John C. Mather : (2) " Talk to people… everything good I’ve done has come from conversations with people. Science is a very social phenomenon. " - John C. Mather " My mother’s father, Hobart Cromwell, was a bacteriologist with Abbott Laboratories in suburban Chicago. I never got to know him well, as he died very young, but he was always a heroic figure in our family, wise and gentle and intelligent by reputation, with the courage to fight against the McCarthyites. " - John C. Mather