As I look back on the last few decades of my life, I am struck by the good fortune that came my way.

People are not the only interesting organism on earth. From the point of view of scientific or commercial value, there are lots of interesting organisms.

So I applied to medical school and received a scholarship at Washington University in St. Louis. Washington University turned out to be a lucky choice. The faculty was scholarly and dedicated and accessible to students.

As I look back on the last few decades of my life, I am struck by the good fortune that came my way.

First of all, many human diseases are influenced by, if not caused by mutations in genes.

And of course, identifying all human genes and proteins will have great medical significance.

Small science, which includes most research in the life sciences all over the world, is science directed usually by an individual senior scientist and a small team of junior associates, perhaps three, ten, fifteen, something in that order.