By 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.

Why do we do basic research? To learn about ourselves.

I have the same sense of the power and virtue of knowledge that some people get from a religious background.

It's easier to change what you do than people think it is. If you don't change, your field changes around you.

By 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.

Everyone wants a hand in the outcome, a piece of the knowledge.

Scientists tend to be skeptical, but the weakness of the community of science is that it tends to move into preformed establishment modes that say this is the only way of doing science, the only valid view.