Laziness is the mother of good science. Creation comes from moments when you don’t have anything to do. When you have no teaching, and basic admin, and extra commitments are seen to interfere with research, what if you have strong motivation, and don’t know what to do? If you are teaching, you can fill your gaps by teaching, but researchers have to fill the gaps with thoughts. Applications of science are important and socially attractive but they detract from the single mindedness of research. Dr César Milstein: Monoclonal Antibodies, pp. 25

Dr César Milstein (1927 – 2002) shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984 with Dr Georges Köhler (1945 - 1995) for their work on the discovery and development of monoclonal antibodies. They  worked together at the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, and both participated in our very first Witness seminar from which this quote is taken. See also our 50th celebratory volume, Monoclonal Antibodies to Migraine, which contains highlights from all previous Witness Seminars.