What's it like to win the nobel prize?

Carol Greider, winner of the 2009 Nobel prize for discovering discovering telomeres bits of seemingly useless DNA on the end of each of your chromosomes that progressively get shorter as you age and your cells reproduce. As it turns out, these bits of DNA are deeply linked to the aging process.

Anay, Dr. Greider has a fantastic interview with the NYT in today's paper, and one quote is absolutely worth reading and pondering.

Q. DID YOU ALWAYS WANT TO BE A BIOLOGIST?

A. My parents were scientists. But I wasn’t the sort of child who did science fairs. One of the things I was thinking about today is that as a kid I had dyslexia. I had a lot of trouble in school and was put into remedial classes. I thought that I was stupid.

I hope you'll take away the knowledge that if you struggle in science, or any subject, it is no measure of your ability to succeed in that field or your intelligence. Truly, hard work and persistence are the key to success at any level—even winning a Nobel prize.