You get an idea in your head about a person and it can be difficult to change that view. Rodney McKay became fixed in our heads years ago as an egotistical but brilliant man. Not that he was the only one who thought a lot of himself as he was part of a very highflying group of extremely talented physicists and they were all aware of their own worth. In fact most of them valued their own skills way above their counterparts, but Rodney may have had some justification for his view. So, he was possibly the brightest of an amazingly intelligent bunch, but he had a couple of problems. First, he lacked an element of practicality which some of his peers possess and which limited the application of his ideas. Secondly, he was the most socially inept person I have ever met. He spoke as he thought and could be scathing or even downright rude to anybody he considered less than himself –which in McKay's view was most if not all the rest of the world. He has been known to refer to himself in the third person, a most off-putting mannerism and I have heard him tell people that he is a genius and they have no hope of understanding him. So, a brilliant man whose theories were difficult to put into practice and whose social skills ranked below those of a pre-schooler given that he also had an ego too big for his body and a highly advanced vocabulary with which to offend others. And did I mention the hypochondria? Couple that with a world view that put Dr McKay at the centre of the universe and you had an outstanding scientist that no-one wanted to be around.

I remember bumping into Rodney many years ago when I was first with my wife. He spent the whole time talking about how he had been called in to advise the Air Force on some top secret issue and how an amazingly attractive military scientist had been bowled over by him. I have to admit when he first mentioned this Sam I did wonder...but then he started on about her blonde hair and I could only surmise that he was probably exaggerating both her response and her appeal. An Air Force officer with a doctorate in astrophysics did not bring to mind the stunning woman that Rodney described, even to a fellow scientist. Yes, I admit to my prejudices, but then when you have worked with the people I have it is hard not to generalise. To be fair and to give you a more balanced picture, Rodney McKay was not the most obnoxious physicist I have ever met.

Anyway, I was stunned when I saw Rodney again at that farce of Tunney's. He started out in typical style –claiming someone else's ideas as his own and decrying their research. Then it all went wrong and Rodney showed a different side to himself. Obviously, he still assumed that everyone else was a lesser scientist, because he was still McKay, but he clearly knew all about the device which gave some credence to his claim of prior knowledge. And the way he took charge also showed a much more practical approach to problem solving. I imagine few of the others noticed how naturally he took charge, not just assuming that others would follow, but giving a series of clear commands as if he had done so before. I would hazard a guess that wherever he has been working it has been with a mixture of scientists and others with different knowledge and experience. Dare I say, he had an almost military air?

The aspect that received the most comment and speculation afterwards, though, was the woman with him. A lot of people were firmly convinced that she was his sister and some would not be persuaded otherwise. However reluctantly, some of the others admitted that they were a couple, even though they had no notion what she saw in him. It has to be said that she was lovely and not at all the type you would expect to be attracted to Rodney. She was practical and down-to-earth and got us all working together for the first time ever. He naturally followed her with a soppy look on his face, but I also saw her face after the crisis was averted and I remember a time when my wife looked at me like that –before the divorce, in fact probably only when we first got together. So, Rodney had a hot chick interested in him and that had more tongues wagging than his knowledge of a supposedly secret and highly unusual research project. It was undoubtedly the reason that he got away with the minimum speculation as to his work, given the marked lack of published material for a while.

I heard nothing more about McKay for another couple of years and then I bumped into him at a gathering of our peers again. This time it was at a conference in Washington. It had some silly title like 'Space and The Future', so had an odd mix of participants, but there were a lot of astrophysicists there and the keynote speaker was a Dr Carter who had just published some amazing research into the properties of wormholes.

I met Rodney, not surprisingly, at lunch, eating the biggest meal I had seen since I visited the elephant house at the zoo. I ended up sitting at the same table, partly by accident, but it was difficult to avoid all the people you disliked at a gathering like that. In fact, it was even harder to find someone you did like, given the way that the most brilliant scientists seem unable to exhibit the most basic social skills. As if, as their brain develops their empathy and consideration go into a corresponding decline.

So, we nodded at each other and concentrated on the food for a bit before he commented on my latest paper. Actually, he questioned some of the basic assumptions and I was all set to rubbish his position when some of what he was saying seemed to make sense and it occurred to me that he sounded as if he knew more about the subject than me; more than he was saying as if he was monitoring his words carefully. It was intriguing, as McKay had never been backward in coming forward and I would have expected him to be crowing and, if anything, exaggerating the extent to which he knew more than me. For once I showed discretion, which my ex-wife will tell you is not my forte, and I refrained from calling him on it.

Instead I asked about his life expecting a diatribe on all the wondrous research he had been doing and how the world was going to be amazed at his brilliance. Only to be stunned when he started talking about his personal life; the Rodney I knew had no personal life, it was all about the work and even family contact was minimal. He had just told me he was married when we were interrupted by the arrival of an attractive woman who sat down next to Rodney. At first I did wonder if this was his wife, but it was soon clear that they were colleagues, albeit friendly ones; another first, McKay having friendly relations with fellow workers. Not only was she a looker, but she was also clearly an attendee at the conference by the tone of the conversation. Eventually I was introduced to Sam –ah, the military scientist and, to give Rodney his due, every bit as fetching as his description. The day was looking up when it turned out that this was also the Dr Carter who was presenting the keynote speech. It was not every day such a beautiful and also brilliant woman came my way and I set out to charm. Yes, some scientists do have social skills and so I asked all the right questions about her work, although she had a reticence similar to Rodney's at times and I wondered whether the two of them had collaborated on some secret military project. They were at ease with each other so obviously had a long acquaintance, but there was no spark and Rodney had spoken of a wife so I was optimistic about my chances. That is until fate knocked me back again with the appearance of an Air Force general at our table. He was clearly there for Sam's presentation as he apologised for being late; something about seeing 'the big guy', whoever that might be. Turns out Sam is also a Colonel and it sounded like she has more field experience than your average physicist, although I also got an impression of 'things not said' again. Just as I was imagining this hot Colonel with the brilliant brain might possibly be interested in me, the logical scientist who lurks in my brain pointed out a few facts. Although the two military types had been entirely proper there was an ease and familiarity between them which spoke volumes; little things like Sam pushing away her half finished coffee and the general picking it up and finishing it and the way she absentmindedly passed him a yo-yo when the technical conversation clearly bored him. In return he nudged her when it was getting time to go back to the conference hall and they seemed to have a conversation entirely through facial expressions and the odd shrug. We headed back to the hall together and when Sam went to freshen up we three men stood awkwardly in the hallway and I wondered whether I should leave them Until the general, who had been introduced as Jack, asked Rodney about 'the baby' and I actually heard the great Dr McKay happily discussing his infant son.

It really was a day for firsts. Rodney McKay would seem to be engaged in some top flight research, albeit secret military technology, not only married but on friendly terms with at least one other woman and an evidently proud father. Maybe he was better than the rest of us after all.