No one may have the guts to say this, but if we could make better human beings by knowing how to add genes, why shouldn't we?
James D. WatsonRead
If you go into science, I think you better go in with a dream that maybe you, too, will get a Nobel Prize. It's not that I went in and I thought I was very bright and I was going to get one, but I'll confess, you know, I knew what it was.
Interpretation
Pursuing science should be driven by passion and ambition, including the aspiration for great achievements.
James D. Watson emphasizes the importance of having dreams and ambitions in the field of science. He suggests that while one may not always expect to achieve great accolades such as a Nobel Prize, having such aspirations can drive a scientist's motivation and passion for their work.
In practice
In a graduation speech to inspire new scientists.
No one may have the guts to say this, but if we could make better human beings by knowing how to add genes, why shouldn't we?
I think the reason people are dealing with science less well now than 50 years ago is that it has become so complicated.
Polls consistently show that the majority of Americans favour research using embryonic stem cells and yet politicians continue to pander to the outspoken religious minority that is hampering efforts to develop this potentially valuable technology.
DNA was my only gold rush. I regarded DNA as worth a gold rush.
Science has always been my preoccupation and when you think a breakthrough is possible, it is terribly exciting.
Take young researchers, put them together in virtual seclusion, give them an unprecedented degree of freedom and turn up the pressure by fostering competitiveness.
I was the most emotional of the flight directors. Space really got me all honked up.
To invoke the origin of the DNA/protein machine by invoking a supernatural Designer is to explain precisely nothing - for it leaves unexplained the origin of the Designer.
The best material model of a cat is another, or preferably the same, cat.
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction
The work of science is to substitute facts for appearances, and demonstrations for impressions.
All matter comes from a primary substance, the luminiferous ether
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