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
DNA was my only gold rush. I regarded DNA as worth a gold rush.
Interpretation
James D. Watson viewed the exploration of DNA as a valuable pursuit, akin to the excitement and opportunity of a gold rush.
In this quote, James D. Watson expresses his deep appreciation for the field of genetics, particularly the study of DNA, emphasizing its significance and potential in advancing science. He likens the pursuit of knowledge and discoveries in DNA to the frenzied excitement of a gold rush, indicating that he perceives extraordinary value and opportunity in understanding the building blocks of life.
In practice
In a conference on genetic research, one could use the quote to highlight the value of innovative exploration.
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.
Science has always been my preoccupation and when you think a breakthrough is possible, it is terribly exciting.
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.
Take young researchers, put them together in virtual seclusion, give them an unprecedented degree of freedom and turn up the pressure by fostering competitiveness.
The reality is the majority of us will not get off this planet. So the long run is, some kind of space exploration has to benefit us here on Earth.
In 1903, I finished my doctor's thesis and obtained the degree. At the end of the same year, the Nobel prize was awarded jointly to Becquerel, my husband and me for the discovery of radioactivity and new radioactive elements.
If African farmers can use improved seeds and better practices to grow more crops and get them to market, then millions of families can earn themselves a better living and a better life.
With a few honorable exceptions the press of the United States is at the beck and call of the patent medicines. Not only do the newspapers modify news possibly affecting these interests, but they sometimes become their agents.
The methods of theoretical physics should be applicable to all those branches of thought in which the essential features are expressible with numbers.
Biology is now bigger than physics, as measured by the size of budgets, by the size of the workforce, or by the output of major discoveries; and biology is likely to remain the biggest part of science through the twenty-first century.
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