People may have said that without symptoms, you can't transmit Ebola. I'm not sure about that being 100 percent true. There's a lot of variation with viruses.

If you really want to isolate a disease, then you have to isolate the people who carry it.

If you have cold or flu symptoms, you can't donate because you don't want those viruses to be transmitted through your blood products.

A mutation can create an alternative form of a phenomenon - a phenotype or trait - and we can learn a lot by seeing this alternative state. Once I saw a mouse with no eyelids. It simply had a membrane over the eyes. I found it fascinating that there is a single gene required for eyelids to develop.

Science is far from the center of the world for most people: even for many with highly sophisticated tastes, interests, and accomplishments.

Chance leads to discoveries, and mutagenesis is a way to enhance one's chances of finding a surprise. Often it is the exceptional observations that lead to advances; once you understand exceptions, you understand the whole picture.