Luke O’Neill: Jaws could be the start of me as a scientist, I was drawn to the shark expert
Luke O’Neill recently published his book, Keep Calm and Trust the Science.
Luke O’Neill, 57, grew up in Bray, Co Wicklow. He is Professor of Biochemistry at Trinity College Dublin, a noted immunologist and a Fellow of the Royal Society. The biotech firm Inflazome he co-founded was sold last year. He is lead singer of a band called The Metabollix. His fourth book Keep Calm and Trust the Science: An Extraordinary Year in the Life of an Immunologist is published by Gill Books.
My sister is eight years older than me. I used to raid her record collection growing up. She had The Beatles albums so I became a Beatles nut. They’re still my number one band. I play the piano and guitar so I learned all their songs. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is my favourite Beatles album. I love A Day in the Life. It’s a strange song. It’s half a dream, a guy getting up and going to work on the bus and stuff. For whatever reason it really registered with me.
It's been studied by science [why music we love as teenagers sticks with us]. At that age, you’re impressionable. You're developing your personality. Music becomes an important part of your identity, your sense of self. In other words: you gotta find a tribe, and the tribe you find is often defined by music and friendships who are into the same kinds of music as you. Music touches on our emotions, too, and you're more susceptible to the emotional effects of music at that age.
I did my PhD in London. I used to go to loads of gigs, often Irish bands because I was feeling a bit homesick. There was a great venue called The Mean Fiddler. One night, I went to see Mary Coughlan. It would have been 1986 maybe. She had released her first, breakthrough album Tired and Emotional. She played all the songs off it. It was an amazing gig, partly because there was a bunch of Irish people in the audience and we were we were mad for her.
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies always resonated with me. It’s perfect to read as a teenager. You're imagining yourself on the island. It’s an allegory of the Second World War where humans can be brutal to each other, a Messianic leader gets killed, the bad guys begin to win, and the ending is spectacular. It’s a pessimistic book because it says we're a terrible species, but it's a morality tale in a way because it says we should try to do better and be more kind to each other. It’s an amazing book.
I saw Jaws in the cinema when I was about 12 or 13. It got me immediately. It's exciting. It's gruesome. It keeps you on the edge of your seat. It could be the start of me as a scientist because I was drawn to Hooper, the shark expert. Richard Dreyfuss played him. I thought it was cool: imagine being an expert on something like sharks. He’s up against Quint, the captain of the boat, the rugged guy who fought sharks all his life whereas Hooper is the highly educated, rich kid who's coming in with all this technology and his ideas. Quint hated him. It's a great clash. At one point, Hooper says to Quint: “Don't give me this working class hero bullshit.”
Withnail and I is a firm favourite. It’s about two out-of-work actors living in a flat in London. They go away to the country for the weekend. There’s this strange business of Withnail being in despair the whole time and yet they manage to have a good time together. It's a movie about friendship. It’s brilliant. It’s funny. The script is superb. There’s a scene with “I”, played by Paul McGann, where he says, after a few days on a bender, “We are entering the arena of the unwell.” It’s a line that always sticks with me.
David Attenborough is a brilliant broadcaster – the way he never dumbs it down when he's describing the natural world. What gets me about him is that he's doing it for everybody, not just for experts or a niche group. He wants to get the information out to the whole world about how amazing our planet is. He's not threatening. It's a bit like listening to a comforting presence. His delivery is measured. He selects the right words. His enthusiasm shines through. It's almost effortless for the man because he loves what he’s talking about so much.
Enthusiasm is born of being passionate about something. If you're lucky in life and you find something you love then that will come across as enthusiasm. People pick up off that energy. They get equally engaged if they see someone who's infectiously enthusiastic about something that might translate to them. You know the great line: “Hang around with optimistic people” so you get optimistic yourself. It gets back to the tribe idea. We’re very social creatures us humans. We feed off each. If you're in a room and someone negative comes in, there's a risk that person brings everybody down with them, especially if they’ve got a strong personality. You’re better off being in a room with an optimistic person – that person might lift you a bit.
To be a scientist is to be questioning, but scientists are human beings as well. You will see optimistic ones, you’ll see pessimistic ones. I'm a glass half-full guy. If I work with a glass half-empty scientist, that's a good combination – he or she will temper my enthusiasm. They might say: “You haven't thought of this, have you with your sunny disposition?” All scientists are about getting to the truth. You need to be reined in occasionally. On the other hand, the great thing about science is you can show evidence. It’s important to be an advocate for what you're doing. It might inspire other people to take up the baton and move the discovery forward.
Tommy Tiernan and Hector’s podcast is great. I’m a big fan of the pair of them. The banter is spectacular. It’s so spontaneous. I love their anti-establishment “stick it to the man” humour. Tommy Tiernan is a genius comedian. His view of the world is so out there. It really appeals to me. I saw him interviewed during lockdown and someone asked him did he ever do any gigs on zoom. He said, “No, I haven't. I'd rather go down the end of my road and shout at trucks.”
