Human resources are just tremendous in Egypt but we need the science base.
AHMED ZEWAILHuman resources are just tremendous in Egypt but we need the science base.
AHMED ZEWAILI do have a concern however, humanity has a great way of adapting and I’m sure scientists of the future, probably after I leave this planet, earth will have a new way of dealing with the internet but I do have a concern in the transition period.
AHMED ZEWAILI don’t know all the reasons for these achievements, but I know that I love what I do and I have never wanted to rest on my laurels.
AHMED ZEWAILI want to really focus on doing this two things I really would like to focus on science and the excitement of science and to help with science.
AHMED ZEWAILScientists contribute in a variety of ways and I don’t think I can singular one even including [Albert] Einstein, that I can say that he’s the best.
AHMED ZEWAILSo, I’m an old fashioned still in this regard but these are the moment where I really can be creative, if I am, to be left alone with just a book and piece of paper and to be thinking.
AHMED ZEWAILBut the universe at large is full of questions that we still don’t know anything about and there will be always young people brilliant who are going to make new discoveries.
AHMED ZEWAILI do feel that there are tremendous amount of talent in Egypt, human resources.
AHMED ZEWAILWe don’t work like the best basketball player and the best musician and so on. Science is a collective effort.
AHMED ZEWAILWhen they called me with the Nobel call from Secretary General of the Swedish Academy it was twenty minutes to six and he said well that was well hope I’m not disturbing you but I am the Secretary General of the Swedish Academy.
AHMED ZEWAILOne of the things I enjoy most is to be left alone with a book.
AHMED ZEWAILAnd the other thing also which I’m hoping for is that the government in Egypt is willing and interested in promoting science and technology and this is an ideal time now to be able to do something.
AHMED ZEWAILI built on the efforts of a previous scientist, others will build on the work I’m doing and if I look at the whole scope from chemistry to biology to physics, it’s just the list is too long to mention just one and it’s not fair to the others.
AHMED ZEWAILOf course you can imagine I was frozen in time when he said that but then he made a very famous statement, something to the effect that this is the last 20 minutes of peace of your life.
AHMED ZEWAILWhen I was a child, I thought of my Delta town as the center of the universe, but now I realize how little I know about the universe.
AHMED ZEWAILEverybody thinks some times that science is done as a master plan and that somebody like me came from Mars and figured out everything and so on, but that’s really not the way it worked.
AHMED ZEWAIL