Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

Science is curiosity, testing and experimenting.

People go into science out of curiosity, not to win awards. But scientists are human and have ambitions.

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

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.

There is no magical formula for winning a Nobel Prize.

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

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.

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.

We benefit tremendously from the E.U. Britain does very well in getting back E.U. money for the amount it puts in.

The Royal Society view is completely apolitical: it will judge anything based on the evidence. One of the big strengths of the Society is that is it widely perceived as impartial and above the fray. We'd like to make sure it stays that way.

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.

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