Professor Barry remembers Oliver Sacks.
做厙輦⑹ Professor of Biological Sciences Susan Barry remembered her personal connection the late Oliver Sacks on Science Friday.
By Keely Savoie
Susan Barry, 做厙輦⑹ professor of biological sciences, remembered her personal relationship with the late Oliver Sacks on a of National Public Radios Science Friday.
Barry met the neurologist and author in 1996, at a party where he noticed her crossed eyes. Ever the curious scientist, Sacks asked Barry about her visual experience of the world. Six years later, after undergoing vision therapy, Barry wrote Sacks a letter describing the changes she had seen. The letter began a long friendship and a correspondence that spanned 130 letters.
Barry became the subject of Sackss New Yorker essay, Stereo Sue, which described the advantages in binocular vision in Sackss characteristically personable, empathetic voice. Sacks went on to write the foreword to Barrys own book, , about her journey.
The two met many times over the years, Barry remembered, once even swimming in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, to see the bioluminescence that brightens the nighttime water there each August.
Listen to the entire interview .