39 Quotes by John Sulston

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.

Our work on C. elegans emphasized the benefits of sharing large amounts of information. We took a global approach to discover the mechanisms that led to the development of the worm.

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

Title deeds establish and protect ownership of our houses, while security of property is as important to the proprietors of Tesco and Sainsbury's as it is to their customers.

What is the purpose of being human and alive without doing new things?

When results are shared freely amongst the biological community, as has been done for the worm and the Human Genome Projects, specialist scientists can move much more rapidly towards their goals.

We knew that all the protein-coding bits of genes do is to produce protein - they have to have instructions to turn them on and off. Those sequences lie well outside the protein-coding sequences, sometimes thousands, tens of thousands of bases away.

The only thing I have retained from my upbringing - I did not retain the religious element - is the idea that you do not do things for money.

You have to say - and I do - that anything that blocks that cheapest possible point-of-care delivery of health is wrong.