The community as a whole doesn't listen patiently to critics who adopt alternative viewpoints. Although the great lesson of history is that knowledge develops through the conflict of viewpoints.
Walter GilbertWe know specific genes are turned on in specific cells, but we don't know to what extent this happens.
Walter GilbertEarly on, it's good to develop the ability to write. Learning to write is a useful exercise, even if what you're writing about is not that relevant.
Walter GilbertError is far more common than fraud which probably comprises 1 percent or a tenth of a percent of the literature.
Walter GilbertIt's easier to change what you do than people think it is. If you don't change, your field changes around you.
Walter GilbertBiology will relate every human gene to the genes of other animals and bacteria, to this great chain of being.
Walter GilbertIn 15 years we'll have all the sequence, a list of the genes everyone has in common and those that differ among people. We know only something like a tenth of 1 percent of the sequence at the moment.
Walter GilbertScience doesn't in the slightest depend on trust. It depends completely on the belief that you can demonstrate something for yourself.
Walter GilbertThe interaction of the variation in our genes is what's responsible for lots of our attributes and vigor.
Walter GilbertWe haven't been able yet to determine in terms of genes what makes a human being a human and not another mammal.
Walter GilbertBy asking a novel question that you don't know the answer to, you discover whether you can formulate a way of finding the answer, and you stretch your own mind, and very often you learn something new.
Walter GilbertThree billion bases of DNA sequence can be put on a single compact disc and one will be able to pull a CD out of one's pocket and say, 'Here is a human being; it's me!'
Walter GilbertThe human's place in the universe will be set in the scheme of evolution, the product of our biological inheritance.
Walter Gilbert