"People keep e-mailing me to ask, 'What is the meaning of life?' "
"Others, he said, found their meaning 'in friends, in dogs, in religion, in the self-reflectiveness of writing, etc. But Caltech people largely find it in the continual contest with nature.' "
"When you are a scientist, and you are trying to prove or disprove a notion, you work at the bench doing the dullest, most routine things over and over and over again, "
"I can't tell you how many ways things go wrong. All the time you are doing this because there is an idea behind it."
David Baltimore served as president of the California Institute of Technology and remained an active scientist, businessman, and conscience of biological engineering. He played leading roles in national debates over gene splicing, the search for an AIDS vaccine, and the risks of manipulating the human genome. He emphasized the repetitive, idea-driven nature of laboratory work and valued hands-on experimentation. He described varied sources of meaning for people and noted that Caltech researchers often seek meaning in the continual contest with nature. He died at age 87 at his home in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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