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I think it was this curiosity about the natural world which awoke my early interest in science.

- Paul Nurse
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Author:
Paul Nurse
Tags:
Science
World
Curiosity
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I was never very good at exams, having a poor memory and finding the examination process rather artificial, and there never seemed to be enough time to follow up things that really interested me.

During the winter my attention was attracted to the changes in the stars and planets in the sky.

My parents were born in Norfolk and spent their early years working in the big houses of that rural English county, my mother as a cook and my father as a handyman and chauffeur.

I had a great time investigating the pigments of different mutant fruit flies by following experimental protocols published in Scientific American, and I also remember making my own beetle collection when it was still acceptable to make such collections.

It was during my time at secondary school that I abandoned religion.

Like many students, I found the drudgery of real experiments and the slowness of progress a complete shock, and at my low points I contemplated other alternative careers including study of the philosophy or sociology of science.

My main efforts focussed on trying to identify the rate controlling steps during the cell cycle. Crucial for this analysis were wee mutants that were advanced prematurely through the cell cycle and so divided at a reduced cell size.

At age 11 in 1960, I moved to an academic state secondary school, Harrow County Grammar School for Boys.

Scientific understanding is often beautiful, a profoundly aesthetic experience which gives pleasure not unlike the reading of a great poem.

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I think it was this curiosity about the natural world which awoke my early interest in science.

I think it was this curiosity about the natural world which awoke my early interest in science.

I think it was this curiosity about the natural world which awoke my early interest in science.

I think it was this curiosity about the natural world which awoke my early interest in science.

I think it was this curiosity about the natural world which awoke my early interest in science.

I think it was this curiosity about the natural world which awoke my early interest in science.

I think it was this curiosity about the natural world which awoke my early interest in science.

I think it was this curiosity about the natural world which awoke my early interest in science.

I think it was this curiosity about the natural world which awoke my early interest in science.

I think it was this curiosity about the natural world which awoke my early interest in science.

I think it was this curiosity about the natural world which awoke my early interest in science.

I think it was this curiosity about the natural world which awoke my early interest in science.

I think it was this curiosity about the natural world which awoke my early interest in science.

I think it was this curiosity about the natural world which awoke my early interest in science.

I think it was this curiosity about the natural world which awoke my early interest in science.