Venkatraman Ramakirshnan is a Nobel Prize-winning structural biologist and the president of the Royal Society. His research focuses on the atomic structure of the ribosome. This research has led to subsequent studies that can help improve antibiotics. Recently, his work has involved using electron microscopy to visualize the actions of ribosomes in higher organisms, which has implications for the study of cancer, memory, and viral infection, among others.

In this video, Venkatraman Ramakirshnan shares how a fundamental physics discovery facilitated his Nobel Prize-winning work in chemistry and discusses the impact of curiosity-driven research.