Conférence - Harold E. Varmus : Who Becomes a Professional Scientist and Why? My Path from Literature and Medicine to Basic Biology

Épigénétique et mémoire cellulaire - Edith Heard

Edith Heard

Collège de France

Epigénétique et mémoire cellulaire

Cours 2023-2024

Conférence : Reflections on the Scientific Enterprise

Who Becomes a Professional Scientist and Why? My Path from Literature and Medicine to Basic Biology

Harold E. Varmus

Prix Nobel de physiologie ou médecine

Résumé

I will begin by talking about the nature of scientific thought, contrasted with the experience of working in a complex "enterprise." Then I will note some of the reasons (personal, cultural, economic, political or other) that explain why people chose a career in science. I will describe in detail my own unusual route, influenced by literature, medicine, the Vietnam War, and finally the appeal of laboratory work. I will also recount how choice of a scientific career was displayed in a famous old movie and summarize my concerns about the unequal representation in the demography of science.