I began studying ribosomes as a postdoctoral fellow in Peter Moore's laboratory in 1978.

I cannot imagine a more enjoyable place to work than in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology where I work.

I am very grateful for the dedicated work and intellectual contributions of generations of talented postdocs, students and research assistants without whom none of the work from my laboratory would have been possible.

It's for scientists to lay out the data and lay out what they think, and then it's for the public to make up its own mind. We don't live in a priesthood where some small group imposes its views on other people - that's not the way that science works, and it's not the way a democratic society should work.

We live in an increasingly technological world where the issues are quite complex and based on some complicated science.

My childhood and adolescence were filled with visiting scientists from both India and abroad, many of whom would stay with us. A life of science struck me as being both interesting and particularly international in its character.