Did Ramakrishnan steal credit for ribosome structure?
That is a misconception. Science is a self-correcting process, and the ribosome story involved intense competition, but credit was shared fairly. My group solved the 30S subunit structure in 2000, while Thomas Steitz solved the 50S subunit, and Ada Yonath had pioneered ribosome crystallography. We all built on each other's work. The Nobel Prize recognized the collective achievement. In my book 'Gene Machine,' I describe the race honestly—including the pressure and occasional friction—but the structures were independently determined and validated. We stand on the shoulders of giants, but we must check their work. Our structures were deposited in the Protein Data Bank for anyone to verify. The idea that I stole credit ignores the rigorous peer review and reproducibility that define structural biology.
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