18 Quotes by Martin Chalfie

Trying to understand fundamental processes that take place as organisms develop and how their various cells interact with one another - one can see what happens with those cells by asking questions about the fundamentals of biology.

The prize was really for the molecule. In 1962, Osamu Shimomura discovered a protein in a jellyfish that caused it to glow bright green. With colleagues, 30 years later, I was able to insert this G.F.P. gene into bacteria and make them turn green.

Scientific inquiry starts with observation. The more one can see, the more one can investigate.

For a decade, I had been studying a transparent worm, the C. elegans. I immediately thought, if you could put the G.F.P. gene into C. elegans, you'd then be able to see biological processes in live animals. Until then, we had to kill them and prepare their tissues chemically to visualize proteins or active genes within cells.

Indeed, we often mark our progress in science by improvements in imaging.

If you do an experiment and it gives you what you did not expect, it is a discovery.

I had been interested in science from when I was very young, but after a disastrous summer lab experience in which every experiment I tried failed, I decided on graduating from college that I was not cut out to be a scientist.

I do think of this prize as the GFP prize, and I happen to fortunately be one of the people that goes along for the ride.

People don't generally listen to scientists much.