The pursuit of curiosity about the basic facts of nature has

The words of Arthur Kornberg—“The pursuit of curiosity about the basic facts of nature has proven, with few exceptions throughout the history of medical science, to be the route by which the successful drugs and devices of modern medicine were discovered.”—echo like a timeless hymn to the power of curiosity. They remind us that the greatest triumphs of healing and invention did not spring forth from greed or chance, but from the patient and humble desire to understand the hidden laws of the world. In these words, Kornberg lifts curiosity from a child’s habit into the crown of discovery, the very path by which suffering is lessened and lives are saved.

The meaning here is clear: curiosity is the foundation of medicine. Not the pursuit of wealth, not the thirst for fame, but the simple, unyielding question: Why does nature behave as it does? From this questioning spirit came the microscope, the vaccine, the antibiotic, the MRI. Each was born not because men sought riches, but because they sought truth. Kornberg reminds us that when the healer kneels before the mysteries of the body, asking questions of blood, bone, and cell, it is there that progress begins.

The ancients themselves believed this. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, insisted that disease was not the wrath of gods but a natural phenomenon, and so it could be studied, understood, and treated. By daring to be curious, he broke the chains of superstition and laid the foundations of science. In this way, Hippocrates proved Kornberg’s point centuries before it was spoken: that the pursuit of the basic facts of nature is the wellspring from which healing flows.

History offers radiant examples. Alexander Fleming, by mere curiosity, noticed that a strange mold killed bacteria on his culture plates. Many would have discarded the spoiled experiment, but he paused, he asked, he wondered. From this humble act of curiosity came penicillin, the drug that has saved millions from infection. Fleming did not set out to change the world; he simply followed the trail of a small mystery. Kornberg honors this truth: that most of medicine’s miracles are born not in the marketplace, but in the quiet persistence of the curious mind.

The emotional force of Kornberg’s words lies in their heroic simplicity. To seek the basic facts of nature seems small, even ordinary. Yet in those small truths lie powers greater than empires. The understanding of circulation gave us surgery; the study of bacteria gave us hygiene; the exploration of DNA gave us genetic medicine. Each began with a question so simple a child might ask it, yet so profound that generations labored to answer. This is the dignity of curiosity: it begins humbly, but it ends gloriously.

The lesson for us is clear: honor curiosity, for it is the seed of progress. In our own lives, this means never dismissing a question as too small, never silencing wonder, and never losing the childlike urge to ask “why.” For in every field—whether medicine, art, or daily life—the refusal to be curious is the refusal to grow. And in the realm of science especially, the patient who is saved tomorrow will owe their life to the curiosity of the seeker today.

Thus, Arthur Kornberg’s words stand as a command to all generations: guard and cultivate curiosity. Do not rush to profit before you have sought truth. Do not demand answers before you have asked the right questions. Let the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake be your guide, and trust that from it will flow discoveries beyond imagining. For in the end, it is not wealth or power that heals the sick and strengthens humanity—it is the quiet, relentless pursuit of the mysteries of nature by those who dared to be curious.