something. Good thing they finally listened: They sold the patent for PCR to Hoffman-LaRoche for the staggering $300 million - the most money ever paid for a patent. Mullis meanwhile received a $10,000 bonus.
