Ada Yonath

“The Weizmann Institute showed me respect and didn't require many administrative tasks, so I was quite independent. I did what I wanted.”

“DNA is a code of four letters; proteins are made up of amino acids which come in 20 forms. So the ribosome is a very clever machine that reads one language and operates in another.”

“Once, when I tried to calculate the height of the balcony, I broke my arm. Another time, I wanted to see if water moves faster than kerosene. When my father came out to smoke, a fire broke o...”

“I wanted to reveal how genetic code is translated into protein. I knew a great application could be for antibiotics, since half of the useful ones target the ribosomes, but I didn't believe...”

“I am against boycotts in general: boycotts against us as well as anything and everything that can be boycotted.”

“I used ribosomes from very, very robust bacteria under very, very active conditions and found a way - I actually took advantage of research done before me at the Weizmann, the same institute...”

“I'm truly glad I've managed to get the public interested in questions about basic research.”

“After I spent my compulsory army service in the 'top secret office' of the Medical Forces, where I was fortunate to be exposed to clinical and medical issues, I enrolled to the Hebrew Univer...”

“Anyone who sits in our jails who is not just a criminal but what we call a terrorist, with or without blood on his hands - and these definitions are also unclear to me - should not be sittin...”

“Proteins are constantly being degraded. Therefore, simultaneous production of proteins is required.”

“From the age of 11, I was cleaning floors, washing dishes, making sandwiches and being a cashier. Survival was the name of the game. Life was so hard that I had to struggle to keep up my sta...”

“Waiting for me in Stockholm will be a personal assistant - Katrina from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs - as well the secretary of the Swedish Academy. They'll help us with our things and t...”

“People are obsessed with my haircut; everyone wants to do something with my hair before the ceremony. Very senior figures tell me their hairstylist wants to do my hair for free. It's surpris...”

“People always talk about the implication and applications of a process, but for me, the goal is purely about knowledge. Knowledge can become practical today, in 20 years, or in 500 years. As...”

“When a man sits in our jails for a number of years, and around him friends and family become angry, that is how we create terrorists.”

“My parents were Zionists born in Poland. My father was a rabbi who didn't know much about science and ran a grocery store in the neighborhood with my mother's help.”

“My neighborhood didn't really encourage women, though it didn't prevent women from progressing, either.”

“There are over 7,000 different types of proteins in typical eukaryotic cells; the total number depends on the cell class and function.”

“For quite a while, I didn't receive a higher academic status. I didn't feel any discrimination against me as a woman scientist, but I hadn't produced a lot of science journal articles.”

“I was born in Jerusalem with a religious background and a rabbi as a father... it was rather poor, but what we did have, we did have books.”