"Why do we do basic research? To learn about ourselves."
"I am afraid that those comments go back to the late 80's. At that time I was a skeptic - the argument based on Koch's postulates to try to distinguish between cause and association. Today I would regard the success of the many antiviral agents which lower the virus titers (to be expected) and also resolve the failure of the immune system (only expected if the virus is the cause of the failure) as a reasonable proof of the causation argument ."
6 likes
Source: Personal email message, momentofscience.blogspot.ru. July 11, 2006.
About the author
Same author
More quotes by Walter Gilbert
"It's easier to change what you do than people think it is. If you don't change, your field changes around you."
"Biology will relate every human gene to the genes of other animals and bacteria, to this great chain of being."
"The virtues of science are skepticism and independence of thought."
"The interaction of the variation in our genes is what's responsible for lots of our attributes and vigor."
"We haven't been able yet to determine in terms of genes what makes a human being a human and not another mammal."