"Teleconferencing, videoconferencing are certainly options as opposed to sending folks all around the world to meet with other people, " Mullis said.

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In 1993, Kary Mullis won a Nobel Prize for discovering PCR, and several widespread efforts, including the Human Genome Project, have used the science to compile their databases.

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If you're renting a car, Mullis and Spatrisano both recommend hybrid- or energy-efficient fuel vehicles, although they acknowledge that these can be hard to find in many locations.

CNN: Take green tactics on the road

But it is impossible to imagine its wacky inventor, Kary Mullis, who accepted the Nobel prize dressed in a surfer's drysuit, flourishing in the stuffy constraints of Roche's Basle headquarters.

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