Christopher Bradfield grew up in the San Francisco, California, area. His early schooling was in Daly City, California, and he attended high school in Half Moon Bay. He has an older brother and a younger sister. His father obtained his PhD in psychology from University of California, Berkeley, during years of social upheaval, and Bradfield can remember being on campus during those times. Bradfield's mother suffered from cancer for several years during Bradfield's early adolescence, dying when he was in high school. He finished his schooling intending to become a soccer coach. Bradfield applied to college because his father was a professor and expected his children to go to college. Finally, calling himself a late bloomer, he began to see the value in learning and displayed an aptitude for sciences, which a biology teacher at his community college encouraged Bradfield to pursue. He particularly admires the elegance of scientific solutions. He received a two-year degree from Skyline College and his BA from University of California, Davis. Bradfield ponders the questions of whether scientists are born or made; the role of serendipity in science; and types of intelligence. Bradfield decided to get a master's degree from University of California, Berkeley and he entered Leonard F. Bjeldanes' lab, where his research involved identifying indoles; he became so involved in his project that he finished a PhD instead of a master's degree. By then, he had realized that environmental and nutritional issues must be dealt with in the political arena, not simply the laboratory. Bradfield decided to accept a postdoc in Alan P. Poland's lab at the University of Wisconsin. Under Alan Poland's influence Bradfield flourished, beginning work on the AH purifying proteins. He then accepted an assistant professorship at Northwestern University, where he was unable to do the work he had anticipated, so he moved to McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at University of Wisconsin. Bradfield discusses his concern about the lack of creativity in most science; differences between good and great scientists; his love of laboratory work; his frustration with scientific journals; the status of the "scientific method" in current research. He explains how he decides what research projects the lab should pursue; the present status of his dioxin research and unpublished work on the relationship between dioxin and hypoxia; and doing research at McArdle. He puts forth his views on the best way to structure research institutions and compares the funding of science at McArdle and at Northwestern University. Bradfield then reverts to the personal, talking about his own funding, his reasons for becoming a scientist; the advantages of not leading research in one's own field; keeping his lab afloat financially; the goals of his dioxin research; his patents; and the impact of his winning the Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences award. Back to the larger picture, he talks about possible breakthroughs in gene therapy and disease intervention; his thoughts on the training of future MD's; dangers of government policy masquerading as science. He finishes with a discussion of his family life.