Podcast episode with David Baker, 2024 Nobel laureate in Chemistry and head of the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington, whose lab pioneered the field of computational protein design. Covers: How David went from not knowing what proteins were in college to winning the Nobel Prize for designing them from scratch The incredible power of designing brand-new proteins for innovative medicines, new materials and environmental cleanup. The vision of protein-based nanomachines that could circulate in your body and repair damaged tissue, powered by your diet How David's lab went from no machine learning at all to developing world-leading AI tools for protein design in just a few years How AI is speeding up scientific discovery vs. what is overhyped about AI for science, and what we can learn from the success of AlphaFold Why fostering a great community in a lab can lead to better science, and his career advice for people wondering what to do next