Kary Mullis

scientist damage helping fraternity

“Scientists are doing an awful lot of damage to the world in the name of helping it. I don’t mind attacking my own fraternity because I am ashamed of it.”

—Kary B. Mullis (1944-2019)

idea looking coincidence naivite mistake

"Sometimes a good idea comes to you when you are not looking for it. Through an improbable combination of coincidence, naivete and lucky mistakes."

—Kary B. Mullis (1944-2019)

probable HIV AIDS evidence document

"Its not even probable, let alone scientifically proven, that HIV causes AIDS. If there is evidence that HIV causes AIDS, there should be scientific documents which either singly or collectively demonstrate that fact, at least with a high probability. There are no such documents."

—Kary B. Mullis (1944-2019)

science institution mankind weed fashion religion law

Science, like nothing else among the institutions of mankind, grows like a weed every year. Art is subject to arbitrary fashion, religion is inwardly focused and driven only to sustain itself, law shuttles between freeing us and enslaving us."

—Kary B. Mullis (1944-2019)

global warming worry guilty salary

"Global warmers predict that global warming is coming, and our emissions are to blame. They do that to keep us worried about our role in the whole thing. If we aren't worried and guilty, we might not pay their salaries. It's that simple."

—Kary B. Mullis (1944-2019)

people relize molecule hypothetical

"People don't realize that molecules themselves are somewhat hypothetical, and that their interactions are more so, and that the biological reactions are even more so."

—Kary B. Mullis (1944-2019)

mystery virus billion

"The mystery of that damn virus has been generated by the $2 billion a year they spend on it."

—Kary B. Mullis (1944-2019)

pharmacist potassium nitrate rocket

"You can't ask your pharmacist to stock larger quantities of potassium nitrate because you want to make a bigger rocket."

—Kary B. Mullis (1944-2019)

science explain social fabric

"Science has not been successful by making up explanations of things that fit with the current social fabric."

—Kary B. Mullis (1944-2019)

fortunate russian enemy childhood hide table nuclear

"We were fortunate to have the Russians as our childhood enemies. We practiced hiding under our desks in case they had the temerity to drop a nuclear weapon."

—Kary B. Mullis (1944-2019)

fish water people air

"Fish don't know much about water, and people didn't know much about air."

—Kary B. Mullis (1944-2019)

battle security safety lunch beer radioative isotope

“The biggest battle I fought with the danger officer was over the fact that I insisted on keeping my lunch and a case of Beck’s beer in the same fridge in which I kept my radioactive isotopes.”

—Kary B. Mullis (1944-2019)

PCR misuse result find anything anybody

"I don’t think you can misuse PCR. [It is] the results; the interpretation of it. If they can find this virus in you at all – and with PCR, if you do it well, you can find almost anything in anybody.”

—Kary B. Mullis (1944-2019)

believe Buddhist amplify molecule measure body

"It starts making you believe in the sort of Buddhist notion that everything is contained in everything else. If you can amplify one single molecule up to something you can really measure, which PCR can do, then there is just very few molecules that you don’t have at least one single one of in your body.”

—Kary B. Mullis (1944-2019)

misuse PCR meaningful measurement exact

"That could be thought of as a misuse: to claim that it [a PCR test] is meaningful. It tells you something about nature and what is there. To test for that one thing and say it has a special meaning is, I think, the problem. The measurement for it is not exact; it is not as good as the measurement for apples. The tests are based on things that are invisible and the results are inferred in a sense. It allows you to take a miniscule amount of anything and make it measureable and then talk about it.”

—Kary B. Mullis (1944-2019)

PCR multiply sick

"PCR is just a process that allows you to make a whole lot of something out of something. It doesn’t tell you that you are sick, or that the thing that you ended up with was going to hurt you or anything like that.”

—Kary B. Mullis (1944-2019)

business person interest science

"I have never encountered a business person with any true interest in science. Why should he be interested? He had the choice, and he chose business. It is only through good fortune that money ends up in the hands of scientists, who know how to use it for anything other than making more money, and it is a sorry situation indeed, since much scientific research is not cheap."

—Kary B. Mullis (1944-2019)