‘I taught my local restaurant how to make noodles’

An illustration of Jin Quan Yu

Source: © Peter Strain/Debut Art Ltd

Organic chemistry maestro Jin-Quan Yu on football, food and cleaving the C–H bond

Sports are my main hobby. I didn’t have access to sport before I went to college so I started sports very late. At university I learnt soccer and have played it on and off for many years. When I was in Cambridge, it was harder for me to get a game because the standard was higher so I started playing badminton. A couple of months ago I became really interested in table tennis, which is funny. Everyone in China knows how to play table tennis but not me because I grew up in a really remote area and we didn’t have access to any sports.