During my career to date I have occasionally come across clinical microbiologists, microbiology scientists or virologists who are quite literally “Walking Encyclopaedias”. By this I mean the level of detail of their knowledge is astonishing. Depending on their field of expertise, they might for example know all the virulence factors of Staph aureus, all the biochemical reactions required to identify an E.coli, all the resistant determinants of an HIV virus…. I am sure that walking encyclopaedias exist in all walks of life.

I am definitely not a “Walking Encyclopaedia”! In fact I am fairly certain my hard drive has reached its’ capacity already.

I am a great believer in applying knowledge, rather than knowledge itself.

In the age of Information Hyper-accessibility through the Internet etc., I believe the value of being a “walking encyclopaedia” will continue to decline.

Michael