“My heroes were never scientists. They were Graham Greene and Christopher Isherwood, you know, good writers.”
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Author detail
Watson, James Dewey, 1928-, American biologist and educator, b. Chicago, Ill., grad. Univ. of Chicago, 1947, Ph.D. Univ. of Indiana, 1950. With F. H. C. Crick he began (1951) research on the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge. Their findings, published in 1953, resulted in the joint award to them and to M. H. F. Wilkins (on whose laboratory's in X-ray diffraction their studies were partly based) of the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Watson joined the faculty at Harvard in 1955 and in 1968 became director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. From 1989 to 1992 he was director of the National Center for Human Genome Research, which undertook the Human Genome Project. His chief researches have been in the fields of genetics, bacteriophage reproduction, and cancer. Remarks in a published interview in 2007 that persons of African descent were inherently less intelligent than Europeans led to his suspension and subsequent retirement as Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory director. *(Columbia Encyclopedia)*
Quotes
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“My heroes were never scientists. They were Graham Greene and Christopher Isherwood, you know, good writers.”
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“A clone of Einstein wouldn't be stupid, but he wouldn't necessarily be any genius, either.”
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“It is no coincidence that so many religious beliefs date back to times when no science could possibly have accounted satisfactorily for many of the natural phenomena inspiring scripture and...”
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“Take young researchers, put them together in virtual seclusion, give them an unprecedented degree of freedom and turn up the pressure by fostering competitiveness.”
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“It is extraordinary the extent to which Darwin's insights not only changed his contemporaries' view of the world but also continue to be a source of great intellectual stimulation for scient...”
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“One could not be a successful scientist without realizing that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of scientists, a goodly number of scientists are not...”
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“I want to see cancer cured in my lifetime. It might be.”
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“I don't want to die until I see cancer cured.”
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“I don't want 100 different cures of cancer. I want, you know, give me five. So if you had, you know, five medicines, you could do away with 90 percent of cancer. That's sort of my objective....”
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“By the age of 11, I was no longer going to Sunday Mass, and going on birdwatching walks with my father. So early on, I heard of Charles Darwin. I guess, you know, he was the big hero. And, y...”
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“I first became aware of Charles Darwin and evolution while still a schoolboy growing up in Chicago. My father and I had a passion for bird-watching, and when the snow or the rain kept me ind...”
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“I started doing science when I was effectively 20, a graduate student of Salvador Luria at Indiana University. And that was - you know, it took me about two years, you know, being a graduate...”
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“Ultimately, we'll help the people we discriminate against if we try to understand more about them; genetics will lead to a world where there is a sympathy for the underdog.”
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“My parents made it clear that I should never display even the slightest disrespect to individuals who had the power to let me skip a half grade or move into more challenging classes. While i...”
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“If you succeed with your first dream, it helps. You know, people trust you, possibly, for the second one. They give you a chance to play out your second one.”
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“As an educator, I have always striven to see that the fruits of the American Dream are available to all.”
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“I would only once have the opportunity to let my scientific career encompass a path from the double helix to the three billion steps of the human genome.”
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“Some think there is something wrong about enhancing people.”
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“You move forward through knowledge. You prevail through knowledge. I love the word 'prevail.' Prevail!”
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“I have never seen Francis Crick in a modest mood. Perhaps in other company he is that way, but I have never had reason so to judge him.”
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