Walter Gilbert Quotations

I am afraid that those comments go back to the late 80's. At that time I was a skeptic - the argument based on Koch's postulates to try to distinguish between cause and association. ... Today I would regard the success of the many antiviral agents which lower the virus titers (to be expected) and also resolve the failure of the immune system (only expected if the virus is the cause of the failure) as a reasonable proof of the causation argument .

Science doesn't in the slightest depend on trust. It depends completely on the belief that you can demonstrate something for yourself.

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

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

Error is far more common than fraud which probably comprises 1 percent or a tenth of a percent of the literature.

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.

Here is a human being; it's me!

The virtues of science are skepticism and independence of thought.

The human's place in the universe will be set in the scheme of evolution, the product of our biological inheritance.

The best project is one that asks a novel question.