Jeffrey C. Hall

“In my day, you could get a faculty job with zero post-doc papers, as in the case of yours truly; but now, the CV of a successful applicant looks like that of a newly minted full professor from olden times.”

“A functional biological clock has three components: input from the outside world to set the clock, the timekeeping mechanism itself, and genetic machinery that allows the clock to regulate expression of a variety of genes.”

“Brandeis is so fast and loose and informal, I didn't have any problem offering a history course as a biologist. The barriers would be far more formidable, unscalable, at other institutions. But this is a user-friendly place. It's 'Shmedrik University' - that's a Yiddish word for even worse than schlemiel.”

“People used to think that biological clocks were not only mysterious, they were seen almost as miracles. This is no longer the case.”

“In any complex organism, brain formation and function must be controlled in part by genes.”

“It is very unlikely that the genetics of homosexuality will ever devolve to a single factor in humans with such major effects as it has in Drosophila.”

“The question is not whether but how do the actions of a given gene influence some interesting aspect of behavior.”

“Cryptochrome harnesses the energy of incoming blue light, but other molecules are probably needed to absorb light of other colors.”

“I admit that I resent running out of research money.”

“What props up biological research, at least in the vaunted U.S. of A., involves a situation so deeply imbued with entitlement mentality that it has sunk into institutional corruption.”

“People always think I'm Jewish. Actually, I'm a lapsed Catholic.”