If I were to take an undergraduate chemistry exam, I would probably fail.

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.

It's not about where you were born or where you come from that makes you a good scientist. What you need are good teachers, co-students, facilities.

Nobody has approached me about an offer to work in India. However, I can categorically state that if they did so, I would refuse immediately.

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.