Walter gilbert

We haven't been able yet to determine in terms of genes what makes a human being a human and not another mammal.

I have the same sense of the power and virtue of knowledge that some people get from a religious background.

Scientists tend to be skeptical, but the weakness of the community of science is that it tends to move into preformed establishment modes that say this is the only way of doing science, the only valid...

The best project is one that asks a novel question.

The human's place in the universe will be set in the scheme of evolution, the product of our biological inheritance.

The interaction of the variation in our genes is what's responsible for lots of our attributes and vigor.

Early on, it's good to develop the ability to write. Learning to write is a useful exercise, even if what you're writing about is not that relevant.

Today we try to identify a gene and then study its properties.

By asking a novel question that you don't know the answer to, you discover whether you can formulate a way of finding the answer, and you stretch your own mind, and very often you learn something new.

It's easier to change what you do than people think it is. If you don't change, your field changes around you.