This ceremony and the intellectual aura associated with the Nobel Prizes have grown from the wisdom of a practical chemist who wrote a remarkable will.

An unexpected benefit of my career in biochemistry has been travel.

In 1948 I entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology undecided between studies of chemistry and physics but my first year convinced me that physics was more interesting to me.

That work led to the emergence of the recombinant DNA technology thereby providing a major tool for analyzing mammalian gene structure and function and formed the basis for me receiving the 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

I am a teacher and I am proud of it. At Cornell University I have taught primarily undergraduates and indeed almost every year since 1966 have taught first-year general chemistry.

I really enjoyed hanging out with some of the teachers. This one chemistry teacher she liked hanging out. I liked making explosives. We would stay after school and blow things up.

Exercise helps me with stress. It changes your brain chemistry. I turn to Ashtanga yoga when I feel the need to relax. I love it but it's not right for everybody. It's taught to you a little bit at a time according to your body type and your strength. That keeps things challenging.

I learned easily and had time to follow my inclination for sports (light athletics and skiing) and chemistry which I taught myself by reading all textbooks I could get.

The weapons were conceived and created by a small band of physicists and chemists they remain a cataclysmic threat to the whole of human society and the natural environment.

Creatively I thought we were still viable and could do more records. But our working relationship just wasn't happening at all and our chemistry as people broke down because of that.