Drawing insights from Nobel laureate Michael Levitt's eclectic journey and unorthodox perspective
In early 2020, as the COVID-19 outbreak began to spiral into a global crisis, Michael Levitt couldn't resist the urge to peek at the numbers. Day by day, the Stanford University professor and 2013 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry found himself poring over the latest datasets, searching for a glimmer of structure among the chaos.
Before long, he went public with a gutsy projection: The pandemic was likely to peak soon in China, dealing a less devastating blow than many experts predicted. "The reason is you ask harder questions," Levitt explained in a recent interview, reflecting on his impulse to weigh in.
And hard questions have defined Levitt's five-decade academic career. Far from a cautious specialist, the quixotic South African-born scientist revels in crossing disciplinary boundaries. Though best known for pioneering computational methods to model complex biological molecules - a breakthrough that earned him the Nobel - Levitt still sees himself as a physicist at heart. "Chemistry is all this learning and biology is even more learning," he quipped, recalling his student days at King's College London.
This restless curiosity fuels Levitt's "imperfect puzzle" approach to research. Shunning tidy siloes, he chases interesting problems across disciplinary lines, collecting data and methods like jigsaw pieces. The emerging picture may have gaps, but the process spurs further exploration. "You succeed by being prepared to be wrong," Levitt said. "A good scientist is wrong 90% of the time, and a really good scientist is wrong 99% of the time."
These days, Levitt has turned his omnivorous mind to artificial intelligence. He sees immense potential for AI to supercharge scientific discovery, pointing to early successes like protein folding algorithms and AlphaFold. Chatbots like ChatGPT have become another object of fascination. Levitt described using them to analyze everything from pandemic statistics to personal disputes: "AI was so helpful because...it told me in a very dispassionate way exactly what the issue was."
For the next generation of scientists, Levitt offers two core principles: stay curious and seek out diverse collaborators. He believes siloed university departments stifle innovation, whereas breakthroughs bloom when ideas cross-pollinate. "If you and I were thinking about anything we think about, neither of us know anything in that area, which is an area sitting between us," he explained. "We are not experts in the area. So that becomes provocative."
As Levitt looks ahead, he finds ample cause for optimism. Science is accelerating, and new tools like smartphones are democratizing access to knowledge. Most importantly, young minds remain hungry to explore. Armed with powerful technologies and unfettered by narrow specialization, Levitt expects tomorrow's researchers to crack ever thornier puzzles.
"Young people may feel despondent about the aging population, but they're in a better position than any generation," Levitt said. "They have the internet, access to information, and AI as an assistant, as a friend."
Though the final picture remains to be seen, Levitt has no doubt that filling in the blanks - and identifying new ones - will continue to yield surprises. After all, an imperfect puzzle is often the most compelling of all.
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