The Wolfson Haldane 2019 Lecture: The Quest for the Structure of the Ribosome: A Personal Voyage

The thousands of genes in our DNA are translated by ribosomes - ancient, enormous molecular machines that read the genetic code to make the thousands of proteins that carry out the functions of life. Although the ribosome was discovered in the 1950s, unravelling its million atom structure took over four decades. I will frame this in terms of my own career, and show how science does not proceed in a series of logical steps but in fits and starts, with many characters and their egos, rivalries, competition and collaboration, blunders and dead ends.