Scientists on Reddit

Eric Lander

Geneticist, a leader of the Human Genome Project

u/Eric_Lander ↗AMA only

How we know it's theirs

The 2013 r/IAmA AMA, posted from this account

We retrieved 1 post and 35 comments from u/Eric_Lander, all from 2013, most often in r/IAmA.

Also on Autumn: International Mathematical Olympiad silver medalist, 1974: his Olympiads profile

Best moment

A redditor wrote in r/IAmA

On “I am Eric Lander, a leader of the Human Genome Project and presidential advisor on science and technology. Ask me anything!”

Would you rather map the genome of 1 horse sized duck or 100 duck sized horses?

u/Eric_Lander replied

No contest: I'd rather map the genome of 100 duck-sized horses than 1 horse-sized duck! With 100, you get information about the population genetics. So you can learn cool things about why some of the duck-sized horses can fly better…

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More moments

A redditor wrote in r/IAmA

On “I am Eric Lander, a leader of the Human Genome Project and presidential advisor on science and technology. Ask me anything!”

What is your favorite memory from working on the Human Genome Project?

u/Eric_Lander replied

Two memories: (1) Getting on the phone every Thursday at 11am Eastern for three years, with the same group of people around the world dedicated to a common goal. We argued with each other, yelled at each other, cajoled each…

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Two memories:

(1) Getting on the phone every Thursday at 11am Eastern for three years, with the same group of people around the world dedicated to a common goal. We argued with each other, yelled at each other, cajoled each other, bucked each other up. We had ups and downs, but we never doubted the mission of making the information freely and rapidly available to everyone.

Excerpt

A redditor wrote in r/IAmA

On “I am Eric Lander, a leader of the Human Genome Project and presidential advisor on science and technology. Ask me anything!”

Thanks for do this AmA Dr. Lander! As a biological sciences undergraduate student, I've always had a passion for life around me. What was the moment (if there was one) when you really knew biology was your future?

u/Eric_Lander replied

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It came VERY late! I loved math (and hated biology) in high school, college and grad school. It was only when I was out of grad school and my brother gave me some papers to read about the brain that I got interested in biology. I started sitting in on some courses at Harvard and MIT to learn some biology. But I really got hooked when I started doing some experiments in a colleague's lab. Bottom line: It's never too late to discover a passion.