Word: leakey
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Proper appreciation of Richard Leakey's career requires a course in ballistics. Since he brashly launched his first expedition in search of human fossils in 1964 at the age of 19, he has careered through the African landscape, colliding at different times with his parents and siblings, with rival scientists over the interpretation of discoveries, and with other conservationists over his adamant support of a ban on the ivory trade...
...these collisions were nothing compared with what happened last month in the rough country north of Nairobi. A single-engine Cessna that Leakey was piloting with four passengers aboard lost power and crash-landed. "It occurred to me that if I did not handle the crash correctly, there would be no survivors," recalled Leakey, speaking last week from a hospital bed in Nottingham, England. "So I told the passengers in as lighthearted a way as possible that they were going to have to find their own way from this point on, looked for friendly trees to hit, turned...
...days following the crash showed both the depth of Leakey's courage and the strength of his commitment to saving African wildlife. Hour after hour, he lay in pain in a Nairobi hospital that could not adequately deal with the infections he developed. Septicemia posed a mortal risk, as he had only one kidney (transplanted from his brother years ago after both kidneys failed). But for 10 days he refused to leave Kenya to receive better treatment. Ignoring pleas from friends and family, he decided he had to stay in Nairobi to oversee the receipt of part...
...Leakey finally agreed to be evacuated when British bone specialist Christopher Colton helped convince him that his life was in danger. As it is, he may yet lose part of his left leg and his right foot. Without health insurance because of his kidney problems, he faces medical bills that may mount...
...second son of famed paleontologists Louis and Mary Leakey, Richard first burst into global prominence in 1972 when his team in Kenya unearthed a beautifully preserved 1.9 million-year-old skull of Homo habilis, an early hominid species first discovered by his parents. Ian Tattersall, an anthropologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, observes that the younger Leakey has more than his share of luck. "Louis Leakey had to crawl over hot rocky outcrops for 30 years before he found anything of importance; Richard struck gold from the start." Roger Lewin, collaborator on three...