John Sulston

In science, as in business, there must be structures that ensure the well endowed do not use their position to block competition.

The strong evidence is that we're running out of space. We're collectively affecting the world's climate. This is due to the still-growing human population and our increase in consumption.

The myth is that IP rights are as important as our rights in castles, cars, and corn oil. IP is supposedly intended to encourage inventors and the investment needed to bring their products to the clinic and marketplace.

The currencies of science are discoveries and ideas; the rewards are the excitement of going where nobody has been before and, if one is inclined to such things, the kudos of peer acclaim, plus funds to do more research.

As far back as I remember, and earlier, I was an artisan, a maker and doer. Mechanically minded, my parents said.

Whilst worthy in themselves, applications shouldn't be the only way to drive basic research.

It is not a Pandora's box that science opens; it is, rather, a treasure chest. We, humanity, can choose whether or not to take out the discoveries and use them, and for what purpose.

I don't want a few extra weeks of life at enormous cost, for example, when it comes to the end.

The free market is the epitome of life itself. This is something that all scientists recognise because science itself operates on free market lines.

If we understand the worm, we understand life.

It was a matter of not living lavishly but enjoying what you had, growing things with your hands, working hard, but not being tied to a nine-to-five job, and generally feeling that there's more to life than money.

If you patent a discovery which is unique, say a human gene or even just one particular function of a human gene, then you are actually creating a monopoly, and that's not the purpose of the world of patents.