Sydney Brenner

"A lot of the things that have been accomplished in science have been accomplished on the basis of ignorance … in the sense that you import into the science people from outside. Because once you have an established science, it has got its high priests — the guys who know everything that will work or wont work. And they dont want to be bothered. So you have to have a challenge. And the great thing is that young people are ignorant, and we should catch them before they turn into the priesthood. So I think that science should have a much more daring approach."

"I think for the first time we can attack the fundamental biology of man."

"Current ideas of the uses of Model Organisms spring form the exemplars of the past and choosing the right organism for ones research is as important as finding the right problems to work on. In all my research these two problems have been closely intertwined."

"Then we started clinical work ... and I just wasnt suited to that. I didnt like ... the whole structure of a teaching hospital. That is, I felt very much that treating patients as things is the wrong thing. And since I thought it was very hard to be a scientist and not do this, then I preferred not to do it at all. So, in fact, I think I am the only person who has ever passed medicine who had never seen a patient until his examination — because I never went. And, in fact, one of the great stories is that I failed my medicine because I was asked to smell this patients breath and correctly diagnosed Macleans toothpaste where I should have diagnosed acetone."

"Well, I think my skills are in getting things started. ... In fact, thats what I enjoy most — its the opening game. And Im afraid that once it gets past that point I get rather bored with it and want to do other things. ... The other thing Im good at is talking."

"Like Feynman, Brenner is witty and has won a Nobel Prize. But most important for a legend, Brenner, like Feynman, has this wonderful superiority complex, which results in irreverence, disdain for authority, and allergy to pomposity. This is what young starting scientists love."