Quotes from Joshua Lederberg

I get curious about new things. My real strength is going into a field that has not been investigated before, and finding new approaches to it.

I certainly saw science as a kind of calling, and one with as much legitimacy as a religious calling.

I hope I've lived a life of science whose style will encourage younger people.

Being successful at a very young age gave me the confidence and the capability to try out other things.

I'd like to put in a vote for the intrinsic fascination of science.

I'm chairing a UNESCO committee on how to improve global Internet communications for science help third-world people get onto the Net so they can be part of the process.

I started on the use of the Internet for scientific communication. Our research group was one of the very first to make really systematic use of it as a way of managing research projects.

I did get a very fine education, and not just in science. It took some pressure on the part of my elders to convince me that I really should take an interest in humanities.

If lifespan jumps by 30 or 40 years, that has enormous implications.

When I was in high school, I became interested in cytochemistry: chemical analysis under the microscope, and trying to understand the composition of cells.

If you wanted to dissect the structure of living cells, genetic analysis was an extremely powerful method, so my interest turned to that.

As soon as you go into any biological process in any real detail, you discover it's open-ended in terms of what needs to be found out about it.

The central moral issue of science is that we do not have a science of peace and hardly know where to begin in building one.

The single biggest threat to man's continued dominance on the planet is the virus.

I believe I am a person with unusual talents. I think I'd be a liar or stupid if I were to deny that.

I'm chairing a UNESCO committee on how to improve global Internet communications for science; help third-world people get onto the Net so they can be part of the process.

I got my Nobel Prize for my lab work.

If it takes you 20 or 25 years to establish yourself in one field, you really ought to be careful not to stray too far.

I'm not easily inhibited by the fact that I don't know something about a subject. It doesn't stop me from dabbling in it.

Being successful at a very young age gave me the confidence and the capability to try out other things.