Frances Arnold
She was awarded the Nobel Prize for her work on directed evolution, creating new enzymes.
Most quoted
"I tell my students, 'If you're not failing, you're not trying hard enough.' And then I tell them, 'But don't fail *too* much, because then you won't get a grant.'"
— from Interview/Talk
"The beauty of directed evolution is that it doesn't require us to understand everything about biology. It just requires us to be good at setting up experiments."
— from Scientific American interview
"The most beautiful, complex, and functional objects on the planet have been made by evolution. We can use it to make things that no human knows how to design."
— from Speech
All quotes by Frances Arnold (425)
Evolution doesn’t have a goal. But we do.
Science is a team sport. No one does it alone.
The ability to design life is a tremendous responsibility.
I fell in love with proteins. They are beautiful, intricate machines.
If you want to innovate, you have to be comfortable with uncertainty.
We are moving from observing nature to guiding it.
The molecules we make today could be the foundations of a greener tomorrow.
Don’t be afraid to break things. That’s how you find out what they’re made of.
My work is a celebration of the power of evolution.
The best ideas often come from the most unexpected places.
We are teaching bacteria to make fuels and chemicals from renewable resources.
Persistence is more important than genius.
The language of DNA is the language of innovation.
I’ve learned more from my failures than from my successes.
We are not just discoverers; we are creators.
The field of directed evolution is still young. The best is yet to come.
Challenge assumptions, especially your own.
Enzymes are the ultimate green catalysts.
Diversity—in people, in ideas, in approaches—is the key to solving hard problems.
We are hacking nature’s toolkit for the benefit of humanity.
Contemporaries of Frances Arnold
Other Chemistrys born within 50 years of Frances Arnold (1956).