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Daily Inspiration Quote by Demis Hassabis

"AlphaFold is a step toward making biology a more predictive science"

About this Quote

“Predictive” is the giveaway here: Hassabis isn’t just celebrating a clever model, he’s proposing a new social contract for biology. For decades the life sciences have been rich in description and poor in foresight: we can catalog genes, map pathways, publish gorgeous microscopy, then still get blindsided by how proteins fold, misfold, or mutate into new behaviors. AlphaFold’s splash wasn’t merely that it solved a hard puzzle; it made a stubbornly contingent domain feel, suddenly, engineerable.

The line is carefully calibrated. “A step toward” signals humility and political awareness: biology isn’t physics, and no one wants to promise a Laplacean future where living systems become spreadsheets. But the ambition is unmistakable. “Making biology” frames prediction not as a discovery but as a construction project, implying that better tools, datasets, and compute can refit the discipline’s workflow. It flatters the scientific establishment while smuggling in a tech-world premise: progress looks like models that generalize.

Context matters: AlphaFold arrives amid a broader AI moment where machine learning shifts from pattern recognition to scientific infrastructure. Hassabis, a programmer leading a deep-learning lab, speaks as a translator between cultures. The subtext is that “biology” has been limited by its methods, not its questions, and that AI can function like a new kind of microscope: not just seeing more, but seeing ahead.

It’s also a recruitment pitch. Calling biology “predictive” appeals to funders, pharma, and young researchers who want leverage, not only insight. Prediction becomes the modern badge of seriousness - and AlphaFold the proof that the badge is earnable.

Quote Details

TopicScience
SourceAlphaFold announcement and interviews around CASP14 results (DeepMind Blog / press coverage, 2020)
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Hassabis, Demis. (2026, January 26). AlphaFold is a step toward making biology a more predictive science. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/alphafold-is-a-step-toward-making-biology-a-more-184486/

Chicago Style
Hassabis, Demis. "AlphaFold is a step toward making biology a more predictive science." FixQuotes. January 26, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/alphafold-is-a-step-toward-making-biology-a-more-184486/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"AlphaFold is a step toward making biology a more predictive science." FixQuotes, 26 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/alphafold-is-a-step-toward-making-biology-a-more-184486/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

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AlphaFold: Demis Hassabis on Making Biology More Predictive
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About the Author

Demis Hassabis

Demis Hassabis (born July 27, 1976) is a Computer Programmer from United Kingdom.

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