I just came from a wonderful talk by Nobel Prize winner Marty Chalfie at the conference I am attending at UCLA (the International C. elegans meeting...more commonly called "the worm meeting"). Hearing a talk from a recent Nobel Prize winner is always wonderful, because they usually still have a sense of wonder at not just their own accomplishments but the fact that their accomplishments are part of a flow of science that depends on past efforts and has meaning in the context of future accomplishments by hundreds of other scientists. I have to say hearing from people who have gotten their Nobel Prizes a long time ago is often less inspiring because they have come to terms with greatness and take it for granted. New Nobel Prize winners have not and so their perspective is generally most inspiring.  read more »