Walter Gilbert — American Scientist born on March 21, 1932,

Walter Gilbert is an American biochemist, physicist, molecular biology pioneer, and Nobel laureate... (wikipedia)

We are embedded in a biological world and related to the organisms around us.
The virtues of science are skepticism and independence of thought.
Biology will relate every human gene to the genes of other animals and bacteria, to this great chain of being.
Why do we do basic research? To learn about ourselves.
The human's place in the universe will be set in the scheme of evolution, the product of our biological inheritance.