By the time I was 12 or 13, I was studying biochemistry textbooks.
I hope I've lived a life of science whose style will encourage younger people.
I don't believe anybody can really grasp everything that's even in one textbook.
If it takes you 20 or 25 years to establish yourself in one field, you really ought to be careful not to stray too far.
I get curious about new things. My real strength is going into a field that has not been investigated before, and finding new approaches to it.
As soon as you go into any biological process in any real detail, you discover it's open-ended in terms of what needs to be found out about it.