"I immediately loved working with flies. They fascinated me, and followed me around in my dreams." Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard approaches biology with the rigour of a scientist and the sensibility of an artist. She helped solve one of biology’s great mysteries: how the genes in a fertilised egg form an embryo. She pursues her love of music and cooking in her spare time, but even her work itself – the quest to understand nature – is, she believes, a creative act. Upon completing her PhD in 1973, Nüsslein-Volhard sought to apply genetics to more than just viruses. Interested in genes that controlled the development of embryos, Nüsslein-Volhard asked Walter Gehring if she could join his lab at the University of Basel, which was studying Drosophila, or fruit flies. Drosophila embryos develop extremely rapidly, which makes them perfect for research. Read more about her research by clicking the link in our bio. #NobelPrize #quote #womeninscience