Daniel Nathans

At every stage of my career I have had interesting and cordial colleagues, some of whom are close friends. ”

People are not the only interesting organism on earth. From the point of view of scientific or commercial value, there are lots of interesting organisms. ”

My parents came to the United States in the early years of this century as part of a wave of Russian Jewish immigrants seeking freedom and opportunity in the New World. ”

I also found out that I liked biochemical research and that I could do it. ”

As I look back on the last few decades of my life, I am struck by the good fortune that came my way. ”

Small science, which includes most research in the life sciences all over the world, is science directed usually by an individual senior scientist and a small team of junior associates, perhaps three, ten, fifteen, something in that order. ”

My education began in the public schools of Wilmington. During most of these years, from about age 10, I also worked at some job or other after school, on weekends, and in the summer months. ”

First of all, many human diseases are influenced by, if not caused by mutations in genes. ”

And of course, identifying all human genes and proteins will have great medical significance. ”

The glimpses of human strength and frailty that a physician sees are with me still. ”