Venkatraman Ramakrishnan - Science Quotes

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My own lab has two Chinese, a Malaysian, a Canadian, an American, a German, it has had all sorts of people. And it's actually fun because people from different countries come together, they have cultural exchanges, they learn more about each others' countries and way of life. Science is a great international mixer, so the idea that it is a sort of cricket match where our team won — that simply is a wrong way of looking at scientific discovery.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
It takes a certain amount of courage to tackle very hard problems in science, I now realise. You don't know what the timescale of your work will be: decades or only a few years. Or your approach may be fatally flawed and doomed to fail. Or you could get scooped just as you are finalising your work. It is very stressful.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
You would have to ask a physicist really but I think understanding fundamental problems in physics is very important because they are part of our culture. You just never know what is going to come from it. If you had told Isaac Newton about spaceships and satellites that arise from his laws of gravity, it would have been science fiction to him.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
People go into science out of curiosity, not to win awards. But scientists are human and have ambitions. Even the best scientists are often insecure and feel the need for recognition.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
This is an honour that reflects the quality of science supported by the Medical Research Council, in particular at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. In my case, credit should go to the numerous dedicated postdocs, students, associates and colleagues who made crucial contributions to the work.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
I remember reading a Scientific American article about the use of new physical techniques – including neutron scattering – as a method for unravelling the structure of the ribosome. I was fascinated. I knew ribosomes were a big fundamental problem in science and this was a method for chipping away at it.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
Last year, the lecture was held in [an auditorium] with a capacity for just 300 people, and half the seats were empty. What has changed? I am still the same person doing the same science. Why are people so impressed when some academy in Sweden gives an award?

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
If I had complained about the prize before I got mine, they may have thought I was anticipating sour grapes. But I complained on the grounds that too many important scientists get missed out for Nobels. Science today is a highly collaborative exercise and to convert it into a contest, as the Nobel does, is a bad way to look at science. On the other hand, I am grateful to the committee for my award. It put the study of ribosome – the cellular machine that turns the blueprint of life into life itself – on front pages round the world.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
A life of science struck me as being both interesting and international in character.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan
That is the wrong question to ask…You can't go into science thinking of a Nobel Prize. You can only go into science because you're interested in it.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan