Top 22 Ada Yonath Quotes

There are over 7,000 different types of proteins in typical eukaryotic cells; the total number depends on the cell class and function.

I used ribosomes from very, very robust bacteria under very, very active conditions and found a way – I actually took advantage of research done before me at the Weizmann, the same institute I am now – how to preserve their activity and their integrity while they crystallized.

Proteins are constantly being degraded. Therefore, simultaneous production of proteins is required.

From the age of 11, I was cleaning floors, washing dishes, making sandwiches and being a cashier. Survival was the name of the game. Life was so hard that I had to struggle to keep up my standards. Under these conditions, I didn’t think about science too much.

The world was not supportive. They look at me as a joke for 13 to 14 years until I could prove feasibility; then I had competitors. Those that laughed at me became my competitors.

It is a great honor for me to be able to express my sincere gratitude to the Nobel Foundation.

I was born in Jerusalem in 1939 to a poor family that shared a rented four-room apartment with two additional families and their children.

My kindergarten teacher encouraged me to learn, as did my school headmaster, who gave me a grant to study.

I’m always having to get rid of reporters.

I wanted to reveal how genetic code is translated into protein. I knew a great application could be for antibiotics, since half of the useful ones target the ribosomes, but I didn’t believe I could contribute to it. It was like the next Mount Everest to conquer. It was my dream to contribute something to humanity.

During my time I had some very difficult years, and I had very pronounced competition, all by men.

I was born in Jerusalem with a religious background and a rabbi as a father… it was rather poor, but what we did have, we did have books.

I am against boycotts in general: boycotts against us as well as anything and everything that can be boycotted.

I don’t distinguish between men and women. This is irrelevant to me, and I don’t think in these terms.

When a man sits in our jails for a number of years, and around him friends and family become angry, that is how we create terrorists.

Once, when I tried to calculate the height of the balcony, I broke my arm. Another time, I wanted to see if water moves faster than kerosene. When my father came out to smoke, a fire broke out.

Anyone who sits in our jails who is not just a criminal but what we call a terrorist, with or without blood on his hands – and these definitions are also unclear to me – should not be sitting in our custody.

The Weizmann Institute showed me respect and didn’t require many administrative tasks, so I was quite independent. I did what I wanted.

DNA is a code of four letters; proteins are made up of amino acids which come in 20 forms. So the ribosome is a very clever machine that reads one language and operates in another.

I don’t walk into the lab in the morning thinking, ‘I am a woman, and I will carry out an experiment that will conquer the world.’ I am a scientist, not male or female. A scientist.

If one has curiosity, then one stands the chance of attain a high level of scientific inquiry.

Even if I tried to fill up the stadium in Ramat Gan, I don’t think I could.