60 | Venki Ramakrishnan and the secrets of doing science over tea

Venki Ramakrishnan shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for uncovering the structure of the ribosome. He runs a lab at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. In this episode, Venki emphasizes the importance of enjoying the scientific process itself, not just aiming for major discoveries. He describes his creativity as a result of mulling over a problem and of talking with people. Venki also highlights the need for scientists to make daily judgment calls about their approach and the future of the project. And he encourages openness and collaboration, viewing the ability to seek help as a strength rather than a weakness.

This episode was supported by Research Theory (researchtheory.org). For more information about Night Science, visit https://www.biomedcentral.com/collections/night-science .

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:36 Breakthroughs rest on incremental discoveries
• 9:04 Everyday creativity
• 13:52 Industrialization of science
• 19:23 Thanking our sponsors
• 19:46 Roles of openness and intuition
• 26:14 The culture at LMB: a great scientific haven