QuoteProject
I don't walk into the lab in the morning thinking, 'I am a woman, and I will carry out an experiment that will conquer the world.' I am a scientist, not male or female. A scientist.
Ada Yonath
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote emphasizes that one's gender should not define their professional identity or capabilities.

Ada Yonath highlights the importance of focusing on one's professional role rather than being categorized by gender. She expresses that her identity as a scientist transcends the labels of male or female, advocating for the recognition of merit and expertise in the scientific community without the constraints of gender biases.

Themes

ScientistGenderIdentityMeritEqualityFemaleWoman

In practice

Example use cases

In a conference discussing gender representation in STEM fields.

More from Ada Yonath

The world was not supportive. They look at me as a joke for 13 to 14 years until I could prove feasibility; then I had competitors. Those that laughed at me became my competitors.
Ada YonathRead
My neighborhood didn't really encourage women, though it didn't prevent women from progressing, either.
Ada YonathRead

Similar quotes

The scientific theorist is not to be envied. For Nature, or more precisely experiment, is an exorable and not very friendly judge of his work. It never says "yes" to a theory. In the most favorable cases it says "Maybe," and in the great majority of cases simply "No." If an experiment agrees with a theory it means for the latter "Maybe," and if it does not agree it means "No." Probably every theory will some day experience its "No" - most theories, soon after conception.
Albert EinsteinRead
Good science is done by being curious in general, by asking questions all around, by acknowledging the likelihood of being wrong and taking this in good humor for granted, by having a deep fondness for nature, and by being made jumpy and nervous by ignorance.
Lewis ThomasRead
Working out another system to replace Newton's laws took a long time because phenomena at the atomic level were quite strange. One had to lose one's common sense in order to perceive what was happening at the atomic level.
Richard P. FeynmanRead
I think that when we know that we actually do live in uncertainty, then we ought to admit it; it is of great value to realize that we do not know the answers to different questions. This attitude of mind - this attitude of uncertainty - is vital to the scientist, and it is this attitude of mind which the student must first acquire.
Richard P. FeynmanRead
A wonderful area for speculative academic work is the unknowable. These days religious subjects are in disfavor, but there are still plenty of good topics. The nature of consciousness, the workings of the brain, the origin of aggression, the origin of language, the origin of life on earth, SETI and life on other worlds...this is all great stuff. Wonderful stuff. You can argue it interminably. But it can't be contradicted, because nobody knows the answer to any of these topics.
Michael CrichtonRead
There are, in truth, no specialties in medicine, since to know fully many of the most important diseases a man must be familiar with their manifestations in many organs.
William OslerRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.