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" Ultimately, biological phenomena involve molecules, and understanding them involves understanding the underlying chemistry. In my opinion, this is a particularly exciting area of chemistry. "

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" Unusually for an Indian man of his generation, my father, being aware of my mother's intellectual abilities, encouraged her to go abroad by herself to obtain a Ph.D. "

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Her

Man

" During the decade following the discovery of the double-helical structure of DNA, the problem of translation - namely, how genetic information is used to synthesize proteins - was a central topic in molecular biology. "

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Biology

Information

Discovery

" I think it's important to give young people the freedom to follow their ideas and pursue their interests. "

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Think

People

Important

" It's for scientists to lay out the data and lay out what they think, and then it's for the public to make up its own mind. We don't live in a priesthood where some small group imposes its views on other people - that's not the way that science works, and it's not the way a democratic society should work. "

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Mind

Data

Live

" I started working on ribosomes when I was a post doc, in 1978, when it would have been impossible, really, to solve it. But, it was just a fundamental problem in biology. "

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Problem

Working

Biology

" It's not about where you were born or where you come from that makes you a good scientist. What you need are good teachers, co-students, facilities. "

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Good

Come

Born

" We are all human beings, and our nationality is simply an accident of birth. "

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Accident

Nationality

Our

" I had an excellent math and physics teacher in high school named T.C. Patel, and in the university, I had truly dedicated professors in both physics and mathematics who gave me a sound foundation with which to pursue graduate studies. "

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Teacher

School

Foundation

" I began studying ribosomes as a postdoctoral fellow in Peter Moore's laboratory in 1978. "

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Fellow

Began

Studying

" 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. "

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Reading

American

Structure

" My earlier exposure to physics certainly helped me in the use of biophysical techniques like crystallography, the use of computing, calculations, etc. "

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Exposure

Use

" My mother, R. Rajalakshmi, taught at Annamalai University in Chidambaram, and during the day, I was well cared for by aunts and grandparents in the usual way of an extended Indian family. "

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Mother

Day

Way

" The success in the determination of the high-resolution structures of ribosomal subunits and eventually the whole ribosome was the culmination of decades of effort. "

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Success

Whole

Effort

" Scientists are not movie stars or politicians who will feel insulted if they are not showered with accolades. Scientists are not interested in accolades. "

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Feel

Stars

Will

" Science is an international enterprise where discoveries in one part of the world are useful in other parts. "

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Other

Useful

Where

" I think it is a mistake to judge science by Nobel Prizes. "

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

I Think

Think

Science

" My childhood and adolescence were filled with visiting scientists from both India and abroad, many of whom would stay with us. A life of science struck me as being both interesting and particularly international in its character. "

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Character

Science

Childhood

" I knew the ribosome was going to be the focus of Nobel prizes. It stands at the crossroads of biology, between the gene and what comes out of the gene. But I had convinced myself I was not going to be a winner. "

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Biology

Winner

Myself

" I am very grateful for the dedicated work and intellectual contributions of generations of talented postdocs, students and research assistants without whom none of the work from my laboratory would have been possible. "

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Grateful

I Am

Possible

" Science is curiosity, testing and experimenting. "

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Testing

Curiosity

Science

" I cannot imagine a more enjoyable place to work than in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology where I work. "

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Work

Biology

Imagine

" 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. "

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Problems

Know

Science

" I'm very grateful to have had many brilliant students and post-docs who have worked with me. Potential is often hard to spot, but a key factor is whether they express a genuine interest in the problem and how they have thought about it. "

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Thought

Grateful

Problem

" 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. "

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Exercise

Today

Bad