Our cells engage in protein production, and many of those proteins are enzymes responsible for the chemistry of life.
I was driven completely by a desire to understand how cells worked.
The night before the Nobel announcement every year, I've gone to bed feeling quite anxious. I was optimistic, and also I knew it might never happen.
I got into science because I thought that, with inspiration and hard work, I could figure out how life works.
It is common, and encouraged by many journals, for research to be judged by the impact factor of the journal that publishes it. But as a journal's score is an average, it says little about the quality of any individual piece of research.
I am a scientist. Mine is a professional world that achieves great things for humanity.
The prevailing structures of personal reputation and career advancement mean the biggest rewards often follow the flashiest work, not the best.
Just as Wall Street needs to break the hold of the bonus culture, which drives risk-taking that is rational for individuals but damaging to the financial system, so science must break the tyranny of the luxury journals. The result will be better research that better serves science and society.
The idea that I could push the envelope using dedication and research and endless curiosity has propelled me in my life's work.
Everything I did in high school was focused on microbiology, looking at things like algae under a microscope for hours on end. When I was 13, I saved up $100 to buy a good used microscope. I was obsessed with microorganisms.
When I was a postdoc, I jotted every fresh thought on a three-by-five card and kept them in a card catalogue.
