How Michael Smith put B.C.'s life sciences community on the map with a Nobel Prize 25 years ago

The late Nobel Prize winner Michael Smith was a good, but not spectacular, student who narrowly missed being sent to work in the trades.
Really, nothing about his Nobel adventure went to script.
As a student of modest means from a state-run elementary school, Smith needed to perform well enough on his exams to escape a life devoted to welding or stone masonry.
He qualified for a reputable academic boarding school in his home town of Blackpool, although his mother had to forcefully persuade him t