Science Quote by Daniel Nathans

A Nobel-winning scientist making room for warmth is a small rhetorical rebellion against the myth of the solitary genius. Nathans frames his career not as a ladder climbed alone, but as a long corridor lined with people worth naming. The phrasing is doing quiet work: “at every stage” suggests continuity across ranks and eras, a reminder that scientific life is not one breakthrough but a chain of labs, institutions, and shifting teams. It’s also a subtle credential. If you’ve had “interesting and cordial colleagues” at every stage, you’ve been around long enough - and widely enough - to know the ecosystem.

“Interesting and cordial” is carefully calibrated. Interesting signals intellectual stimulation without bragging about brilliance; cordial signals civility without pretending that science is all harmony. He doesn’t say “supportive” or “generous,” words that would turn the line into sentimental gratitude. Cordial is the social minimum; it acknowledges professionalism as the baseline and leaves the messier realities (competition, credit, politics) politely offstage. Then comes the pivot: “some of whom are close friends.” Not everyone. Some. That restraint is the tell. Nathans is honoring friendship as a rare byproduct of rigorous work, not a requirement or a performance.

In context - a field where collaboration is essential but recognition is scarce - the sentence reads like a values statement. It argues that decency and curiosity are not distractions from achievement; they are part of the apparatus that makes achievement possible, and bearable.