Attention & the world

What inspires you to learn?

40 answers answered between 1930 and 2026 one of 5 in 9 Questions

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Vox, to writers and thinkers, 9 Questions, 2017

This exact prompt is one of Vox's nine recurring questions about intellectual habits.

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Read by field Everyone Science and medicine 10 Arts and letters 16 Politics and public life 5 Business and finance 3 Technology 4 Sport 2
Read by age Any age In their thirties 1 In their forties 1 In their fifties 1 In their sixties 3
Shinya Yamanaka Stem cell biologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 2012
I got very interested in so-called “knockout mouse” technology. Knockout mouse is a way to study the function of genes. You know, both human and mouse have approximately 20,000 genes. With knockout mouse technology, we can select one gene out of those 20,000 genes, and completely destroy that one particular gene so that we can understand the function of that particular gene. I got very interested in that technology. It was 1992 or 1993 when I graduated from my Ph.D. school. So I decided to study — I decided to learn about knockout mouse technology. But at that time in Japan, only a few scientists were working on knockout mouse technology. That’s why I decided to move to the States, San Francisco
Recorded Academy of Achievement interviewer, Academy of Achievement interview, 2008 source ↗

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